RETURN FROM THE DEAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1095, 12 September 1912, Page 4

RETURN FROM THE DEAD.

LEGALLY STILL A CORPSE,

The appearance ot a man at the moment when what was supposed to be bis body was being placed in the coffin led to a dramatic scene at Courbevoie, a Paris suburb, on a recent Sunday.

On the preceding Friday night a young man threw himself into the Seine from the Pont de Neuilly. Next morning a corpse was recovered and was identified by a boy named Arrias as his nineteen-year-old brother Hubert, who had disappeared from home after a quarrel. The corpse having also been identified by the mother, the authorities gave permission (or the remains to be takeu to Mme. Arrias’s house for the lunerai.

The death certificate was made out and signed, and at noon friends and relatives assembled for the funeral. Mme, Arrias had promised her sou a new suit of clothes for the national fete, and with touching affection insisted on the body being dressed in the new garments. The undertakers were fastening down the coffin when shrieks were heard from the staircase, and a woman cried, “It is he! The corpse has come to life. Help!’’ Amid screams the mourners made a rush for the street. In the midst of the din Hubert Arrias walked upstairs and explained that he had decided to live at an hotel in future, but remembering his mother’s promised present had come for his clothes. He was most indignant to find that a corpse was dressed in them. The young man is still a corpse in the eyes of the law. At the mayoralty, where he called to announce his return to life, he was informed politely that he was dead. He has now retired to the country pending his recall to life by the Seine Tribunal.