A DEAD-ALIVE AFFAIR. ANOTHER CONTRADICTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 299, 15 September 1888, Page 4

A DEAD-ALIVE AFFAIR. ANOTHER CONTRADICTION.

New Plymouth, Sept. 12. With reference to the Waitara sensation respecting the late Captain Bailey, Father Cassidy denies that either he or Mr Dickie ever stated that they saw the deceased's eyes open and shut several times. The above denial does not go for much in the face olt a lottev bearing Father Uassidy's name which appeared in a reoont issue of the "Taranaki News," and from which we make the following extracts:— " When we had sufficiently cut away the zinc Lo permit the slide covering the glass breast-plate to be moved back, we moved it. At this time Mr j Dickie was standing at the left, near j the head of the coffin ; I was opposite. He | looked through the glass, and immediately veiy excitedly exclaimed, 'My (Jod, he is alive ! Send for the doctor.' 1 looked then, and t certainly saw the right eyA of deceased fixed, as ib were pleadingly upon me. It opened wide in an instant, and closed. It Hashed a litgh upon me that certainly I never saw coming from any dead eyes before ; and a strange feeling seized me that I never, until then, experienced in the many bundled ease?- of the dying and the dead that ] h.ive attended. This was all the work of a few seconds. The eye, when we removed the lid, was half open again : but it no longer had the same look ; that light seemed to have left it. and its li\ed sternness told its own story. When I saw all this, no other was looking in, as it was impossible to see distinctly thiough the glass on accouiit of the heavy moisture that covered it on the inside. This moisture, which was very watery, covered ail the inside of the glass ; but a rim of about two inches, right across it towards tho head of the coffin, was perfectly clear. No moisture had gathered there, and through this rim a most distinct and clear vision of the face could be seen. I li^ld the candle in my hand, saw clearly what I saw, and felc then what 1 could not express. There wat= perspiration on the forehead of decease J, and I then thought it strange that no moisture should ha\e gathered on this part ot the glabS that covered from the eyes upwards, or no moisture should ha\e coxered or gathered any>rheie but on the brow of out dear triend. While I looked anxiously in, the otheit> were standing round, and when I lifted myself up, after the eye halt opened atrain and assumed its now stern, gla&s>y pi/c, some of the others hud a look, but they noticed no clringe in the eye, but were strangely surprised at the wuiidcrful lifelike look and freshness of the face. We sent a messenger toi the doctor, and another for a -drivei . The doctor was away ; the screw-diiver cane ; and in a few minutes the lid was off. \\ r e were surprised, and all astonished, at the absence of all signs of decomposition, at the red freshness of the cheeks, and the placid face before us. We got the looking-glass and held it for a few seconds, but it was not moistened. We opened the mouth : one thought he felt a very slight oduiir. 1 remarked it was impossible, and tried my be^t to find it; but, no, e.ery thing seemed quite fresh. The ears were a little blue tinged, but did not look half so blue ao hundreds of fc>tion_ healthy people do during these frosty u\ enings. Next day the face had changed. It was then a dead face without doubt. But decomposition was not visible nor noticeable anywhere, and I have seen hundreds look more ghastly and dead worn a few hours after their demise."