RESUSCITATED IRISHMAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1126, 15 January 1884, Page 3

RESUSCITATED IRISHMAN.

A Galway gentleman was wont to tell the following humorous story of unexpected resuscitation : " That many people are buried alive is beyond a doubt. I know an iostance which I may say happened in my own establishment, for our huntsman, Jack Burke, was the subject of it. Jack had a dangerous illne-s, and, to all appearance, died. He was (":i cofHned, and as duly waked, and cro.v s came from far and near to the burying. It is the custom in these parts to carry the coffin three times round the church, after which it was laid by the side of the open grave. On the present occasion the path round the church was rough and stony, and the ground uneven with graves, so that poor Jack, while being carried his three rounds was sadly jolted in his coffin. ' A rousing leap we had to take, sure, when we came to Tim Grady's tombstone,' said one of the bearers afterward ; enough to wake the dead it was. "We couldn't put our feet upon the new clean grave, and the dacent man not a week inside; so there was nothing else but to hopit.'_ Whether or not consciousness was jolted into Jack by this ' hop' is uncertain, but certain it is that the dead silence customary after laying down the cotfin was broken by vehement thumping at the lid. It was quickly opened and Jack sat up. After staring around with an air of coming bewilderment on his astonished friends, a great coat was thrown over his graveclothes, and he was helped on a jaunting car, and in this plight driven home. '' An old woman who had been left behind to keep the house when all went to the funeral, and who was telling her beads over the kitchen fire, was nearly frightened out of her senses at the apparition. There was some difficulty in persuading her that it was Jack himself, and not his ghost she saw. Meantime Jack had drained a bowl of milk that was on the dresser, and now looked wildly about. 'ls it wanting anything ye are, my poor fellow V said his friends ; ' lie down dow and compose yourself. A drop of spirits, with a bit of nourishment and a stretch on the bed, will do ye good, after the start ye got, finding yourself—God save us !in the coffin. There now, be aisy, do !' But Jack would not 'be aisy.'' He kept glaring about him and searching for something; staggering here and there, looking behind door and shutters, and peering into cupboards. ' The saints be good to us,' whimpered the old woman; ' his mind is gone with the fright. Master, darlint, what ails ye ] Sit down, for the love of the blessed Virgin, and I'll fry you a shave of bacon, and mix a tumbler of punch in half a second, to rise your poor heart and put life into you.' ' Arrah, will you get out of my way, and lave me alon«,' cried Jack ; ' its my stick I'm looking for—my stick, for my wife, bad luck to her, when she comes home. And if I don't give her such a lambastin' as never mortal woman got before, my name isn't Jack Burke, that's all! Look here !' he exclaimed, plucking at his shirt—which had seen better days—while he panted with rage and weakness ; ' six brand new shirts, J whole and sound as the day they left the weaver, without tear or rent, patch or darn—l left behind me, and look at the rags she dresses my poor carcase in ! making a fool of me in the coffin when I'm dead and gone, and bringing me to shame before the neighbors and the country. Ah ! the stingy one ! to grudge the decent linen to the boy that owned her ! Only let me catch a hold of her. and see if I don't make her bonns smart for it !' "With much difficulty, Jack's wrath was calmed, and ho was got to bed by his friends, Mrs Jack in the meantime wisely keeping out of the way, but he never forgave her the ragged shirt —to him the feature in the affair. To ' make an appearance ' at their burial is the ambition of some of the Irish. They will undergo privation sooner than pawn or wear the sacred under garment laid up to ' dress the corpse in.' Thus it was that the indignity to his remains was so paramount in Jack's mind that it completely set in the background, his narrow escape from the dreadful fate of being buried alive."