A BOY BURIED ALIVE.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1812, 23 October 1874, Page 3

A BOY BURIED ALIVE.

Our readers will recollect an account of the sudden death of William Blackhurst, a boy of this city, which took place while attending a picnic of the Seventh Ward Sabbath School, at Hill's farm. He had been with some companions bathing in a- pond and afterwards entering a large swing, enjoyed it for a few moments when the bystanders observed that he ceased to exert himself, and hung by the arms in a lifeless condition. Being taken down he almost immediately ceased to breatihe, and, was pronounced dead. The boy«Vras taken to his homo in the Seventh Ward, and arrangements made for his funeral, to take place on the following day. On the next morning many persons who were present observed that the remain* were yet warm, one of whom, a lady of the neighborhood, in? forms the writer that she called particular attention to the warmth of the neck just before starting to the cemetery. We have authority for stating that medical advice was had on the case, when the physician pronounced the youth dead, notwithstanding the singular appearance of the body. The funeral took place on Saturday, and more than fifty hours after what arpearod to be the death of William Blacthurst. He was decently interred that day. Was the body buried alive ? This question was asked by hundreds of men and women in this city, and the painful impression that the boy was not in reality dead at the time of burial, became so generally prevalent that several persons who had known the deceased in life, went- a few days after to the cemetery where, upon opening the corns, they were met with a spectacle most fearful to contemplate. The boy, coming, to life in that narrow prison under the ground struggled to escape the horrible incarceration, and in the effort had torn the skin and flesh from his face, and dragged his hair out by the roots. In that dark conflict the poor creature had turned over in his coffin and died. Alas! there was no rescue there. One neighbour, present at the funeral, insisted that the boy was not dead, but a subject of suspended animation. The same person related that he had himself passed through a similar condition, having been at one time lifeless for the space of eight days, with much less evidence of dormant vitality than he saw in the warm body before him. But there was no doubt in the minds of the friends and attendants as to the death of William Blackhurst, and he went into the grave alive. This is now the almost universal belief, and we hope an official inquiry will be made into the facts to determine the true state of the case. The public are entitled to know the truth of the matter. —Salt Lake Tribune.