Gems of 1900 B.C. Exhibited in U.S.

1919

ARE BRIGHT AS NEW, THO 3800 YEARS OF AGE.

Were Worn by Egyptian Princess and Found in 1914 by English Scientist.

NEW YORK, N. Y. — Jewelry worn by an Egyptian princess of the twelfth dynasty, nineteen hundred years before the Christian era, was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is declared to be the finest collection of personal adornment ever brought out of Egypt.

When marauders entered the tomb of Princess Sathathoriunut at some odd moment in the last 3,800 years they took away her mummy and even the elaborate funeral trappings, but overlooked a niche containing the wonderfully wrought ornaments she wore when attending the ancient equivalent for a first night at the opera.

Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, head of an English archaeological society, dug the collection out in 1914, and today it looks as bright as if it had just come from the makers.

It consists of a gold necklace inlaid with carnelian lapis lazuli and green feldspar and another pectoral similarly made of King Senusert II., father of the princess.

There is also a gold collar of double lion heads, a girdle of gold with rhombic jeweled heads, a necklace of amethyst with gold lion claw pendants, armlets and bracelets with gold bars and beads of gold, carnelian and turquoise; and parts of the princess' jewel box, made of ebony with gold and carved ivory panels.

The jewels are identified as belonging to the princess by her name and the name of her father in cartouches on the larger pieces. According to custom, the Cairo museum retained the choice of the collection, a diadem.

Since its purchase by the museum the collection has been in a vault in London, stipulation having been made that it should remain there until six months after hostilities closed.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 12.

Mrs. McKinley's One Comfort

1902

"Her one comfort is in her daily visit to the tomb of her husband. She seems to be living only in his memory and for the purpose of honoring him."

The words were spoken of Mrs. McKinley by an intimate friend of hers. They tell in a nutshell the daily life of the woman who has not recovered, and never will recover, from the effects of the shock by the assassin's bullets that cost the life of her illustrious husband at Buffalo.

For her convenience at the vault a rocking chair has been placed in the house of the dead, near the McKinley casket. A heavy rug on the floor protects her from the dampness. When she enters the tomb she is always clothed with heavy wraps, so as to prevent any cold from getting hold on her system. The guards of National solders on duty have come to regard her daily visit to the vault as sacred, and they pay to the most profound sympathy and attention. — Philadelphia North American.

A Glass Tombstone

1896

A glass tombstone; that is certainly something unique. Such a grave marker stands in but one place in the United States, and that is the cemetery overlooking the city of Kittanning, Pennsylvania. It has but recently been set up there, over the grave of Mrs. Elizabeth Pepper, of Ford City, by her son, Matthias Pepper.

Not one of the piles of marble and granite attracts so much attention as the piece of polished glass, with clear inscription, which stands on a gentle slope falling slowly from the hilltop.

Matthias Pepper, who had the glass set up, is assistant superintendent at the Ford City factory. The piece used as a grave memorial is a part of a large plate which was made of unusual thickness for the construction of circular panes to cover the portholes of ocean steamships. The practical indestructibility of glass was its quality which suggested to Mr. Pepper its use in the cemetery.

Marble and granite seem to many to be almost eternal in their hardness, but they are far from it, and not at all to be compared with glass. Wind and rain, heat and cold have their effects on stone of any kind, and finally wear away the hardest granite and cause it to crumble. Go into any old graveyard, where stones were erected more than one hundred years ago, and it will be found to be the exception where all the lettering on the monuments can be made out. The stone has crumbled and the outline has been obliterated. No such effect is produced by the weather on glass.

The Pepper monument is of plate glass one inch thick, a foot and a half wide and four feet high. It stands in a mortise cut into a cube of sandstone. The top of the glass is arched. The lettering on it is made by the "sand blast" process, and is distinct. The monument bears this inscription:

In memory of Elizabeth Pepper, of Ford City. Died February 4, 1892. Aged seventy-seven years.
Also William Pepper, husband of the above. Died ——. Aged ——.

From this inscription it may be inferred truly that William Pepper is still living.

This new use for plate glass is likely to become extended, for it has many things to recommend it. The transparency and purity of the material are suggestive and appropriate. It is easily and quickly etched, its cost is not great, and in durability it surpasses any other available material. — Pittsburg Dispatch.

Was Entombed Fifteen Days

1906

Bakersfield, Cal., Dec. 24. — Lindsay B. Hicks, released from an entombment of 15 days in a caved-in tunnel, appeared well and happy after his gruesome experience, spending much time in receiving congratulations of friends and neighbors, to whom he related as best he could the feelings he underwent within the dark, close quarters of his tomb-like prison near the dead bodies of five less fortunate companions, while scores of men worked like beavers day and night for more than two weeks to save him from death by digging through many feet of earth and rock.

Hicks' bravery under the trying conditions won for him the admiration of hundreds of persons who watched the progress of his exhumation. So strong was Hicks at the finish that he helped to scrape away the last barrier of earth, and crawled, with slight assistance from death to life.

Hicks was not emaciated. He was so strong that the stimulants that had been prepared for him were not needed.

No sooner was the last segment of debris removed and the way left open, than Hicks began to scrape away the rocks and earth and crawl toward the opening. With arms in front of his head, he went into the miniature tunnel and began to work his way slowly through to the other side of a dump car, near which he has remained during the excavating. His arms were seized by Dr. Stinchfield and a miner. The two, exerting all their strength, pulled the miner into the main tunnel, where he was placed in a sitting position. The blindfold that Hicks had been ordered to put on was removed, as the tunnel was only dimly lighted by candle.

And there, 100 feet from the face of the mountain and within a few steps of the place where the miner had lain entombed for nearly 16 days, there occurred a pathetically joyful scene. Dr. Stinchfield, with tears in his eyes, and his hands laid affectionately on Hicks' shoulders, said: "Well, how are you, old boy?"

And there were tears in the eyes of Hicks as well, the only tears that he had shed in all the days and nights since he was entombed, as he replied: "I am feeling fine. I can never thank you, doctor, for what you have done."

While working on a tunnel that was building by the Edison Power company near Bakersfield on December 7, the vertical walls of a deep cut fell in on Hicks and five fellow workmen. It was at first thought that all had perished under the hundreds of tons of rock and earth.

Three days later a tapping on the rail of the little tramway running through the drift gave the first intimation that a man still alive was buried beneath the debris. A 70-foot pipe, two inches in diameter, was immediately forced through the debris. It reached the spot where Hicks was entombed. A heavy dirt car had become wedged in the debris in such a way as to keep the immense weight from crushing him.

When Hicks pulled the wooden plug from the iron pipe and called to the men above him his voice sounded like one from the grave. Through the pipe the men working on top learned from Hicks that for several hours after the cave-in he had talked with his companions, but that they had become silent and he believed they were dead.

By means of the pipe Hicks kept in communication with a big force of rescuers which was at once organized; milk was poured down the pipe. This was the only sustenance it was possible to give the man for nearly two weeks. During the first two days Hicks said he had existed on a plug of tobacco he had with him at the time of the cave-in.

He had just exhausted this when the pipe was forced into the crevice in which he was pinned. Every day gallons of milk were poured down the pipe to keep him alive.

In a narrow space under the car there was just room for Hicks to lie down. His prison did not allow of the slightest freedom of movement, and for days the man lay on his back, not daring to move lest he might disturb the car overhead and bring down upon himself an avalanche of dirt that would mean his death.

Through the pipe he directed the work of rescue, guiding the course of the tunnel the miners started toward his prison, so that it would not by some chance disturb the equilibrium of the car, which was all that lay between him and death.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Dec. 27, 1906, p. 1.

Milton's Tomb Desecrated, Exhibited; Bone, Teeth Taken

1904

There are probably many, even among the subscribers to Milton's statue — which, as just arranged, is to be unveiled on November 2 — who will be surprised to hear that the body of the great poet was once on view at a charge of threepence a head within a few yards from the site chosen for this splendid tribute to his memory, says the Westminister Gazette.

It was in 1790, after a little carousal, that two overseers and a carpenter entered the Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, where Milton lay buried, and, having discovered the leaden coffin which contained his body, put open its top with a mallet and chisel. "When they disturbed the shroud," Neve says, when telling the story of the ghoulish deed, "the ribs fell. Mr. Fountain confessed that he pulled hard at the teeth, which resisted until some one hit them with a stone. Fountain secured all the fine teeth in the upper jaw, and generously gave one to one of his accomplices. Altogether the scoundrels stole a rib bone, ten teeth and several handfuls of hair; and, to crown the diabolical business, the female gravedigger afterward exhibited the body to any one willing to pay threepence for the spectacle."

Comes To Life In The Tomb

1910

Cleveland Woman Tells Weird Tale of Mother's Experience.

Cleveland, O., Nov. 25. — That Mrs. Anna Hubbell of Aurora, O., was buried and came forth alive from the tomb several hours later, is the story Mrs. Etta Winfield, a daughter of Mrs. Hubbell, tells.

Mrs. Winfield, who lives in Cleveland, says she was called to Aurora two weeks ago by the announcement that her mother had suddenly died. She says she believed Mrs. Hubbell was merely in a trance and so told the doctors and the undertaker. At her request the woman was placed in a cemetery vault and the sexton was told to watch the body.

About seven hours after burial the sexton discovered that the body had moved in the casket and notified the relatives of Mrs. Hubbell, who had the body removed, and physicians succeeded in apparently bringing the body back to life.

This is the story vouched for by Mrs. Winfield, but Mrs. Hubbell, who is at Aurora, declines to discuss the affair, as do others of the family living there. They admit that the woman was very ill, however.

—Coschocton Daily Age, Coshocton, Ohio, Nov. 25, 1910, p. 1.

Famous Composer Found His Bride in a Tomb

1915

Romance in Life of a Famous Venetian Composer — Sister Substituted Herself in Coffin

Benedetto Marcello, one of the most famous Venetian composers, fell in love with a beautiful girl named Leonora Manfritto, who married Paolo Seranzo, a Venetian noble. She died in a short time after her marriage, a victim of the harsh and jealous treatment of her husband.

Her body was laid out in state in one of the churches, and her lover actually succeeded in stealing the corpse and conveying it to a ruined crypt in one of the islands, and here he sat day and night by his lost love, singing and playing to her, as though by the force of his art he could recall her to life, says the London Telegraph.

Leonora had a twin sister, Eliade, who was so like her that her closest friends could scarcely distinguish them. One day Eliade heard a singer in a gondola singing so exquisitely that she traced the gondola to the deserted island, and then she learned later the fate of her sister's corpse and the identity of Marcello. Aided by a servant, Eliade substituted herself for her sister's body, and when Marcello returned and called Leonora to awake he did not ask in vain, for apparently she rose alive from her coffin. Marcello, when he found out the delusion, was quite satisfied and married Eliade, but his happiness was short lived, as he died a few years afterward.

—New Smyrna Daily News, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, October 29, 1915, page 4.

Undertaker Locked in Tomb With Many Corpses

1920

Locked in Tomb With Many Corpses, Undertaker Has Thrilling Half Hour

MILFORD, Mass. — Locked in a tomb with a score of corpses about, in a cemetery far removed from habitation and almost submerged in snow and ice, and without any apparent means of escape, was the horrifying experience of Walter W. Watson, a local undertaker.

For nearly half an hour, alternately shouting in a desperate but vain effort to attract help and trying with an iron bar to pry open the tomb door, Mr. Watson said he was confronted with a situation that sorely tried his soul and gave him a thrill whose memory will always stay with him.

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon when Mr. Watson went to the receiving tomb in Vernon Grove Cemetery. He had to work in the chamber for some little time, and thought to draw the door nearly to its fastenings, the better to be protected from the cold. To draw the heavy door over the blocking ice he threw all his strength into the pull, and to his amazement the door closed and the strong latch fell into its catch.

Watson looked about for means to force the door. When he espied a heavy iron bar he thought luck was with him. But all his efforts failed to stir open the door. Vigorously he applied the iron bar, but to no avail. Then he shouted through a 10-inch-wide ventilator in the rear of the vault. The only answer that came to him was the echo of his own voice.

With hope abandoned from this quarter, Watson determined to force his body through the small opening in the wall. A stout, well-built man, he has much difficulty in driving his shoulder through the ventilator. But persistent effort finally, after a labor of about thirty minutes, brought him safely to the outside of the tomb.

"Not for all the money in the movies would I again go through such an experience' said Mr. Watson when his thrilling experience became known to his fellow citizens.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.