A Two Day's Bride Insane

Kansas, 1879

July 13 — Mr. Oliver Mottier was joined in matrimony with a very estimable young lady of Williambury. On Tuesday, the 15th, only two days after her marriage, she became a raving maniac.

The first indications had of anything being wrong was her going into a trance, similar to that of a spiritual medium. Her talk appeared to be entirely with Minnehaha, or about her, she having previously read about her, then there appeared to be a struggle between Minnehaha and another, a male Indian, to get possession of her mind; the latter succeeding, she commenced going through the war-hoop and yells, and all other maneuvers incident to Indians starting out upon the warpath.

This part of the sad scene having come to an end, her ravings day and night were of a very promiscuous character, but showed very little symptoms of vicious or profane temper. Her father informed us that she had not been in the habit of reading or studying Spiritualism, and knew comparatively nothing of the subject. The woman was brought to Ottawa on Monday, where she was declared insane, and ordered to the Ossawatomie Asylum. — Ottawa Gazette, Kansas.

Doctor Resuscitates Girl at Her Funeral, Sits Up in Coffin

Wisconsin, 1883

Sitting Up in Her Coffin

At Black River Falls, Wis., the sensation of the day is the return to life of a young lady who to all appearance had been dead three days.

Miss Lina Richmann, the daughter of a wealthy German, had been very sick for some weeks and died, as was supposed. Her body was prepared for burial, when it was suggested by some one that the appearance of the young lady's face did not indicate death; but on the fourth day the funeral services were held.

While the ceremony was in progress Dr. Baxter, of Milwaukee, looking at the face of the supposed corpse asked that the services be interrupted long enough for him to attempt resuscitation. This was done, and he succeeded so well that the woman arose in her coffin with a terrible shriek. The scene was highly exciting. Men turned pale with horror, women fainted, and it was a long time before anything like quiet was restored.

Friends are continually calling to see and congratulate one whom they never thought to see again in this world. She says that while in a trance-like condition, she realized with unspeakable horror that she was being prepared for the services but could not speak or make any motion.

—The Hopewell Herald, Hopewell, New Jersey, Nov. 7, 1884.

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.

A Lady's Long Trance: A Spasm, A Comatose State

1878

A Lady's Long Trance

The Des Moines (Iowa) Register of a recent issue, says: Yesterday evening there stopped at the Given House Mr. and Mrs. Shadle, of Guthrie county, accompanied by some attendants. They are escorting to Mount Pleasant Mrs. Shadle, who has been in an almost continual trance ever since last June.

Some time last March, without any premonitory symptoms, the lady became insane, wild at first, and finally violent. She was visiting a sister near her own residence. Soon after her arrival there she began to talk strangely, and a few days later was raving with insanity, and at times very violent. On the 12th of June Mrs. Shadle had a spasm, from which she passed off into a comatose state, which continued without intermission until October 1, when she awakened and conversed, although incoherently. The next day she again fell asleep and has not since been awake.

She is fed by forcing her mouth open and placing the food inside. Her respiration is regular, but a little more frequent than that of most people of her age, which is twenty-nine. She has one child, a boy of four years. The first evidence of wakefulness she has exhibited since the 2nd of October was the day before yesterday, when she was carried from her home to a vehicle to be transferred to the cars. The little boy climbed into the wagon and placing his arms about his mother's neck, kissed her. Tears immediately rolled from the closed eyes, but they remained closed, and there was no other sign of waking. She is to be taken to the asylum for the insane at Fort Madison.


Ingenious Pickpockets

Lucy H. Hooper says that the Parisian pickpocket has invented a special mode of theft. The thief enters the omnibus, chooses his seat beside some well-dressed and apparently affluent person, and remains motionless and apparently absorbed in his reflections. But between his finger and thumb he holds a very small grain of shot attached to a black silk thread of extreme fineness and strength. When his next neighbor opens his or her pocket-book to pay the fare, the thief adroitly throws his grain of shot into the pocket-book, retailing the end of the silk thread in his hand. The pocket-book is closed and replaced in the owner's pocket, grain of shot and all. The thief profits by some extraordinary jolt of the vehicle to fall against his neighbor, and in that moment he draws in the silk thread and gains possession of his prize.

She Escaped Burial Alive

Des Moines, Iowa, January 1915

Powerless to Cry Out, Though She Tried for Hours, Mrs. A. Sedden, Was Pronounced Dead

Des Moines. — For eleven hours Mrs. August Sedden of Persia, lay in a trance and was pronounced dead by her physician. Unable to move a muscle of her body or to make a sign, she heard the sobs of her family, heard friends notified of her death, heard the doctor telephone the cemetery officials to have the grave dug, and heard the minister engaged to conduct the funeral service.

Then at the last moment she gave a gentle sigh, and was saved from being buried alive. She is in a precarious condition, and death may yet result from a long sickness and the shock to her nervous system engendered by her dreadful experience.