Here’s an amusing (but macabre) little article that ran in the Elyria Reporter back on November 27, 1905. It ran under the heading NEWS FROM LORAIN and is the jolly little story of some riders on the Lake Shore Electric – and a dead body.
“Excuse me, ladies, you are sitting on a corpse.”
A Lake Shore car was rushing toward the city and, as it was crowded, seats were at a premium.
Just inside the door of the baggage car was a rough pine box, such as is used to enclose a coffin. Two women got on the car and, seeing no seats, sat down on the box.
They were scared almost to death when the conductor told them that they were sitting on a corpse. They hurried to the rear of the car to get as far as possible from the “corpse."
Later two other women sat down on the box. They jumped up when the conductor told them they were sitting on a corpse, the two women who were first told to move watching their actions with great interest.
Then the four women and nearly everybody on the car watched to see if any other passengers would “sit on the corpse.” Soon two other women made themselves comfortable when the conductor told them the box contained a corpse. They jumped up in alarm.
****
It sure sounds like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, particularly The Trouble With Harry (my favorite Hitchcock film).
4 comments:
I wonder if the corpse in question was on his way to vote; happens a lot in Democrat strongholds.
So someone decided that this was a modern way in 1905 to ship a coffin what with horse-drawn hearses being too slow and motor cars still in their infancy.
The question is why a light rail passenger service would agree to transport a dead guy? And who was the dearly departed?
That said, to this day New York City subways sometimes have dead people on them.
And, no, Mr. Hopewell, they are not all Democrats going to vote. :>)
Transporting a dead person in a coffin on the interurbans was quite common, usually in the baggage section of a combination car. Obviously it was a much better than a horse-drawn wagon, and it was faster and cheaper than the steam railroads. Those were about the only options at the time.
Ah, touche Blazer Man, re Alan Dee's comment. Very good point. ;-)
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