A Small Pox Patient Nearly Buried Alive

In Ottawa, the small pox patient who had such a narrow escape from being buried alive on Wednesday is doing well and will recover.  It appears that when the gravediggers threw on the lid of the coffin, after it had been lowered into the grave, three shovelfuls of sand, that the noise aroused the slumbers of the supposed dead man and caused him to kick lustily against his narrow prison.  The coffin was hastily drawn out of the grave and the lid was unscrewed.  The supposed corpse sat up and exclaimed, "My God! Have I had such a narrow escape!"  He was at once lifted out of the coffin and an overcoat thrown over his shoulders. He was then removed to the hospital.

Source:  Lancaster Daily Intelligencer
                January 21, 1880