Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Buries Hands to End Pain Oct. 11, 1904

I love this story. Found just the other day.

Buries Hands to End Pain
Danville Commercial News
Oct. 11, 1904

Operator in Agony Until Amputated Members Are Interred.
 Hagerstown, Ind. Oct. 11 - Old Union Cemetery, near here, was the scene of an internment of an unusual character Sunday. The amputated hands of Glen Bacheler, a telegraph operator, were given solemn and careful burial. This was done at his own request, to relieve cramping pains that became intolerable from day to day.
 Three weeks ago Mr. Bacheler, who was acting as telegraph operator at a station on the Big Four west of Indianapolis, fell under a freight train during a fainting spell. His hands clutched the rail and the wheels cut them off at the wrists. A surgeon placed the hands in a jar of alcohol and Mr. Bacheler went to his father's home, in Carlos City, Randolph county.
 Bacheler claimed he suffered in his body because of the crowded condition of his hands in the jar. He believed that if the hands were buried his pains would cease. The hands were expressed to Carlos City, where they were straightened out and placed carefully in clean wrappers of linen and securely packed in a wooden box for interment. As soon as they were straightened out Mr. Bacheler expressed great relief.

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