Show AN EMBALMKKfc SECRET Was there a Blunder in Preserving tho Body of President Gar iltJd The Times publishes the following interview in-terview with a professional embalmer It is very easy to make a blunder which might be fraught with disagreeable disagree-able results Now take the rase of President Garfield for instance said he President Garfield 7 What was thereabout there-about his case queried the scribe AbI forgot for a moment that I was talking to an outsider but the matter has long ceased to be u secret in tbe ranks of the profession and I might as well tell it to you Now listen President Garfield died at El txT n on the 19h of September 1831 on the eightieth tlav after be was shot On the afternoon of the 2lit the rain bearing Ills remain reached Wa > hing Ion and on tne v rv next duy it was announced that decomposition had 1 ready set in the casKet wa closed and tim remains shut from view Why Somebody bl mdercd I am not going to give the mans name for be is out ol business now I believe I am sure ne ought to be But he undrrtook to embalm em-balm the remain and no did it out he blundered in doing it Let me explain Embalming is done for two objects which arc entirely distinct from each other and to reach cither different methods are ctup > yed If the em talmer wishes to preserve the features end complexion intact ho opens the brachial artery in the left arm no blood remains in the arteries after death you know and inject about a quart of a certain preparation the components of I which are a profound secret but the 1 basis of which IS arsenic or more properly prop-erly speaking arseniate of soda But if the embalming is done with the idea of preserving the subject for the dissecting dissect-ing table preserving the tissues yon see an incision is made in the carotid artery and about a gallon of entirely different fluid injected Were you ever in dissecting room Yes Well then you have notced the copper cola of subjects on the table The coloration is caused by the action of tbe fluid And this is precisely what happened with the remains of President Garfield The were treated with the latter instead of the former mixture But how do ou know this I know it Let me explain further The train bearing the remains reacrid Cleveland onthenfternoon of Saturday the 21th inst They we e to lie in state on Sunday and be buried on Monday Were you in Cleveland then 7 hI was And did you 8M the remains No it was announced that decom position had set in before the remains left Washington and consequently they were not exposed to view Well I saw the remains and can vouch for the correctness ot what 1 say I Cleveland had been almost as much I Garfields home as Mentor It was de siral that if possible the people there should have a chance to get a last look at the face of the man they had loved and honored so much Accordin lyon ly-on reaching Cleveland the remains I were hurried to the undertakers estab lisbment and the night was spent in I Irvine to pet the face bleached into presentable pre-sentable shape But it was no use I Work as ne would and experiment as we dared too much time had elapsed Since the wrong fluid had been injected and tbe face was discolored beyond our efforts to bleach it Sunday morning found us stil at work It also found thousands of people in line ready to pass through the pavilion nlid past the catafalque It was too lateIo get the remains back into the casket and all that day and far into tbe night crowds I passed by that etupiy casket The remains re-mains were played back on Sunday I I I night and duly taken to the cemetery on Monday There I have told yon a story that has long been current in tbe profession You can give it to tbe public if you II like I |