Show SKULL AND of bonc in III philadelphia press in a 1 room on the top floor of a somewhat dilapidated hou house e in a little cul de sac from tenth street to the building two men may bo be found industriously at work during 0 the business hours of the day for a moment ns as you ou enter the long apartment you 1 imagine yourself in a wood carvers earver s NY workshop ork shop but hardly has the tile supposition t 1011 fla flashed hed through the brain when tire eye recognizes the presence of human bones piled up on one side in in a ghastly pyramid are a number of arrayed upon shelves arc are row upon row of thigh and arm bones an open drawer is full of sections of back bone bones another drawer reveals a miscellaneous collection of small bones and ribs all in a heap ill in a corner and hanging banging in bunches from the walls bones jaws and hero here and there a baby skeleton or mu mummified minified limb the two workmen are mechanical anatomists all day long abey patiently clean and scrape and polish the osseous remnants remnant of humanity which a few months previously formed part and portion of living beings their dismal surroundings evoke no feelings of disgust or horror in their breasts bones to them arc are simply implements of toil death the provider of their dally daily bread you li avent seen the worst yet remarked oneff one of the men t alie visitor look over in yonder trough the anatomist was right human bo bones nes evoke more moro awe than disgust but the contents of the trough were something terrible soaking in water were heads arms legs hands feet a horrible heterogeneous collection lo 10 which man many corpses had evidently contributed contri contributed buteT the way we wo get them from the hospital said the anatomist looking rather surprised at his visitors repugnance at the sight theres nothing offensive about them bits of the re all em cm bahmed why I 1 thu think no more of pic picking ki ing and cleaning one of th them em limbs he be continued helping himself to an arm out of t the 0 trough than I 1 should of picking a chicken bone science must have P specimens by which to study now in in my opinion the human form divested of all its flesh and muscles and sinews looks very pretty why I 1 find my work particularly interesting after the doctors have havo finished dissecting a subject I 1 buy the remnants one condition is exacted of me which I 1 always fulfill the flesh I 1 scrape off the tones I 1 take back to the hospital pi where it is buried in the pit ti there acre I 1 receive orders for skeletons skulls and other portions of human anatomy from all parts of america and a very profit profitable ablo business it is any skull after I 1 have finished it off will fetch me 10 while a whole frame fitted with best copper wires gristle intact on the sternum and all bones perfect is worth at least 11 cc but skeletons must bo be made up of bones formerly belonging to different persons you cant possibly sort out that mass in the trough observed the visitor so but every bone is pr pretty aty evenly matched though probably the thigh bone of one man very often shares a glass case iii a museum with the shin bone of another man whose acquaintance ho he never made in life some anat are a little careless I 1 havo have myself seen a female skull on a male structure bones will get mixed however and I 1 defy anybody to sort shin bones into lefiti amate e pairs I 1 often think ef of an epi epitaph I 1 once read when 1 I look at a lacap of ribs lying one on top of the other A man buried three wives in one grave some years afterward ho he wished to remove the remains remains of his latest wife from the city churchyard where all three spouses were interred to a country cemetery upon opening the grave it was found that the coffins ai and id the bones had become very mu lucli ch mixed so that it was impossible im to tell which was which he e accord accordingly gave ave up his intention of removal fut but caused the old inscription on the tombstone to bo be erased and these lines to be inscribed in its place beneath this heap of moul dring stones repose the remains of martha jones mixed ap in some inexplicable manner with wall all that is left of matilda and I 1 hannah 1 11 do ido you always retain the teeth in the skulls As a rule yes still wo we have a good many over from skulls which fave have been too much damaged by the sur surgeons g cons knife for specimens tj these Is i if in good condition are sold to dentists in the years immediately following the war I 1 used to discover a at good deal ot gold filling in in teeth now it is quite I 1 a rare occurrence under ordinary circum circumstances it is hardly to be expected that persons who die pau pauper r deaths at hospitals would ever yav have had money enough to put gold in their mouths but after the war cash was ve very plentiful and the tile fact showed itself in teeth as in every everything thin else I 1 people suddenly became ril rich Z and went in for luxuries gold teeth I 1 suppose among other things then as quickly ly beca became in poor aga again in and diel died in the P poor ward such is i life a constant game ganic of t ten e 1 1 plus ins up one moment and down t alie 1 1 1 next u sonic of th ose grinning skulls could talk we might hear some stran strange 0 stories stor iea glad to sec see you ou air sir w whenever denever you feel incline inclined to call again |