Corpse of Paul Jones Identified.
The recovery of the body of John Paul Jones is still fresh in the public mind. Unearthed after a protracted search in an abandoned Paris cemetery, the features and body were so well preserved that there could be no doubt of the identity. Once this was established, the transfer of the body from French to American soil was made the occasion of a solemn ceremony, in the course of which five hundred. American bluejackets marched through the streets of Paris.
The remains of Jones, André, and Napoleon were exhumed in order that they might be buried again with greater honor. In Westminster Abbey mere accident or curiosity has several times disturbed the rest of the famous dead.
The body of Ben Jonson has been especially unfortunate. Having obtained a grant of “eighteen inches of square ground” in the Abbey, the poet was said to have been buried there in an upright position with the famous epitaph, “O Rare Ben Jonson,” over his head. In 1849 a new grave was being dug close by when loose sand poured in and the clerk saw:
“The two leg-bones of Jonson fixed bolt upright in the sand as though the body had been buried in the upright position, and the skull came rolling down among the sand, from a position above the leg-bones, to the bottom of the newly made grave. There was still hair upon it and it was of a red color.”