The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-11-26
5 NJ: 15s

SINGULAR BURrAL.--On the 29th of August
last, Mr.. John Wilson, of Miller county, in Mis-
souri, died in the eighty-eight year of his age
He was an old pioneer and Indian hunter, and
man of considerable property. A correspon-
dent of the Jefferson Inquirer gives an account
of his burial, which was the most singular af-
fair of which we ever read.
Near thirty years ago he selected his place
to be buried; the place is sufficiently romantic
and beautiful to merit some special description.
! In the same bluff of solid limestone rock, in
which natural cave is formed, nature has also
formed another near by, about thirty inches in
diameter, running back some distance and ter
minating in the solid rock; this natural sepul-
chre is some twenty feet from the bottom and
ten from the top, of a perpendicular rock, fa-
cling the east. His coffin was made and putin
this cave eight years ago, and, according to his
directions during his Fife, when his death oc--
cured, dinner was to be given, plenty Of
liquors furnished, and all to ''eat, drink and b.
merry And then to have bis body opened
and his cntrails taken out, and filled with sail,
then sewed up, placed in the coffin, and to DC
deposited in his last resting p|ace-his hole in
the rock.
These instructions were carried out to the
very letter on Saturday, August 3Oth, the day
after his death. John Brumley, esq, furnish
ed a good dinner for ALL; as soon as dinner was
over, the corpse was taken to the cave, follow
ed by a large number of friends and spectators;
After arriving at the cave the corpse was placed
upon convenient platform, whereupon doctor
Brockman, assisted by doctor Nichsdorf, pro-
cceded to open the body and take out the en-
trails, according to previous directions, in the
presence Of very many interested spectators.
The body WAS then neatly dressed and laid in
the cofin and an invitation given to all to view
for the last time, the iteess form of their es-
teenled friend and fellow cltiztn-aftcr this was
done, the corpse was'carred up safely to the
hole in the rock, and there deposited, when the
ceremonies of the day ended
Taking every thing into consideration, it was
the most imposing scene that was ever behelt
in this country.
A block of marble is to be placed in the ma
sonry that closes the entrance of the cave with
Mr.. Wilson's name and age engraved thereon,
so that the rising generation as well as the pre-
sent can point to this natural sepulchre of this
benevolent man.
DAMASCUS. Us.-Indcpendently of its central po-
siton, it has attractions in itself superior, per
haps, to any city in the east. We have heard
of 'rose- red cities half as old as time,'' but
Damascus is at least as old as any received his
tory and is, in fact, the oldest city we know
of which preserves to this day its original i'm
portancc. From the time when Abraham left
his home ''between the rivers to Journey west
ward to the Gland of promise,' its name has
been familiar; its beauty and riches have been
proverbial for 4 600 years, and it has been a
link meyer broken between the patriarchal age
and that of the steam engine and the electric
telegraph. It has come under tho dominion of
David, of Jeroboam, of Pharaoh Necho, Of
Nebuchadnezzar, of Alexander, of the Ito
lemies, Of Pompey, of Cleopatra, of Herod, of
the Moslem, Of the Crusaders, of Timour the
Tartar, of the sultans Of Constantinople, and
the pachas Of Egypt, yet it survives and still
fourishes. Here is still the street called Strait
where Ananias came, directed by vision, to
inquire for *'ole called Saul of Tarsus" Here
is still shown a window-by the way, of Sara
cenc origin-from which it is said the apostle
was let down. Here is the site of St. Paul's
conversion, also misplaced, but the improba-
biIity of which is even cited as a proof Of it's
genuineness And here are the tomb of Sala-
din, the head of John the Baptist, the house Of
Naaman, and the mosque of sultan Sem So
varied are the associations near and remote,
real or aprocrypha, of city which crowns
them all by its rare position and luxuriant YER
dure, its gardens, its pasture, and it's .'lucid
streams''-its Abana and Pharphar, ''better
than all the waters of Israeli
PoL11qcs IN THE PuLmr-While many of
the pulp pits in the north are degeneraling intc
political rostrums, and while many professedly
religious papers are engaging in political part
san warfare, there is occasionally now and then
one which does not hesitate to reprove such de-
secraton. Among these calm and able Jour
mails is the New York Observer, a presbyterian
paper Of great influence, which steadily op-
pose such prostitution of the religious press
and the pulpit. The same ground, It will be
seen from the following article, has been taken
by the New ork Chronicle, an able and wide
]y circulated baptist paper:
! t'Iherc are some things which no pressure
of political excitement ought to divert from .s'
position of perfect inpartiality in dealing with
, the parties in conflict Among these are the
Judiciary the pulpit, the university, and the
religious press. No man considers it right
for the Judge andiury to decide causes in favor
of their political friends, and against their po-
lltcal enemies, merely on tie ground OF part
san agreement with the one, or opposition to
the other. Party politics can influence courts
only to prevent justice and turn d neigLbor
from his rights. So, when Sunday comes, and
we repair TO the sanctuary to forget our worldly
strife IN high communion with the spiritual,
the divine, and the eternal, We do not like to
! have that strife renewed in the pulpit by par
! tisan political harangucs, either in favor of or
! against our own position in politics. Our in
stincts and our judgments are alike interested
in keeping the pulpit untanted by partisan in
tluenccs, and unbiased by political warfare
Much as we rejoice in papers devoted to poll
ucs, and earnestly, and spproHingIy as We read
! those which favor our own views, yet we in
stinctlvcly recoiI from every thing of the kind
in one which comes to teach our families reli-
g on, and to record the events Of that kingdom
which is not I|lis worll.''
! The London Society Of Arts offers prizes for
an account of the economic manufacture Of
. color hv electricitv. for an acnount of the pro-