Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1863-01-22
BY L'AsPIRANT.

The conven' bells are ringing
But moummliy and slow;
JG the gray square turret swinging,
With Il tu, sound to and fro.
Heavily to the heart they 90
Nark. the HYMN is singing
A song or the dead below
Orthe living, who shortly shall be so!
For Il departing being soul
The death hymn peals, ard the hollow bells knoll.
byron.
Tol-toll-toll Such were the echoes
that greeted Us ou one Of the brightest after
looms in the last of September, OF the present
year, as we entered the gateway of that City
Of the Dead Greenwood Ce etery, GowanoS
Heights, Brooklyn. Toll-toll-toll The
old bell in the tower swung slowly to and fro
sending its sad and mournful echoes far away :;
ringing out the death knell of another poor
mortal, whose life work was ended, whose task
was complete, and, who having done with
earth, was going down to the narrow houe-
the cbarne house of all things human-the
Grave. Toll-toll-toll A hearse cover
ed with the sable trappings of death, drove
slowly past, followed 10y q long train of mourn
efs, whose steps kept time with the mournful
cadence Of the funeral bell
Greenwood Cemetery is probably the lar
geSt piece Of burial in the United States II
contains 800 acres and throughout is laid out
IN mjSt beautiful and tasty manner 1t con.
ialOs fifteen miles of roadways with avenues
an! by paths innumerable. During the past
season there were forty buriaIS in this place
alone In single day, say nothing of those bu
Fcd IN the various other cemeteries ia the Vi
c1ity Of New ork aud Brooklyn; and it is
no uncommon occurrence to hear the bell by
Ae gateway tolIing wIthCut intermiSSion from
morning till night. Like every other instltu-
ton Of the kind, it has its costly monuments
as vel! as its more humble graves-the rest,
aS places Of wealth and honor as well as those
poverty and crime Go with me, kind read
eF, Tor little while, and we will tread the in
Hcate paths Of the Silent City. Pause now
around US lie the sleeping multitude-mem-
,eFS OF the vast army OF the unDumbered DEAD
Here they lie-the prince and the pauper-
Tue noble and the ignoble-the worthy and
'ae unworthy. One by one the ephemeral of
earth, with mute lips and folded hands, take
'aeT places with the palid slumberers. But
even here it seems that death could not entire
1! remove the difference in the social position
0i the Sleepers. Here-around us-lie the
wealth and aristocracy of New Y Ork while
away 10 an obscure corner is the Poor Mans
LOT the graves of the poor and the hum
Ce-of those who had not dollars and cents
enongh to purchase a grave alongside of their
uoFe arlstocratic brethren.
. before US is a magnificent cenataph of Ital-
an marble, hexagonal in form, and erected
" The memory of one of the passengers that
vent down with the ill.fated Arctic, in 1854.
Il bears the following inscription =" Erected
% the memory of Charles c.. F. Hamilton,
woo perished on board the Arctic on the
aaemorabe 9th of September, l654-lEtat
.t9' Here is his monument, while far away
ae sleeps, with no marble mausoleum or viii
low, planted by kindly hand, to mark his
grave. Who can tell of the terrible scenes
VI an hour like that which closed the drama
VI bis life ?-of the aspirations of lifetime
suddenly dashed away-of the ties sundered
roi l5oi the hopes and wishes of years doomed to
u. taae IN a single hour When disease faStens
S' lanSs upon US, and we fade slowly, day by
.'y' We come to look upon death with calm
assS; but to have every tie sundered in a mo,
u usat, every hope and JOY withered, is invest
arS aeath with double terror Within the
Ttp'aS Of that illimitabIe expanse of waters
,ue ocean-the fabled Nereid watches his
Et''Se' guarding it with Jealous care His
'1UeFai obsequies were short-'twas but
r, sudden plunge, the scene is DER,
1ue waves roll on they rolled before
Nh; near by, nestled in clump of evergreens,
"u'Cn almost hide it from the view of the
hpasstfs-by, is monument of pure white mar
w. II IS circular pillar, fifteen feet in height,