The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-06-03


things are changed since first laid
this old tired frame there, and turn
ed over and stretched out for long
sleep, with a delicious sense of being
done with bother, and grief, and
anxiety, and doubt and fear, forever
and ever, and listening with comfort
able and increasing satisfaction to
the sexton's work, from the start
ling clatter of his first spadeful on
my coffin till it dulled away to the
faint patting that shaped the roof to
nv new home-delicious? My! 1.
wish you could try it tonight" and
out of my rsRerie deceased fetched
me a rafting slap with bOny hand.
ayes, sir, thirty years ago l laid
me down there and was happy. For
it was but in the country, then-out
| in the breezy, fowery, grand old
woods, and the lazy winds gossipped
with the leaves, and the squirrels
capered over US and around us, and
the creeping things visited Us, and
the birds filed the tranquil solitude
with music. All, it was worth ten
years of a mans life to be dead then!
Everything was pleasant. l was in
good neighborhood, for all the
dead people that lived near me be
longed to the best families in the
city. Our posterity appeared to
think the world of u.s. They kept
our gryes in the very best condition,
the fences were always in faultless
repair, headboards were kept paint
ed, or whitewashed, and were replac-
ed with new ones, as soon as they
began to look rusty or decayed;
monuments were kept upright, rail
lings intact and bright, the rose
bushes and shrubbery trimmed,
trained and free from blemish, the
walk clean and smooth and graveled
But that day is gone by. Our de-
sendants have forgotten US. My
grandson lives in that stately house
built with the money made by these
old hands of mine, and l sleep in a
neglected grave with invading YER
min that gnaw my shreud to build
them nests withal! l and friends
that lie with me founded and secured
/ the prosperity of this fine city, and
1.-THE stately bantling of our love
lleaves US to rot in a dilapitated Gem
etery which neighbors curse and
strangers scof at. See the differ
leuce between the old time and this
for instance: Our graves are all
lcaved in now; our head-boards are
Irotted away and tumbled down; our
lrailings rest this way and that, with
lone foot in the air, after fashion
of unseemly levity; our monuments
llean wearily and our gravestones
bow their heads discouraged; there
be no adornments any more-no
lroses nor shrubs, nor graveled walks,
nor anything that is comfort to the
Ieye, and even the painless old board
fence that did make a show of hold
ling us sacred from the companion
lship Of beasts. and the deflement of
needless feet, has tottered till it over
hangs the street, and only advertises
1.-The presence Of our dismal resting
place and invite ye5 more derlsion
to it. And now we cannot hide our
Ipoverty and tatters in the friendly
woods, for the city has stretched its
whitening arms abroad and taken us
in, and all that remains of the cheer
of our old home is the cluster Of lu-
! gubrious forest trees that stand
1 bored and weary of city life, with
their feet in our coflins, looking In
to the hazy distance and not wish
ling they were there, / tell you it's
disgraceful.
4 You begin to comprehend-you
begin to see how it is. While oul
defendants are living sumptuOusly
| on our money right around us in
the city, we have to fight hard to
| keep skull and bonee together.
Bless you there isn't a grave in our
, cemetery that doesn't leak-not one.
Every time it rains in the night we
have to climb ont and roost in the
trees-and sometimes we are waken-
ed suddenly By the chilly water
trickling down the back OF ouI
necks. Then I tell you there is q
general heaving up of old graves
and kicking over Of old monuments,
and scampering of old skeletons
, from the trees. Bless me, if you
had gone along there some such
nights after twelve you might have
/, seen as many as fifteen of Us roost-
inc on one limb, with our joints rat
ting drearily and the wind wheez-
| inc through cur ribs, Many time
we have perched there for three OF
four drearv hours, and then came
down, stiff and chilled through and
drowsy, and borrowed each other
| skulls to bail out our graves with
q if vou will glance up in my mouth
{ now as l tilt my head back, you can
see that my head-piece is haR full
of old dry sedimen how top-heavy
and stupid it makes me sometimes.
Yes. sir. many time if you had
lhapDeDed to come along just before
: dawn you'd have caught us bailin9
out the graves and hanging oul
-Ishrouds on the fence to dry. Why,
| | had an elegant shroud stolen ftom
there one morning-think a party
: -Iby the name of Smith took it, that
= resides in a plebeian graveyard ovel
vonder-I think so because the first
time I ever saw him he hadn't any
| thing on but a check shirt, and the
= last time l saw him, which was at {
: social gathering in the new cemetery
! he was the best dressed corpse II
the company-and it is significan
I fact that he left when he saw me;
Y and presently an old woman from
| here missed her coffin-she general
= Ilv took it with her when she wen
Y anywhere, because she was liable u
4 take cold and bring on the spas
/. lmodic rheumatism that original,
:. killed her if she exposed herself t.
d the night air much. She was namei
a Hotchkiss-Anna MatildaHotchkls