New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-09-19
Who Ate Roger williams.

A few days ago a brief article went the
rounds of the newspapers, having the sig
niticant title, "Who ate Roger Williams :"
1t seems that in searching for the remains
of one of the fathers of IT ligious liberty in
America almost nothing was found. The
pick and spade removed the hard earth till
a dark line was reached, having the shape
of coffin. Below there were a few locks
of silvery hair and some teeth, the things,
Byron tells us, that decay soonest in life
and remain longest after death. The dead
form had disappeared and living form had
taken its place. The body of the old hero
had become, not food for worms, but sus
tenance for an apple tree A root had
forced its way through the hard earth
till it reached the coffin, whose lid it
lifted and whose contents it devoured 1t
had stretched itself over the skeleton and
thrown out divisions over the extremities
hese m turn had divided and showed
the form and position of the fingers. A
living form showed where decaying one
man. From the food it had devoured it had
produced blossoms the children of the
grave-digger had plucked. and fruit that he
himself had eaten. Mr.. Rodney Welcb, in
the Teachers Monthly, is our authority for
the story, which he gives in detail. Not
always. however, he adds, does decaying
body thus Immediately minister TO the
wants Of living body. Atraveler in Cen
trial America tells us that the priests of
Leon, Nicaragua, rent out burial lots for ten
or twenty years, at the end OF which time
they sell the bones and the surrounding
earth to the manufacturers of saltpetre
This mode of dispOsing of the dead is quite
as economical as was the disposition OF the
body of Roger Williams. In either case the
body became OF service to man in modified
form soon after it had ceased to be of any
rrao IN him in fha form, firat bod &,
almost M much poetry in the last case as
in the III a.. 1t certainly may be cOnsoling
thought in approaching death in that sunny
land of perpetual flowers to know that
there, at least, the grave is rot the last of
earth. There must be rare pleasure in con.
templatiug how useful one will be after he
is dead--in considering how portions of
ones body may be used in making jefked
beet and side bacon on which his survivors
and successors may feed and fatten. 1t.
should kindle patriotism in the heart of
dying man t. know that he would some
time be worked up into gunpOwder and
used in the defense of the honor of his
country. We can not,sif we would, long
retain the particles of body that once
gave joy to all around it. Even if the
root OF an apple tree does not force its
way into grave, the shovel of nitre-
maker does not open it, or plundering
Arab claim it's contents to sell to English
farmers for manure, some other agencies will
operate to rob the coffin of its contents. In
many country churchyards sheep fatten on
the grasses that grow upon graves In city
cemeteries fragrant flowers, planted by
loving hands, aitsst the fact that they lux
uriate on the gases sent up from the bodies
beneath them. Secure it as we may, and
come hand will roll away the stone from
the door Of the sepulchre, and the living will
come forth from the shrOuds of the dead.
1t would seem to be vain then to seek to
locate or long retain the little quantity of
matter that once belonged to living man.
Why grapple for the drowned beneath the
waters OF lake or oceaua Why seek the
miner suffocated amid the debris of the
fallen galleryi Why search the Arctic SHOWS
for the remains of franklin ls it, indeed,
more desirable to feed an English willow
than polar bearf "Dust to DUST ls
the cry nature is ever sounding to call
homo her own. Hudson answers 1t from
the pillows of the mighty bay that bears his
name; De Soto from the great river he dis
covered; Irving from his quiet home beyond
the river be loved. duet thou art, and unto
dust th0ush return" 10 the solemn SON.
t-nce pronounced ON all Who live, nor can
apy circumstances long delay or essentially
modify IT. literal exactions.. A common
f4te at length awaits eaoh humAn form,