The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-05-29
force, and put the babys coffin. which was in
the cart too, on top of him, and sat on his

force, and put the babys coffin. which was IN
the cart too, on top of him, and Sat on MS
head.
1 followed the wagon, telling him wanted
to see what he, the driver, was going to DO
with the man ii the coffin. told the driver
The Man was Alive,
to me. but drove on fast am positive that
the man put up his hands and feet, but he
was too weak to sit up straight. am certain
of this, for saw it plainly. The man had
broken the LID open, so it looked. The driver
I saw put his pillow or cushion on the man
and then sit down just where his head was.
Rose johnson, residing on Locust street.
between Second and Third streets, makes the
follow ing statement: l saw the charity wagon
stop just in front of our gate. saw two
collins in the wagon; one was that of child,
and the other that of man. The lid OF the
large coffin was off. The driver of the wagon
got back and put it on again. It slid off
again, rose up, and l saw the arms Of the
man in the coffin raised. The driver took
the pillow on which he sits and placed it in
the coffin and sat on it.
Ellen Burns. residing at the same place,
stated The man was not dead, he raised his
arms, and the driver put the pillow on him
and tried to smother him.
Henderson Burch, same residence T: know
what they tell you to be true; I saw it. There
was q small coffin and large coffin in the
wagon. l went to the wagon and the driver
ordered me away. followed 1t to the grave
yard, but did not stop to see the body buried.
There was a great many people around there,
white and black.
Andrew Jackson, who came in just after
Burch had given his statement, on being
questioned, said: I live between First
and Second streets. The charity wagon
stopped in front of my house. heard a
noise in the wagon. Linda Smith ran out.
heard the driver say to her, "Do you want
to catch the smallpox? What do you want p
She said, II am not afraid Of the small
pox."
The driver then threatened her; did not
hear what he said, but knew, from his tone,
| he threatened her. do not know the num-
Der of the wagon, but it was drawn by gray
horse.
| Mrs. Louisa Weber, residing at the corner
of Locust and Third streets, stated:
heard that o man was being buried alive,
and went to the cemetery and spoke in Ger.
man to the grave digger. do not know his
name; he was a small man. I asked him
about the man being buried alive. He said
the driver was kind of funny man and no
doubt did it all as joke; that the man Was
dead enough to be buried, and that he had a
doctors certificate that he was dead.
| William Harrison states: first saw the cart
ct the grave yard called Locust Grove. The
wagon drov, in the yard, and as I had heard
they were burying live man, went in, not
withstanding they tried to put me out. !
went up close to the coffin in the grave yard.
A young man there asked me to look in the
coffin, and I moved the lid and looked at
him. The coffin was on stretcher. The
man was still breathing, and there was a
cobble stone on his stomach. His toes were
twitching and his breast moving. The man
was naked. I saw all this plainly, just as
see that tree now. There was big crowd
running after the wagon, women and boys
living round there.
Willie Jackson, aged fourteen, says: first
saw the wagon in front of my house, on Lo-
Gust, near First street. I saw the man in the
coffin raise the lid off the coffin he was in and
put out both hands outside the coffin and try
to raise up. 1 was close to him-not five feet
off, and saw the mans face. 1t Was thin,
and his fingers were thin too. The driver put
the lid down again quickly and pushed the
man back into the coffin and then put
a baby's coffin which was in the
wagon on top. the man and then sat down or
him. The man then groaned in the coffin
followed the cart to the graveyard, but they
1
the wagon was mostly women and boys, abou
three hundred in all.
At Locust Grove Cemetery.
Repairing to the Locust Grove Cemetery or
Sixth street, between Freret and Locust the
reporters were hardly prepared for the sigh,
has for some time been used as the Potters
Field of the city, and it is here that tn
lfriendless and moneyless are inferred. Stu
ated as it is, out of the course of ordinary
travel, a square distant from the Washington
Shell Road, comparatively few people know o
the existence of the place, and fewer hav'
ever seen inside the gates. Yesterday morn
ling was unusually warm, the sun pouring
down food of heat upon The pedestrian
rendering exercise anything but agreeable
Turning from Washington Avenue toward the
cemetery, the reporter took basty surve.
lof the surroundings, and then OF tn
ground in which he stood.
Long, low, level fields, unfit for cultivation
aud apparently just suited to the rank vegeta
ton thriving upon them, stretched out, mar
pined here and there by the banks Of drain
ing canal, and made just a little picturesque
by the dottiugs of vagrant cattle busy witt
their tails keeping off ambitious flies. In tn
near foreground OF this laid Potters' Field,
few feet of which was shaded by two sickl.
willows, whilst the rest baked beneath tn
blistering heat. catering the gate, it was tn
easiest thing in the world to see that tn
square was the
| Pauper's Last X esting Place.
In our other cemeteries, friends and rela
ltives in the pangs of bereavement rear, abou
loved ones, last home, mausoleums of regret
; which, in great measure, serve to mask thu
; naked terrors of the dark angel, but her
! death was visible everywhere. Visible in tn
latch you raised to enter the yard, made from
an old coffin, visible in the stained ant
mouldy winding 1sheet rotting in tn
laughing clover beside the walk.
On the left of the central path it was evi
dent friends had cared for many of the graves
but on the right the picture was q sad Oh
indeed. Here in a pile some five feet il
height were some fifty babies untenanted
Il Coins Resurrected
after the weary little bodies had wasted away
They were heaped carelessly together like 8
Ill