The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-12-21
THB BRoOKLYN CATASTROPHE.
ASHES BunYING THE THEA.
TIRE VICTIMS.
NEW YopR Dec 10

A hundred and one bodies in single
grave! One hundred and one charred,
nangled, unrecognizablc bodies hidden
forever from sight in great trench on
the summit of Battle Hill! a hundred
and one together in joyous life, together
IN terrible death, together in the dread
moment before the Great White Throne,
and stiff together under the winter sod OF
Greenwood Cemetery
Seventy-nine cofins held all that was
left Of the hundred and one victims of
could not recognize. Not one body was
in fhe shape or semblance of humanity.
Gnarled and knatted and smoke black
ened, dropping to pieces under the touch.
the lest hundred and one were tenderly
coifined and carefully numbered. No
eHort was made to array them in tho
habiliments of the grave, for, even as
they were, it was next to impossible 10
raise them from the 4yor and put them
I properly in the narrow boxes, stained
and polished and silver studded in which
they were to make the last journey to the
churchyard
Even the practiced attendants at the
Alorgue. who undertook the difficult task
OF coilining the bodies, showed signs of
trepidation as they handled the crooked
forms. Then, wien this was finished a
line Of death was made in the iInprovised
Morgue, and fiity-four vehicles, seven
teen being hearses and the remainder
undertakers' wagons, drove one by one to
the doors and carried away their terrible
loads, taking them rapidly to the point
from which the procession was to start.
| IN THE COLD WINDS.
The right Of the line of the great
funeral procession was formed at Scher-
merhorn street and Flatbush avenue, at
TWO o'clock yesterday afternoon. Thou
sands stood patiently, exposed to I'll the
Jury. OF the icy gale that was blowing,
waiting patiently and sadly for the start.
1w" detachments of military, with muf-
ned drums, marched up, and then ct
! few minutes after twn, the mounted police
started of, and the mournful march was
begun: The police, on handsome horses.
headed the procession; then members Of
committees, in carriages; the Forty
seventh Regiment, headed by its band;
detachment Of the Fourteenth Repi-
ment, without arms n Gatling battery
without gun; another band heading
the Twcnty-third Regiment; then the
terrible row of seventeen hearses, follow
ed by forty-five undertakers' wagons,
bearing from one to four collins each;
then carriages with relatives and friends,
carriages with clergymen aud officials,
and last of all the Thirteenth Regiment
and drum corps.
All along the broad Flatbush avenue.
up the steep hill that leads to the park Of
the dead, the bands played their most
solemn dirges, and the mufiied drums
beat their melancholy time. AS tho
collins passed the spectators upon the
sidewalks reverentiaily Uncovered their
heads, and the women sobbed aloud.
The wind howled dismally dust Blinded
she eyes; the cold was almost unbearn.
bic; altogether, it was Il page ;Is her his
tory that Brooklyn will drape in folds of
black.
IN THE CEMETERY.
The head of the procession entered the
cemetery gate Mt quarter before 3
O'Clock, and the line went directly to
This beautiful bluff is the highest point
in the cemetery. Here circular trench
had been dug, seven feet deep and thir-
teen feet wide, nearly surrounding g
round, sodded space, ten feet in diameter,
upon which monument is TO stand,
One at n time the vehicles bearing the
bodies drove up the main avenue, stopped
long enough to discharge its ghastly load,
and then moved out Of the way down
Battle avenue. Twelve cemetery en-
ployces received the coffins, six men car
rying each coffin up the steep mound 70
sIe trench, and lowering It to eight men
who stood in the open grave, fosr ON
each side, arranging the coffins in a
double row as fast as they were delivered,
bottom of the trench.
The solemn work was necessarily slow.
but bravely the thousands withstood the
piercing wind and the terrible cold wait
ing for the last sad rites. The double
row of black coffins almost filed the
trench, and to these two moro were added
two which had arrived before, each
containing recognized victim of the dis
aster, which had been brought by rela-
tives and friends Sixty German singers.
members Of the Brooklyn Smngertnnd,
South Brooklyn Quartette Club. Sehut-
aenfcst and Brooklyn Mennerchor stood
upon the central! grass plat and sang
read the Protestant Episcopal burial ser-
vice. The Rev., DR.. Putnam, instead of
the extended funeral Grafton which he
had prepared, announced that the ex-
treme cold would preclude the possibility
OF its delivery, and merely said @ fe:s
words on the uncertainty of life and she
blessed hopes of immortality. Then the
6enediction wos pronounced by the Rev.
Mr. Odell, and the ceremonyLwas copclu-
ded with the singing by the Germauia
choir of Kuhlau'a choral, "Above all
submits there is repose."
AN ARMY OF GRAvE-DrGGERs. a-.
Forty-two grave-diggers stood at their
posts, and, at the moment that the last
words of the beautiful choral died away.
began the melancholy rattling of the
frozen earth upon the unprotected coffins.
Many of the spectators, as they turned
away, dropped handsful of clay into the
great grave. ald many fingered till the
last ,cotiin Lad disappeared under the
cruel shower of earth. The mournfnl
work was soon done, and the deepening
shadows Of the winters eve fell at last
upon the beautiful gift of the Germania
Theatre, floral crown and cross. that
alone stood between the new-made grave
and the lowering heavens.
The bodies of Murdoch and Burroughs.
sao dead aut0Is, weIo tii,sael 10 Irving
Hall on Saturday afternoon They had
been put in rosewood, silver r-mounted
collins, which bore the Inscriptions sew.
orally: "Claude dc Blenau Burroughs.
born August IL, l848; died December 8,
1876" and "Henry s. Hitchcock,
died December 5, 1876" aged Sf.'
Crosses and wreaths, the gifts of
friends, covered the lid of each
AT their head was placed sland
containing large scroll oc yvhita Howa,,