The New York herald., 1878-11-17
Mr. stewart. Body.

Mr. Stewards mausoleum at Garden City
may perhaps remain permanently without
the body it was constructed to contain, for
his heirs and friends seem unlikely to re-
cover his bones without dealing with the
violators Of the tomb in way that would
tend TO the recognition OF their crime rs
legitimate commercial enterprise. Ii the
heirs must finally come to the conclusion
that the efforts OF the police are hopeless
they will have to choose between that COM
merce and the completion OF the monu-
mcnt without the remains 1t is no neces-
sary part of the idea of great monumental
structure that it should contain the relics
OF the man in memory Of whom it is made.
But where they wonld have put Mr..
Stewards body his heirs may place a tablet
inscribed with the facts OF the case. On
this tablet it may be said that the edifce is
in memory of Mr.. Stewart and was intended
to contain his body, but that this was stolen
from city graveyard and that the police
could not find it. Thus the church may
become u monument to Mr.. Stewart u
monument to that peculiar type Of our
Christian civilization in virtue OF which
oven graves arc not safe il their contents
can be contemplated rs good basis for
bargain; but it would be- above all, a mon
ument to the police Of the metropolis, who
certainly ought to have one.
Ii there is any offence that might be sup
posed to be fairly within the limits of de-
tectlve science it is grave robbery. Muir
Jovc ov,1 70 ~
mitted by any human creatures. A man
may strike another dead and disappear in
the world of men as completely as drop Ill
the ocean, because murder is not on
especial criminal industry and the muir
derers are not classified part Of the COM
munity. But it is otherwise with
burglary, with pocket picking and with
highway robbery. These are industries
and have their votaries, and we'll con-
Quoted police knows all the burglars and
even knows the special kinds of burglaries
pursued by particular individuals. Now
the body snatcher is rs specific variety OF
criminal as the burglar or the confidence
man, and rogue in any other line would
be as little likely to invade this province
as Alma Tadema to paint on the themes
Of Turner. This grave robbery was con-
ceiyed, planned and executed by body
snatchers. Every rogue, like every honest
man, thinks in the vein in which his
thoughts run by habit, and at a rich
mans funeral it is only the body snatcher
looking on to whom it occurs to imagine
what a spoil there might be in the robbery
Of that grave. Other men would be horri-
fed at the suggestion; to him it is common
place and trivial. Tender hearted people
regard the butcher killing sheep rs the type
Of all that is cruel, and yet he is probably
a tender hearted father of a family, and
the desecration Of the grave that has been
lately imagined as the extremity Of all that
is inhuman was done by men who thought
rs little of it in that respect MS o cobbier Of
hali-soling pair Of shoes.
Body snatchers are not innumerable.
They certainly do not exist as class in this
city; but they have we'll marked existence
at many places in the country, and particu-
larly in all the small cities in the West
where there are medical schools. But the
temptation to snatch a body presumed to
be worth halfa million might induce choice
spirits Of this enterprising fraternity to
come this way. At home they are doubtless
known to the police, and if any of them
have been absent from their accustomed
haunts since early in October that fact is
known F; and if the police getting from their
associates in Western cities description
of noted resurrectionists thus absent, could
find such men in this city, they would
probably find such men worthy diligent at
tention.