The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-11-20
sTEwART's REMAINs.


All that the wires and the press could do
to inform the public that the mortal remains
of A. T. Stewart, merchant and millionaire.
had been taken from their quiet repose in a
New York graveyard, has been done. The
ghouls who perpetrated the robbery have
made good their escape, and the secret
hiding place of their swag is unknown, nor
have the detectives of New York been able,
30 far as the public is informed, to obtain
any clue calculated TO lead to the detection
and punishment of the robbers. For pc
iod OF years A. t. Stewart stood at the very
head of the mercantile enterprises of the
country. He had amassed vast fortune,
said to be one hundred millions, by patient
toll and miserly boarding. He had no rela-
tives, and so far as the world knows, no
friends, if we except his wife, except those
who were bound to him by the ties
OF business. He lived, he grew rich, and at
last he died-died in a marble palace that
cost more than one million dollars. He was
buried with such pomp and circumstance as
money can always procure, and slept well.
His Yast fortune passed into other hands,
and the name of the dead man was still used
as a sign and q trade mark to facilitate bust
ness transactions. Manifestly this cool, cal
culatipg money maker had an ambition not
altogether unlike that of the Egyptian kings,
and decreed in his mind to build tomb for
himself which in the magnifcence OF its ar
chitecture should eclipse all others on the
continent and vie with the most renowned
in ages past. To carry out this ambitious
idea the cathedral at Ocean Grove, now
nearly completed, was to be his final resting
place. There is nothing like it In the world,
and in few months the grand display OF
the refinement of the dead millionaire was
to have taken place. Alas, for vaulting am
bitionl And how true the philosophy of
Burns that
The best laid plans OF mice and men
Gang aft aglee.
The last account we have of the body of
A. T. Stewart, though little apocryphal, Is
that it was being hoIsted over a graveyard
fence in gunny-bag or an old bedtick, and
wheeled away, God and the ghouls only
know whittier. Under this aspect of the
case the princely mausoleum at Ocean Grove
must forever remain without its rightful
tenant, leaving the final resting place of the
dead man matter of profound mystery and
painful uncertainty. We notice in the New
York Herald that the princely sum of one
hundred thousand dollars has been offered
as a reward for the apprehension of the body
snatchers, but not one cent for the return of
the body. That may remain where
the villains have placed it, provided
the crime shall be punished 1t would
seem to the average reader with heart at
toned to the best impulses of our nature
been the supreme thought and wish, and
that much larger sum than one hundred
thousand dollars from the great estate of the
deceased would have been offered that his
ambition might reach Its highest aim, which
was that his body might rest beneath the
monumental spire of Ocean Grove Cathedral
until the morning of the resurrection. But
we notice that promptly after the fact that
the robbery had taken place Judge Hilton
advised Mrs. Stewart not to expend a nine
pence for such a purpose. What Judge
Hllton's motive may have been it is difficult
to divine, unless it be that after Mrs. Stew
arts death his fortune will be still further
enlarged by the estate of his de-
ceased friend. Or it may be that
Judge Hilton bankers after Stewards
place in the Ocean Grove tomb. We notice
. purpose on the part of some one to turn to
benevolent account the robbery of which we
write. Whether in good earnest or other
wise we are not able TO say, but the follow
ing letter published in the New York Herald
explains itself:
"a ooMPAEY's" OFFER.
The following letter came to the Herald
through the malls yesterday. II may be in
tended for what some would be wag would
call joke, but IL IL Is not the suggestion con-
about the coolest thing OF the season:
To the
Editors of the New York Herald
IL the executors of the late A. T.
Stewart will donate SoOJ,OOJ for some needed
public charity in the city of new York the
whereabouts of his remains will be immedt-
ately divulged and not one penny Will be asked
Company
Itwould be difficult to conceive of grim
mer transaction than the extortion of any
sum of money for benevolent purposes by
virtue of CRIME that shocks the sensibilities
of all good people, and we are led to con-
clude that the letter is designed as side
issue TO cover the tracks of the thieves and
make the detection less probable. Taken all
in all the affair is well calculated to excite
grave reflections, and in future very rich
men will be likely to have their tombs as
burglar proof as have been their safes where
their wealth was stored.