The Asheville citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1885-1889, 1886-05-22
For the Asheville CE1zzRN.
ANCIENT SALEM-THE SOLEMN
CEMEFAR Y--OI,D AND TOUCHING
CUSTOMS. &c.

GREENsBoRo n: c. April 26th 1885.
From Greensboro to Winston Salem is
but few hours run through peasants
pastoral landscape, aud before noon of
the morning of the 24th. the bus sets US
down in time-wefn Salem. We hays
come to spend Easter Sunday with the
Moravians. The rambling old hotel is
already filed with guests on like pill
grimage. The 6rst thing that meets US
| is q disappointment. We will not be
allowed to attend the Love Feast in the
afternoon. To this tickets are necessary,
and being strangers we have no friends
among the communicates to obtain them
for us. Well, we can at least see the
town, and partial glimpses from the bus
window have shown as it is we'll worth ex-
lploring. So when the waning day is be-
ginning to temper the suns heat with no
Guide or cicerone other than cur va
grant fancy we emerge upon the street
the main one we conclude upon which
| our hotel fronts. One of our party has
collected some facts, historical and bio
graphical, from Cyclopndias evidently,
which he endeavors to impart to us as we
| struggle along the uneven pave. As to the
rest of US we only know what we have been
| told in the town we left this morning
concerning the celebration Of Easter: It's
grand thing, an interesting thingl You
never saw anything like tin your life.
I advise you to 90. All questions, how
ever artfully put, have failed to extract
Ia more definite description of the pecu-
har ceremonies" What do they do 2"
taO, don't know-just everything Get
up before day and go out to the cemetery
and blow horns till the sun rises.
This In itself was certainly not attrac-
tive, but the genuine enthusiasm of the
speakers had weight-and lol here We
are. The land upon which this town is
built is part of a body granted to the
sUnitas FFratrum' or United Brethren, of
the Moravian Church by Lord Granville
in the year 1853" our didactic friend is
beginning when" M vi w Whata pretty Dutch
girl p exclaimes ouI ladies man. He in
advance and abruptly leads oft a side
street where the girl presumab ly is. We
have been too intently gazing at the
Queer, ,weatherbe rbeatenho houses to see her. and
we have to be careful of our going too, for
while in many of the houses one steps
| from the door Immediately to the pave
ment, many have stoops putting out SO
| far as to leave but q narrow way, and
others overhang the street entirely; 80
| if we happen to be looking across the
way, our heads are apt to come up forci-
bly, against the stair case which runs up
to this balcony from one side. We de
not blame our ladies' man for strolling
by so slowly when we also come opposite
the attraction. We understand his COM
plaisance in obligingly leaning against
a tree to wait for us to come up. The old
wooden structure is even with the street.
The heavy door is divided horizontally y
and the upper part folded back. Over
the lower portion the girl leans on cross
ed arms. Only her bust is visible. She
good hGmof El1se jeafo0s door gives her
a charming "near and yet so far" look
that makes us linger in our pretended
survey of the dormer-windows above her
head, the strange little shed rooms built
on at every angle, their roofs running
down like aseries of steps, and the vines
creeping up the leaning walls. At length
we get up past and are again conscious of
valuable information af1oat in the air.
/ "Salem is the seat of government for the
southern district of the church, that for
the northern is Bethlehem, Pennsylvan-
ia. The first house built herein 1906
is still standing and used.o
/ All! Here is the church. We have
been told how to. find it by the clock
above. Brethren, the brethren and
sisters, are partaking of coffee and coffee
bread, but we have no tickets, 80 we
pass ON. We must be near the grave
yard, and yes, there it is-the Cedar
| Walk" After few rods we enter gate
way and before us for a quarter of q mile
stretches straight, cleaning avenue. On
each side rise immense cedars, their tops
away up in the sky, and under them and
Iextending to the edge of the slightly
elevated walk is the freshest, greenest
grass. Not one blade, however, is allow
ed to encroach upon the firm, white walk
lover which the sun light falls checkered
| by the cedar boughs.
AN ideal place for love-making," says
lsomebody; but we have no lovers in oul
i party, and this, the only sense of lack in
4 all the lovely scene makes us pensive and
Isilents About midway the avenue an
Iopen gateway gives ingress to the bury
ing ground. How strangel No monu-
ments, no shafts, no urns! The ground
/ is laid off in plats of the same size and
shape, with paths running between, and
lowered with graves, rank upon rank, SO
thickly one can hardly pass between
them. There is not single shrub OF
flower, only thick green sod covering
Everything, and the huge cedars in
groups of four. Upon the top of each
mound at the head (these are of the same
i length and height squared off at the sides
and ends) rests slab-marble in nearly
j every instance, which we found to con
Ltain, in general, nothing but the name
fplace and date of birth and Death.
How can you tell if any Of these wo.
linen were ever married?" asks one young
Ilady who has been reading some of the
inscriptions. The slabs don't say
This leads to research and we find thai
i the married and unmarried are bun led IN
Iseparate plats-men and women. Even
the boys and girls are separated. How
isad says our chaperone, families
lshould rest together.v Her practica
4 helpmeet points out the well kept condi
j ton of every grave and insists that THU
lis compensating result. We climb ths
i gentle slope upon which the graveyard
i lies and look down upon the long files
1.-THE marble slabs cleaning Whitley from
the emerald mounds. Nine hundred
and six but this path invites us and
4 we leave our instructive friend, to follow
lif he choose, to these cool dim woods
The path along the edge OF q ravlns
brings us st length in view of another
lcemetery There Is nothing untamilial
i here,so we sit down under the shadow o.
d a vault and turn our eyes from the graves
4 TO the hollow below. Through the oak'i
] pale green shimmers the blossoming dog
wood, and on the breeze. laden witt