Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-08-20
THE POTTER'S FIELD.
THE cEMeTRY ON HART'S ISLAND
WHERE PAUPeR'S REST.


The Burials Always Conducted Decently
and in Order-The Horrors All In
TERED with the Poor Bones-Nearly
Finy-Two Thousand Graves.
Much sentimental nonsense has been
written about the horrors of the Potter's
Field As matter of fact there is moth
ing horrible about it-nothing, at least be
yond the horror which the mind can con-
jure up, ii II is foolish enough to do so, in
connection with death and decay in any
form. The burial of the poor man or the
unknown is IA matter of business-like des'
patch, as it must needs be in a great city
where men, women and babes drop by the
way in such vast numbers, but there Is
nothing revolving or insulting about it.
Thanks TO the system of the admirably
conducted department Of charities and
correction, il is done with all due decency
and care, and, while there Is a nat
ural sentiment in favor of burial
by book and bell, with priest and
plumes, weeping friends and big
granite shaft commemorative the virtues
of the departed, the poor clay can not sleep
any easier or more securely on the high
priced slopes Of Greenwood than it does
beside the purling waters Of the East
river, under the exquisitely green turf Of
Hart's island. 1t is mistake to suppose
that identity is lost in the Potter's Field.
On the contrary it is most carefully pre-
served-by name, If the name is known;
by photograph in the case OF the
unclaimed dead; and it is a fact that
bodies are frequently claimed and removed
to more pretentious burying grounds years
after they have first partaken of the free
hospitality of the much-malignel city
cemetery.
Hart's island is really in Long Island
sound, though in a narrow portion Of IL.
1t Is one Of the prettiest bits Of emerald
which the city owns, and which
strung along the necklace of the
East river, are beautiful enough to
make the, virtuous, solvent, sane and
free men Of the city envy the surround
ings of the pauper and criminal classes.
The island comprises about seventy-five
acres of land, and when the new cribbing
is filed in there will be twenty-five acres
more, all of which is needed by the over
crowded department. Only third Of the
island is set apart for the Potters Field.
FROM HOSPITAL OR TENEMENT.
The dead wagon is busy vehicle. and
the two kept in the service of the city often
find themselves some hours behind the
calls, for Old Mortality waits for no man.
Each wagon has an assortment Of rough
pine collins, turned out by the city con-
viots, with larger percentage Of chill
dren's size than adult. The bodies gath
cred from hospital or tenement, police sta
ton or wharf, are placed in proper-sized
coffin and trundled away to the morgue or
the dead-house, as the case may be. There
the routine is fixed one. The unknown
are photographed and fully described in a
proper book, the clothing seached, rec
orded and stored, and the body placed on
the marble slabs for Identification. Every
thing possible is done to find the friends
II there are any to be found. In due time
the dead house is reached, the bodies are
recoffined, and gang of convicts, spe-
cially detailed to this duty, bear them on
board the department steamer Fidelity.
When all the cofiins have been placed
upon the deck tarpaulin is placed over
them and the boat starts up the river, not
on the way to horrors certainly. The hor-
rors have been left behind-the horrors of
poverty and suffering. the horrors of the
crowded tenement, Of making shirts at 30
cents dozen, of seeking work where none
is to be found: the horrors of drunkenness
and vice, the horrors Of the hospital and
the dissecting-room. the horrors of all the
varied forms of death. These are all be-
hind. There is nothing now but quiet
sail up beautiful stream and narrow
resting-place beneath the greenest of sod.
The city hearse on Hart's island is not a
handsome vehicle, but il is clean and COM
modious. The workhouse people stow the
collins away in it without any particular
show Of reference anu of 1t trundles to the
big cemetery. Numbers are cut in each
coffin corresponding to those in the
records, and then side by side they go, ac-
cording to number, into the big trenches.
All is as systematic as a regiment equaliz.
ing its companies. Each trench is fifteen
by forty-five feet square and eight feet
deep, and the collins are ranged in double
file, feet to feet, and slanting slightly
downward from the heads. A thin layer
of earth covers each layer of collins, for
space is precious and their must be three
tiers. Then the earth is graded up on top
and the grass is sown which will soon
cover up all suggestion Of the tales of mis-
cry wrapped up in the dust below. Small
stones at each corner Of the trenches form
sort Of milestones to the steady en-
croachments OF the bodies upon the space
in the cemetery. TT Potters' Field is as
level as a tennis court II is covered with
trees and shrubs and traversed by we'll
kept walks.-New York World.