Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1888-09-21
SHEPHERISTOWN W. VA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 1883

| tired frame there, and turned over,
and stretched out for a long sleep,
with a delicious sense upon me of being
done with bother, and grief, and anxi-
ETY., and doubt, and fear, for ever and
ever, and listening with comfortable
and increasing satisfaction TO the sex
tons work, from the startling clatter
of his first spadeful on my coffin till it
dulled away 10 the faint patting that
shaped the roof of my new home-de
liciousl My wish you could try it
tonight and out OF my reverie de-
ceased fetched Inc rattling slap with
'Yes, sir, thirty years ago | laid me
down there, and was happy. For it
was out in the country, then-out in
the breezy, flowery, grand old woods.
and the lazy winds gossiped with the
leaves, and the squirrels capered over
us and around us, and the creeping
things visited us, and the birds filled
the tranquil solitude with music. All,
it was worth ten years of mans life
to be dead then! Everything was
pleasant. | was in good neighbor-
hood, for all the dead people that
lived near Inc belonged to the best
families in the city Our posterity
appeared to think the world Of us.
They kept our graves in the very best
condition; the fences were always in
faultless repair, head-boards were
kept painted or whitewashed, and
were replaced with new ones as soon
as they began to look rusty or decayed,
monuments were kept upright, rail
ings intact and bright, the rosebushes
and shrubbery trimmed, trained, and
free from blemish, the walks clean
and smooth and gravelled But that
day is gone by. Our descendants
have forgotten us Ny grandson lives
in a stately house built with money
made by these old hands of mine, and
sleep in a neglected grave with in
vading vermin that gnaw my shroud
to build them nests withal. | and
friends that lie with me founded and
secured the prosperity of this fine city,
and the stately bantling of our loves
leaves us to rot in dilapidated GENE
terry which neighbors curse and stran-
gers scoff at. See the difference be-
tween the old time and thiS-for in
stance: Our graves are all caved in,
now; our headstones have rotted away
and tumbled down; our ratings reel
this way and that, with one foot in
the air, after a fashion of unseemly
levity; our monuments lean wearily,
and our gravestones bow their heads
discouraged, there be no adornments
any moreno roses, nor shrubs, nor
gravelled walks, nor anything that is
comfort 10 the eye, and even the
painless old board fence that did
make show of holding us sacred
from companionship with beasts and
the defilement of needless feet, has
tottered till it overhangs the street,
and only advertises the presence of
our dismal resting place and invites
yet more derision to it. And now we
cannot hide our poverty and tatters
in the friendly woods, for the city has
stretched its withering arms abroad
and taken us in, and all that remains
of the cheer Of our old home is the
cluster of lugubrious forest trees that
stand, bored and weary of city life,
with their feet in our collins, looking
into the hazy distance and wishing
they were there | tell you it is dis
graceful!
You begin to comprehend-you be
gin to see how it is. While our de
scendants are living sumptuously on
our money, right around us in this
city, we have to fight hard to keep
skull and bones together Bless you,
there isn't a grave in our cemetery
that doesn't leak-not one. Every
time it rains in the night we have to
climb out and roost in the trees-and
sometimes we are wakened suddenly
by the chilly water trickling down the
back of our necks. Then / tell you
there is u general heaving up OF old
graves and kicking over of old monu-
ments, and scampering Of old skele-
tons for the trees! Bless me, if you
had gone along there some such nights
after twelve you might have seen as
many as fifteen of us roosting on one
limb, with our joints rattling drearily
and the wind wheeling through our
ribs. Many time we have perched
there for three or four dreary hours,
and then come down, stiff and chilled
through and drowsy, and borrowed
each others skulls to bale out our
graves with-if you will glance up in
my mouth, now as tilt my head back,
you can see that my head-piece is half
full of old dry sediment-how top
heavy and stupid it makes me some
times! Yes, sir, many time II You
had happened TO come along just be
fore the dawn you'd have caught us
baling out the graves and hanging
our shrOuds on the fence to dry. Why,
had an elegant shroud stolen from
there one morning-think party by
the name of Smith took it, that resides
in plebian graveyard over yonder-
| think so because the first time | saw
him he hadn'tanything on but check
shirt. and the last time / saw him,
which was at social gathering in
the new cemetery, he was the best
dressed corpse in the company-and it
is significant fact that he left when
he saw me; and presently an old wo-
man from here missed her coffin-she
generally took il with her when she