Wichita eagle., 1888-08-02
TIE GRAEEDIGGER.
A CHICAGO REPORTERS VISIT TO
THE CEMETERIES.

The CEMET ERiES.
GravediGgins n Healthy vocation-Bury-
Ing Alive-Chicago's Twenty-stx Gene
TERESA Busy Tim~-WOrk aud W ages
How Familiarity Breeds Contempt"
A withered. bent and gnarled old man was
digging leisurely away at a grave in Grace
land cemetery The old man was John Kane
the oldest active gravedigger in the United
States He is 65, and when he walks his
back is ct an angie Of IS degs But there is
lots Of life In old John Kane yet. and he may
well live to complete his four score and over.
II have buried great many in my life
many thousands said the old man I've
been here, grave digger, making good
living at it, since 1850, when Graceiand Gene
terry first started. I've never dug up any
treasures and | don't suppose ever shall
But I've earned my bread at IT and provided
for my family, and me and my boys used to
do great deal of hard work in this GENE
terry It's an old saying that grave digging
is a healthy trade and that a grave digger
lives longer than most other people l don't
see exactly why it should he So for one often
elsewhere But it's open cir work, and it
has to be done in all sorts Of weather and at
all seasons, and thus it makes man tough
and not liable to give In to small ailments"
: There has never BEEN as far as reliable
data are at hand, a case of burying alive in
Chicago cemeteries 1t was rumored that
there was, some time ago, such case at
Waldheim, the great 'FriedhoR' literally
peace yard Of our German fellow citizens
But visit paid there and diligent inquiry
made failed to bring out any confederation
Of the rumor That's all bosh,'' said Theo-
dore Hanks, the superintendent of the Ger
man Lutheran cemetery, adjoining Grace
land. Il have buried Thousands and have
opened many collins years afterward, when
the bodies, for some reason or ether had to
be placed elsewhere. | have always found
the bodies exactly in the same position in
which they were laid TO rest Ali this talk OF
burying people alive is nonsense 1t don't
happen, and folks might as well dismiss that
fear from their minds"
Graceland has the largest silent population
OF all Chicago's twenty-six cemeteries. III
the 5000 who lie there SO quiet could rise up
again, hale and hearty, what a population
there would be added to Lake View e1-
claimed the philosophizing car driver, as his
car ratified on through the thinly settled tracts
surrounding Graceland There arc 5000
buried in block alone. OF the twenty-si1
cemeteries fourteen are Hebrew ones. all
small, and only twelve are Of fair sized or
large dimensions. Graceland, however, with
100 acres of ground, Calvary and Rose Hill
seventy-five each, and Waldheim with q
territory of just about the same extent, to
gether with Concordia and St Bo1ifao~. hold
just about the bulk Of dead Chicagoans.
Altogether probably some $50, 900 are laid
away in all thcse-a large number for a
young city like ours But there is room for
another 800 900 in these burial grounds In
view Of the large number buried, and OF the
hundreds that die every week, IL may sound
strange when it Is said that there are al
together less than one hundred gravedige~u
employed at the twenty-si os.neteriex
The shovel, pick and spade, together with
the strap 70 lower the coffin into the grave
form tho complete outfit OF tools for the
grnvedigger. During the warm season /.
takes but an hour TO dig grave in ordinary
soil, and OF the regulation size q, four
and half TO FIVE feet deep and about seven
feet long. II is different In the winter time.
The pickax is then nece~ary. and even with
its help it takes from three TO four hours to
make the hole, with tho frost often three feet
deep in the ground The busisss time for the
gravedfggers Is the early spring, generally
about the middle Of April, when ell the
bodies that have been stored away IN vaults
during the winter ere inferred At Grace
land, for instance, a. many a. thirty-swo a
day have been buried This IL, Of oourse
nothing IN comparison 20 the dread periods u
epideu:cs passd through during the lat
fifteen yeaD-sInallpox. ciph:kerfa, etc.
Then there were days when 80 bodies were
handed over in one day TO The authorities u
one cemetery alone for interncnt- During
such times Of stress extra help has, OF courxe.
20 b employed
It Is q mistake 70 think that tie rrave-
digger eayns big wages. A regular monthly
pay Of go, or ti.5o 10 e, when hsrsd ard
paid By tie day. b about al .tess MA re-
ce!ve for their hard work But, of cpurse, 1:
does not require much skin nor r1-,ch pre-
vDH training 30 became rood srave<ifSyeY.
Any one usrd 20 handling TIE spass o. showed.
and able 10 dig ditch q . sguar. ho.e can |
do tie vorx veil CT ccurue, Ia adds-son % |
the digging Of gTaves, eha.s r,en ksve - do /
tie sodding 0: The graves. and have 20 care
be<:dss for lA,ge lumber u them ass>r :ts /
planting, s.e., has hssn Sons By tie fo-sss-
AID In asissAsta Oue srsvediszer. h>ssdes
digging probably . daily avsrase Of sro
graves &C tbs year aousd, has 20 rnint a
couple of hundred grsva Tia watering II
tie riE7:s snd tuTf, vsieh il eeos vffA to- i
hoss. takes UP large PARTON q bis tina
n re-zss ct,esss csock fuu II 1psnSh toub- /
ioc1a. cid tzmSli kAytcftx IL boaes of q
hero icnS dad and hss sotda osnamsnss as
ven, nd al s3ch k<ried H~asz-a. are
mighty suarcs sroUnd ehss dtgztnes he-s
s,oken a. yosktnx a ths kind evsr kas
been found in CescaSo eerss~.a Tssrs
No: 70 be wondered a, xsS~ 81, bscsus in
eli v.-Sia sol 3os sxH ssrzs.. Indian i