The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-05

care, my boy. Ours have long since been
resolved into earth, and these will be in
few years at most.
There was a time, = thus he went on, ''when
II all had been gathered into one common
urn, an enduring reminder of the respect
the living owe to the dead might have been
reared, and on this site might have been up
raised stately edifice for the needs and ne
cessities of the then present, but sentiment
was the stubborn juror; it preferred that
decay should do its perfect work rather
than that ornamentation and beauty should
wrest from neglect the unheeded dead"
But they are agitating the subject
again" Interrupted the young man, as he
moved farther over to the centre OF the
tablet to avoid n fall with the crumbling
bricks which became displaced at the edge
where he sat.
Aha" Thus he of the beard: "Men are
slow TO action, and the new crop of fogieS
continue with the centuries-an hundred
years ago they maintained their wonted
places, always in the rear of progress, in
the front of obstruction. | think | shall
not visit here for another decade. By that
time | doubt if we will find the least SEM
blance Of a graveyard. Even the present
Instructors perhaps will have passed away.
Every year does its leveling work.
Then you think it will be another ten
years before anything is done" asked his
companion.
Not if there could be a convention of the
later dead--o of those whose remains are not
wholly oblterated. In that case we might
expect vigorous protest. felt rather in
protesting humor myself score or more
years ago, but there is nothing left of me
now, you know; but l am inclined to the
opinion that if the bones now peering out
from rents in these vaults about us, or
that are half hidden by the rank
verbiage, could tongue their desires
they would speak for one common urn to
hide them from the sight of the vulgar, and
for a fitting monument to commemorate
Them for well attended lawns, and walks
and fountains, and an imposing structure to
be builded up on an idle spot where desola-
ton now reigns supreme No longer then
would the progress of growing city halt
over the dead of half hundred and more
years ago through a false sentiment that ex-
hibits for argument nothing but these skele-
tons strewn about us-a condition of affairs
that is paralleled only by that pilgrim of
the nineteenth century weeping over the
grave of Adam"
"You wax eloquent-for a pirate" and
a laugh, haif-mockery, followed the
young mans badinage.
Thus he of the beard: Pirate that was.
Ay, pirate and preacher have come here
anu lutII luoG ldS 81 L1ttb WIN
can tell he of the cutlass from he of the
stole, and landrobber and priest will blend
their ashes otherwhere. You forget that
an hundred years of progression in the land
of shades may have condoned some of my
offenses in the fiesh--but a pirates argu-
ment is good until you find better"
''You are right! Something of the old
life is upon me, and jest-ay, it is but a
jest after all. Thus with the skull. Is it
NJ ,,rrl,N 10 ln hD, nd
that sink is handy. You interposed in time
to save it from kick. 1t has toad eyes. 1t
would be pity to discommode the little
rascal that has taken up his abode in it, and
vet there are plenty more such near the sur
face if they are not occupied by his fellows.
| think | ought to pay visit to some city
official and present him coat-of-arms sug-
gested by to-night's surroundings"
what would it be, you ribald wag 2"
"Highly suggestive-a background of ruins
amid a scene of wealth and grandeur; a
dead tree in an orchard of rare blooms and
fruits; crumbling ruins in the centre of piles
of architectural beauty; stagnatiOn en-
circled by thrift and industry-or, what is
handy, a pair of cross-boneS and yonder
skull from which the toad eyes are blinking
in its charnel house. A visit to his honor at
this time i'll the morning would be dramatic.
l think | shall gather up my symbols and be
off'-suiting the action to the word, down
stopping he was about to gather his weird
trophy when uprising before the twain a
majestic form intruded. upon whose face
there was blending of pity and scorn as it
looked down upon the scoffer
The newcomer was dressed in the typical
old-time broadcloth. He held a book in his
left hand, i'll the right, family outlined, was
a wand-shaped article, which, with grace
of motion, he seemed to place in the inner
pocket of his coat before / could determine
what it was, and an arc of light glowed in
the senli-circle in placing what l may term
the wand in his breast pocket and 1 OBJ
served throughout what followed that the
light depended before him with a soft yet
radiant glow
Thus he of the book to the young man:
''Your years and pilgrimage in the spirit
world have brought little progress. What
would you do: Think you because you
have not progressed, it is not worth your
while to look about you to see what others
have done in life. To jest and scott upon a
winters night in a graveyard because you
are granted a few hours to return For
shame! In that time you might see how
much more of beauty there is
than wreckage; how vast q
number are broad and liberal-how
few are narrow-minded and retrogressive
What would you have done moment ago
had l not halted you. COMMITTED an mug
nifty in the guise of an holiday jest. And
how inexcusable! What city reveres its
dead more than this one, whose monuments
adorn its public squares in honor of its he
roes of old. Look upon its suburban
places of interment. where artistic
beauty combines with natural beauty
to make the surroundings pleasing.
Look back over the years of affection which
have scourged the city, out of which it has
emerged with added lustre and increasing
strength and resolve. See its institutions
of art, of learning of industry and its
adornings. Do YOU realize the hour. IL is
the last day of the old year. 1t has been an
eventfu one in the onnarch of the city's
progress Look at the massive structures,
public and private, reared by a progressive
and an Intellectual people The old year
is ending and it may be fifty marked
with a white stone. Are you too blind to
see that the year now closing is the har-
binper of the one to follow9 What you but
lately scoffed at is soon to be transformed
into another evidence that Savannah veneer
ates the dead and is not unmindful of the
living present. That it has delayed the
transformation of this now unsightly spot
las been because it would not rudely yield
to the more impetuous, like yourself,
choosing rather to wound none of the
tender memories which cluster about
the place until argument and reason would
remove the earnest. yet sincere but mis-
directed opposition. This has almost melted
into thin air. and the labor of love is soon
to be taken up which VIII change all TINS,
and vour dead tree is to he made a vigorous
i 10 70, .fs.sg 1t.N