The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-14
TAKEN FROM T0MBST0NES
ODD TRIBUTES TO THE DEAD IN
THE COLORED CEMETERY.


Innocence and ignorance Stored on
Marble and Wood-A Burial in the
Potter's Field-Queer Lines by Sor-
rowing Relatives and Friends-Some
of the Inscriptions.
The student Of African character viii not
have completed his researches until he has
visited one Of their burying grounds. In
the city of their dead he viii meet with
symbols on every hand delineative Of widely
varying characteristics. From the barren
and slanting grave in tie Potter's Field to
the Italian marble monument, step by step
the gradations reach from neglect to the
highest order of reverence for their dead
a MORNING NEWS reporter paid visit
TO Laurel Grove colored cemetery yesterday
and read epitaph and inscription, some
quaint, some illiterate almost to unintelhgi-
bility, but all, from the humblest head
board to the costly marble, concurred in
love and affection for their dead.
To a very large extent there is a neglect
of the cheap wooden Enclosures, and the ele-
ments have, n many instances, obiiterated
the rude lettering on the plain boards that
mark the greater number of the graves, but
the graves themselves bear the marks of
frequent visits and flowers bloom on every
hand. In fact, the uninclosed ground runs
riot with blossoms.
MANY MEMORIAL TOKENS.
The tokens of affection that are lall upon
the graves are as varied as the African
character, and they run from the most in
significant article of kitchen ware to costly
Virtu, representing not only the financial
abilities of the living, but the varying
grades of taste and culture. Among some
of the ornamentations, shells, coral, vases,
pitchers, goblets and glasses, globe aquari-
ums, cupidS and articles of queensware and
crockery predominant. A washbOwl and
pitcher seem to be very popular with them.
Then, there are oil lamps, shaving mugs,
beer bottles, snuff bottles, fruit cans,
plaster casts Of animals, miniature
images butter dishes or covers, lamp shades
fancy cut glass toilet bottles, or bottle
shoppers, in fact, curios of all sorts, good
bad and indifferent. One unmarked grave
which may or may not have been signiti-
cant, had upon 1t bottle, goblet and
tumhler. The horseshoe over the entrance
to some of the inclOsed lots tells its silent
story of superstition. which a thousand
years Of education will not eradicate.
ABURIAL IN "PoTTER's FIELD"
While strolling through the grounds at
tention was attracted by group composed
of two men and couple of boys surround
ing a small coffin A little grave had been
dug in "Potter's Field, " and they were pre-
pairing to lower the remains in the cavity
which had been eXcayated to a depth of
but three feet. The two men lowered the
coffin to its place, and the boys with shovels
soon filed in the sand, but when
I came to properly slanting up
the mound, Robert johnson, the
sexton, took the shovel and instructed the
boys in the dialect of his race, and when he
had finished it he said, with some pride of
his calling; Oars de way. Now you can
cell whar de head OBJ de mains IL, aud Won
works de foot not so round as de head" He
then planted dead twig to mark where
the head rested, and his task was done
There were no relatives or friends to see the
burial, no lamentations over the dead The
sexton did not know whose child it was,
and few years later another body will be
buried in the same grave.
A TEN-TIME ''GoD's ACRE.
The cd sexton said that some of the
squares have been buried over as many as
ten times. The remains OF child win de-
cay in five years, and it is difficult to dig a
grave without disinterring the skulls and
bones of those buried in other years. The
grave of an infant is excavated to a depth
of three feet, Of an adult six feet except in
the lower grounds, and then they stop at
four feet on account of water. Often
grave has to be dug three times, owing to
the caving in of other graves en-
croached upon. The shallow depth of
the graves and the rapid decomposition of
bodies in this climate has led to much
thoughtful consideration as to whether it
would not be best for the sanitation Of the
living to incinerate the dead. The Sexton
is paid by the city at the rate of 81 % per
day, and he says that many times he has to
bury corpse by torchhght. Two graves for
adults are always dug in advance and it
often occurs that both are called into requi-
sltlon at the same time.
MASTER AND BONDMAN.
The affection often existing between
master and servant III the ante bellum days
finds eXempliicatiOn in many instances
and some of the inscriptions tell the story
of the affinity between the bond and the
free. On one of the marble slabs is this
inscription:
This tablet is erected by her serving master to
the memory of SARAH, the excellent colored
servant Of Mrs Corinne Hutchinson who in her
goth year, was drowned by the destruction, at
sea of the steamer Pulaski, on the night of the
l4th June 1888. From the age of eleven years
at which she became the personal student of
ner mistress. sarah was never known to tell
falsehood. TO take the most trifing article which
did not belong TO hcr, or for a moment to lose
sight OF her habitnal good temper. Always
she was the very model of a faithful servant,
and enjoyed, as she deserved, the respect, kind
ness ana aHecuOn OF each member OF the fam-
ly, to whose service she was devoted.
Another marble headstone has this in
scription, showing the affection for the
servant was not sundered by the freedom
of the slave:
Erected by the family whom she served so
well IN memory of PHOEBE ANN WRIGHT
who died Oct. 20, 1874, aged " ye. Our faithful
servant and true friend.
REVERENCE FOR THEIR CLERGY.
The veneration Of the churches for their
pastors Is more pronounced among colored
people than among the whites The many
tombstones and tablets show this as vol as
does the costly Italian marble monument
which marks, and the massive iron railing
with harp panels which incloses the grave
of Rev. VIM. j. Campbell tho third pastor
of the First African Baptist church Of
Savannah. One of the panels records the
fact that this memorial is erected by the
Ruth Association and the church in token
of their love and veneration for him.
1t is recorded on the tablet to thememory
of Rev. Andrew Cox Marshall, pastor of
the First African church. who died in Rich
mond Va, in 1856, on his return from the
North, where he had gone 60 solicit funds 10
build a church, that he had baptized 3. nc.
married 1000 and JltnerdiiSed 2,4O0 per-
sons.n
There are quite number Of societies
among the colored people which prevents
many of their number from filling a pau