Omaha daily bee., 1889-04-21

with his wife, who has perhaps seen
about the same number OF summers as
himself. He is slXty-eight years Of
age, and his hair on the sides and back
of his head is as white as snow. For
twenty-seven years he was sexton Of
Prospect Hill cemetery and three years
ago he retired from that grave
position. He is now spending
the remainder OF his days among live
people. The old sexton is a jolly, good
natured old gentleman, who has de-
posted over five thousand bodies in the
ground.
mo, | never saw graveyards yawn,"
continued the grave digger. 81 have
often heard of them yawning in their
deathly silence, uut have seen nothing
more than ghastly gap-a gap that
indicates more than sleepiness. 1t IS a
gap for an eternal sleep. 1t is not a
yawn as people are prone to call it.
During my twenty-seven years expert
ence | have seen over five thousand
souls-if the souls had not taken
their flight - laid down in their
grave has CAPPED. | have had some
queer experiences at grave-digging. l
was the first sexton of the cemetery,
and had that grim undertaking when
that last resting place for the dead was
nothing but trees and shrubs. | have
not only planted the bodies of people,
but | have resurrected them, not to
life, but from the grave for removal.
Considerable of this work has been done
Mt night. | had to do it then in order
that the corpses could be taken away on
otn N fhncn dave fbarp
no railroads. / remember having taken
, up the body Of a Chinaman about fifteen
years ago He died very suddenly one
summer afternoon in laundry on
Thirteenth street. He ate quart of
Ice cream and it killed him.
After he had been in the
Sround three years some Chinese
official came here and wanted to take
the bones of the dead Chinaman to his
not sufficiently decayed to get his bones
and took off his clothing and planted
him again FOR another three years. At
the expiration of this time, he was
brought to the surface of the earth.
Thepe was a large crowd and big gang
of Cinnamon at the cemetery to witness
the performance. What little flesh re-
NAMED on the skeleton, picked from
the bones. The Cinnamon put them
them. They had n chicken, oranges,
candies and burned n lot of red paper
and then the bones wereIready to be
sent to China.
zone day about twenty years ago
while myself and men were digging
grave we accidently struck skeleton
after we had gotten about seven feet
into the ground. There was no sign of
coffin or anything else but the skele
e JJn flp of
tie emigrants who were going to Cali
fornia in 1S49 and had died on his way
and was buried here. | struck his
skull with spade. Soundsa little like
the grave digger in Hamlet don't it?
But it was not the skull of a Yorrick or
n man OF infinite jest He might have
been, however. but we never knew it,
His bones we're bleached as white as
the driven snow, and around his neck
was black satin cravat. 1t was as
fresh as it was when he first put it on.
We had our grave about finished and
never disturbed the skeleton. The
corpse for which the grave had been
dug was laid on top of the bones, and
by this time | suppose that both have
returned to earth.
SIN my time l have come across a
number of skeletons in digging graves.
Among them have been the remains of
Inulu1lS III ucCiiycu CoUtOHWOOb DoACo
which crumbled into dust just as soon
as would try to handle them. l have
also handled and buried bodies that
other people would not go near on nc
count of disease, Some years ago l was
digging well at the old Brownell hall
and when returning home at night, |
was told that two Englishmen who had
been on their way to Utah, and who
were tenJing in the bottoms, had died
r. ~ l,,.t 1,,,rx
them. Everybody was afraid that the
disease was contiguous. | took the
bodies and deposited them in the poor
farm. That night, in fact when i had
Just finished throwing in the dirt, and
was about to leave, | stumbled over
corpse that had been left there by some
one. planted il also. A few nights
aftcrward, in my tool house at Prospect
HILL found the body of a negro woman,
whose husbands name was Smith and
who was shot by T. citizen
while trying to steal something from
the postofiice. She was there in a box
and placed her under the sod.
II used to have u Dutchman who
worked with me and / had lots of fun
with him when we were in the grave
yard at night. When he first went to
work it was in the winter and we ex-
perienced some pretty cold days and
nlBntS. ouc HiBipf W. WSIC phSiO,
working on a grave until o'clock in
the morning. The wind howled as it
whirled around the mon uments and the
poor Hollander was scared almost to
death. The grave was being made
for travelling man who worked for
wholesale drug house in st. LOuis. He
died OF the smallpox and we were go
ing to bury him that night. His re-
mains were taken to the cemetery by n
couple of colored fellows who dropped
them in the yard and did not notify me
that the corpse was there. The Hol-
lander staggered onto the box and again
he was almost frightened out of his
wits. Three years later, while j was
standing over the mans pit, lady APP
preached and asked me II / could show
her the place where man who had
died OF the smallpox was buried. She
was his wife. She gave his name and
told OF the circumstances connected
with the drummer's death. ] informed
the lady that she was standing near it
and pointed to the spot. She looked at
it and the tears forced from her eyes.
Drying them she asked me who
had cen so kind as to put flowers on
tho grave. then told them it was my
SELF The woman made rush for me
and with tears OF Joy threw her arms