Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-05-10
QUEER THINGS ON GRAVES.


QUEER THINGS ON GRAVES.
Curiosities Of an Ancient Cemetery for
Washington Colored People.
QUAINT FUNERAL CUSTOMS ILLUSTRATED BY
ADORSMENTs FOR MoRTUAEY MoUSDs-roYs
on cHLpRENs GRAvEs-MEDICINE BOTTLES
AND CRoCKERY-ALL SORTS OF THINGS.
A little childs tea set spread out upon a new
made grave. What could be more pathetic!
The tiny cups and dishes all carefully ar
ranged as if for a make-believe party, with a
small tea pot i'll the middle. But the mite Of
girl who should play the hostess at the Elli-
putian feast is lying cold and stiff in a wooden
box buried feet beneath the mound OF fresh
earth whereon the tea set is arrayed.
The little grave is but one Of thousands such
huddled together in an old colored peoples
Cemetery out toward the northwest beyond the
city limits and close by the bank of Rock
Creek. Acre upon acre of the Enclosure is
thlckly occupied by the dead that the graves
adjoln one another row upon row without an
inch Of space between to set the foot upon.
No yerdure conceals beneath its green carpet
the crowded hilocks of clay and gravel, nor
do costly monuments arise to commemorate
the virtues of the departed. There are not
even headstones, but usually slabs OF wood in
stead. most Of them merely shingles and old
scraps of board stuck into the ground, and all
this not because of any lack of love rever-
ence, but simply for the reason that the
builders of this metropolis are poor.
On the piece OF board at the head of the
grave where the tea set is spread out iE this in
scrlptlon:
M ISI seJ ETin
Sleep
AGED yrs OLD.
This is by no means the only grave on which
toys and such things are to be seen displayed.
On the contrary, nearly every little mound Of
earth that covers a child's coffin exhibits some
relics of the sort. Near by is a shingie serving
the purpose of a head stone, against which il
tied with Irvine dolls chair, with a china doll
sitting in it. The dolls dress has had all the
color washed out of 1t by the rain, but it still
sits there patiently, as it has sat for many a
month, waiting for its small mistress to pick it
up when the day shall arrive and carry it be-
fore the judgment seat. On grave not far
Off tin box full of empty spools-once
doubtless used for playthings to beguile
baby hours-and mouth organ. Tied to
another head board is pair OF little reins, and
scattered over the mound are several dominoes.
grave that is marked simply mo. 1"-may be
the child had got no name-was adorned merely
with rubber-stoppered nursing bottle.
BOTTLES AS DECORATIONS.
The nursing bottles seemed to be Of all
things the most frequent decoration of the
graves-certainly the most pitiful. As rule
they were partly hlled with mud washed into
them by the storms. But they were not by any
means the only KIND OF bottles to be noticed on
the mounds. Medicine bottles were there in
plenty-enougb, indeed, to supply an apothe-
cary shop with glass ware. AS well as could
be discovered II was much the fashion to place
on grave all the medicine bottles emptied by
the deceased during the last and fatal illness
| Thus one was enabled to surmise at a glance
| whether or not the sickness had been very long
or complicated. Some graves would have only
two or three bottles, while others would make
showing OF as many AZ fifteen. On one
mound-not that OF chlld-was an unmistak-
able whisky bottle, empty. Many OF the medI-
! cine bottles on the other hand were partly
| full.
one head board bore the epitaph:
our babe slept away
In the sweet byc-aud-bye
On the grave were rubber doll. tin fire
| engine, very much rusted, and little china
cal.
| MORE CURIOUS THINGS.
| curious thing found ON one Of the rnounds
vas Coz, 90 . b,,roo, TO-, - ou.,,,, 49,.
=. -, p'a''e'
Oh the SOFT tha' Is useo Ior houses. Perhaps
| the rather OF the IaInlIy was IN that business
/ other casts OF angels ana such things Ill the
same rude material were not lnfrequent The
most conspicuous OBJECT III the cemetery was Il
! huge hobby horse placed over small boys
grave. Many day doubtless, had he ridden
I on IL 10 banbury cross. pathetic ornament
washed down by the rain from a mound, was 9
chlits school slate. Sticking up IN the mud
| Dy IL was q half-used slate pencil. The slate