The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-22
ALL SORTS OF FUNERALS.
THOSE OF THE WILD WEST IN THE
EARLY '4Os.


gruous Scenes at a Burial at Creede.
From the Net0 York Advertiser.
For one who passes along the streets Of
| Leadville now there is just one feature in
| particular which serves as a mark OF COM
parison Of the Leadville of to-day with the
mining camp Of thirteen years ago. Lead
vile now is respectable, staid and as solemn
as a mining city can be; but it isn't the
solemnity IN the abstract that strikes one
now. 1t is a specific solemnity which con-
Germs itself with funerals.
In 1879 the town was wild. Everybody
carried gun" Not in his pocket, mind
| you-only the natural born fool did, and be
rarely lived to repent of it. The weapon
was stuck in his belt, right handy for i'm,
mediate action. As consequence. rarely .
| day passed witho ut a violent death.
The Rev. I. J. Macksy was the most pop
ular clergyman in town at that time. He
was loved by the good people and respected
| by the gamblers and the miners, which
| doesn't imply that miners were not In
themselves reputable people. Whenever a
miner or sporting man died it was Parson
Mackey who was called in. There was one
| day in particular when the parson held four
| funerals, and that was the record. Four
WAS frequently equaled, but it stood as the
top notch for one clergyman.
| Mr.. Mackey, who was an Episcopal
| clergyman, held services In the Tabor opera
house. Fifty dollars day was the rent
and the collections never fell short. 1t was
necessary to close the doors then long be-
| fore the time for the beginning of the serv-
| ice, to keep back the cr0wds This 4-funeral
| day was the day on which J. B. Omohun-
| dro, known all over the world as "Texas
| Jack, ;" was buried.
| Leadville never did funerals by halves
A brass band was a regular thing. No fu-
neral was held without one. The band at
tending upon Jack was made up of fifty
| pieces, being a combination of several Fay
Templetons opera company was playing an
engagement in Leadville then, and Fay
agreed to supply her company to act
as choir. The coffin was set upon
the stage, loaded with flowers, and flowers
were rsrer than mines in Leadville,
and the Rev. Mackey appeared in his regi-
meatals as chaplain Of the Tabor Light
Guards to preach the funeral sermon. As
| he proceeded, whenever he made an allusion
to any good quality in Jack, the congrega-
ton applauded as vociferously as though
they were approving the fine feature Of a
| play. There was no disorder. These people
meant it all. They wept at the preachers
words and stamped their feet in approval OF
his hope for Jacks chances lover there"
Before the services Mr.. Mackey had been
waited upon by the Tabor Light Guards.
They reoited to him the fact that all the
senior officers but the chaplain were absent
from the city, and told him that as he was
| ranking officer Of the day he must don his
regimentals and lead the company. At first
he demurred vigorously, but finally equipped
| with blue and gold and a sword that knew
not It's place and the propriety OF
keeping it. he marched upon the
stage to help Jack along. When
the services were over be found they
had provided a horse for him TO lead the
column. The preacher wasn't the most re-
| markable horseman in the world, but he
| was game, and he mounted and started
| away. Directly the band struck up the
Dead March in Saul the preacher and his
| steed became almost as prominent as the
corpSe-or they would have been elsewhere
| than ia Leadville Here everything went
The dominic waltzed to the graveyard on
his fiery charger-actually waltzed. But
nobody noticed that That was a regular
thing, or, at least, a striking innovation.
At Omohundro's funeral, as at all fun
erals in Leadville, work of all kinds was
suspended. Men and women throDged upon
the sdewalks-packed them. One could
really have walked upon the heads of the
people, and nobody would have noticed it.
In those days the undertaken took great
pride in the turnout. Riding in the car
riage with the preacher he would look back
lovingly and say:
"Ah, now, this is funeral that is a fun
eral. This is something like. Look at the
crowds, parson, and we've got seven more
pieces in the band than attended the Swede
that MeCloskey buried yesterday"
Undertakers were put to it sometimes
There is a tradition which has almost
| enough suostantiaton TO it to be truth TO
the effect that at one time the ready res
volver and the active pneumonis cleared out
the stock Of collins in Leadville, and the
uniertakers were actually obliged to rob
graves at night, not OF bodies, but OF collins.
Quite frequently preacher was obliged to
| request the gravedigger to stop in his work
| of digging a grave behind him for fear of
toppliDg over into it, Besides, IL disturbed
the mourners. who gould not for the lives
of them help looking earnestly at the digger
20 see if he was turning up any quartz.
1.-THE toughest funeral | ever had any,
thing TO do with, said Denver undertaken,
happened many years ago. A young girl
named Bud died in what was known as
the " bite House from q heavy dose of
| strychnine She drove in her carriage to
the court house, where her lover held an
important portion. She sent for HIM and
| when he came TO the carriage door she
beg ged him to promise something or other,
| I've forgotten just what, and threatened TO
| take the poison if he refused. With an oath
he turned on his heel aud walked away.
She swallowed the poison and was driven
back TO the White House, where she died in
| few hours.
"When l was called 10 it was found ex-
pedient not to have the burial delayed. 1t
was dark before we finally started for the
graveyard. Several carriages filed with
the women of the house followed. Arriving
at the burying ground 1 found that the
grave had not been dug, so while waiting
for this TO be done l built fire of dry
cactus stalks, lunches of grass roots and
bits of stalks. and we stood about waiting
for the men to finish their work. While
this was going on the women began TO drink
| out Of the bottles which they had brought
along. and soon there was a fight between
two of them. | had to separate the beHig-
erent women, and while l was quoting
them Others began to fight. Leaving them
to fight 1t out. quickly finished my duties
| and left the cemeterV.n
What Denver was in those days Creede is
! to-day, and the following story OF a funeral
In which roughness and tenderness were
curiously blended, appeared recently in a
| newspaper OF the new town.
! "Who the DEVILS yer plantin'P
! The speaker was a small boy, driving he
| fore him two burros and dragging behind
him pair OF tattered and ragged trousers
which he had picked up on the mesa,
"We're plantin' Bob Ford" said the man
| on horseback and then began To