The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-12-17
SNAKE HILLS DEAD.
Queer Stories of Those Lying
in Potter's Fields Mar
row Cells

the southeast slope of Snake Hill is no
I exception to the general rule. In this
Ecounty it is a low7lying, mafshy piece
of land, where the eye is wearied by
the regular rows of white painted boards
two feet high, only here and there re-
lieved by a rude attempt at a cross. In
a few instances there Is a name as we'll
as number on the board, and that is
| all to guide the inquirer as to the per-
son slumbering below, but generally there
is only the official number from the
morgue-keeper's book of the unfortunates
sleeping their last sleep in Potters' Field.
This name has often puzzled visitors,
| and many curious stories have been
given to account for its origin. The true
| derivation of the word is contained in
the Scriptures. When Judas Iscariot be-
trayed our Lord he received for that
unenyiable job thirty pieces of silver.
But when he found out that he was
! found out, he did the next best thing
and went off and hanged himself. Be-
fore that interesting act took place he
handed over to the priests the thirty
pieces of silver. They would not take
them because, they said, sit is the price
of blood, and they took counsel and
Od5At W. ~ an ~
strangers in. Therefore that field was
! called the Field of Blood to this day."
L The name of the Field of Blood can
| scarcely, however, fit Hudson County's
| resting place, for out of the thousands
buried there there is only one murderer.
| He is Koskowski, and has a huge, shape
less stone for his headstone. The re-
| mainder of the inhabitants of this city
of the lead were inmate of the county
institutions whose friends could not be
found to bury them elsewhere, or are
the waits and strays battered into life
less masses or the railroad tracks or
| cast up disigured and decomposed by
| the waters of the lordly Hudson.
POOR DECENTLY BURIED.
AS a News reporter was standing
looking at the dreary expanse of head
| boards a few days ago, he saw coming
| down the hill a small procession of old
men carrying a coffin. 1t was the sim
pie funeral of an old man who had died
| that morning in the Almshouse. He had
been a pauper Hoods lines:-
| Rattle his bones over the stones;
He's only a pauper whom nobody
owns"
didn't apply here, The men who carried
| him walked gently to the little wooden
| shed used as d, morgue, just on the
| verge of the burying place. Here the
| coffin was placed on a trestle, where it
would remain for a day, and then be
| buried, If no one claimed it.
Deputy Warden John w. Stewart was
standing by at the time, and, he motioned
to the old men present to remove the lld.
1--WE DON'T said Mr.. Stewart, hustle
1 a man into his grave as If he were a
| turning to three Of the news
| paper men of the city, who were also
The body was dressed in a e suit
of white linen, and a shroud hid the
features from sight. This was lifted up
man, about seventy years of age, whose
death must have been a release, so
wasted and shrunken was the face. 1t
had been a happy death. The express
The next day he will be carried out
to the burying ground and laid away
in a six-foot grave, and another white
board; win a NUMBER IN It, WIN De
a Wondering heap"
POTTER's FIELD RoMANCEs.
They tell queer stories about those
cemetery on the Hill, and many of them
are extremely touching and pathetic.
One of them has an element of grim
nurnOr ABOUT 1t. LII Is LHlS Two young
men. many, many years ago, had a
friend, who, to escape an army of duns,
agreed with them that they should an
oun everywhere his death. They put
a band of mourning around their hats
and wore solemn faces when they
spoke of their dead friend.
They told his creditors that he had
Potter's Field. Some believed it; others
were ~incredulous.
AS luck would have it a young man
had died in that institution of the same
name, and when a few of the unbe-
lievers took a trip out to Snake Hill to
make inquiries they were obliged to
believe the story that their man was
dead.
One of the doubling ones in some way
procured an order to exhum the body,
n started out with two friends to see
was opened and the coffin lid removed;
grave clothes. The Sofffcials were puz-
zl sdjp SRd sN N dG4e55ag F Rnss were WoR mad.
"It's a trick" they cried, land Wen
make some one pay for this" They
rushed off to these two friends and
ibid you examine the coffin and the
graye?' asked The sharper-witted one
of the two friends. The angry creditor
replied no. He was told that body-snatch-
ers or resurrectionists. as they are known
had been to work, and so convinced the
irate man that he walked off apologizing
for his display of temper and ever Of
fering to aid them to discover the thieves.
The truth was that the dead friend had
secretly removed his own remains and
disposed of them to a friend for the
benefit of anatomical science"
The affair blew over until a year later,
when the very same creditor met face
to face the dead" man on Broadway
walking with his friends. The creditor
was at first mad, but laughed heartily
and long when over many stoups of wine
the story was told.
LOVES LONG CHASE.
Close to a grave owe which q wooden
cross says that Nellie Cross hes be-
meath, is one marked only by a simple
number 1914 ON a white board.
Years ago in Germany was a young
man, son of wealthy and proud parents.
These he had offended by his wild con-
duct, and after a ~disgraceful expose of
a gambling resort, in which the young
man figured, he was cast out n disown-
ed. He loved a poor girl and he q a
dangerous rival In a u man of the
town. A quarrel took place between the
men n then followed a duel, death and
flight. He came to Jersey City, where
he spent all his scanty stock Of money
and at last was laid in Rotter's Field,
A year afterward a poor woman came
UP to the officials at Snake Hill and told
them that she had hunted every m0ngue,
every Potter's Field i'm the Western
States for news of her lover. She came
from Germany, she said. They recalled
the young broken down man from her
description, Certain scraps of clothing
and small articles which belonged to him