The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-07-31
BURIED DEEi. IN SILENCE.

1 OF az Lhb 0INNN-SWhHN"N-"A
sohnapps After the Burlal-Morla Ram
aka and His People,
(From tho Chicago Recordl
st. Paul, Mimi, July l0.--Morla Ram
aka, the most prominent Mennonite In
this country, is dead. Ramakla's
prominence was not OF an order to
bring him conspicuously before the
world, but his death will be blow
his people, for he was the Moses who
led them out Of Russian bondage and
established them in American. The IT,
dings of his death was brought to ST.
Paul by James j. Donoghue, Chicago
| wholesale grocer who witnessed the
funeral, Mr.. Donoghue had been
spending few weeks in western Mani
toba for recreation, when he became a
spectator at the strange ceremony.
II had heard good deal of Menno-
mites, and. being at Morden, Man,
made up my mind that would drive
| to Neche. on the American side of the
line, and take the Northern Pacific for
the south. could save myself the trip
to Winnipeg and at the same time
crafty my curiosity with regard to the
| Mennonites, whom one hears so much
Of on the other side Of the line. got a
| blackboard and a driver and started
out. We left in the morning, but
moved leisurely enough, for my idea
was to spend the night at one of the
Mennonite villages. The first village
we came to. riding in southeasterly
direction-the most westerly of the VIII
l h,y4 III 1Ia A.,
1t is typical Mennonite village. and
the prairie up there is dotted with
them. We did not know that there was
anything going on in the place until
we drove into the cluster of houses.
Then the driver called my attention to
the fact that there was an unusual
crowd about and something must be
amiss. We tied our horses in front of
the store. The place boosted only one,
and there was nothing in the way of
stock in sight except several pals OF
eggs. The store was closed and my
driver asked what was the matter
The bystanders only gazed at him stol-
: idly without replying, and l thought
they did not understand him. He
, knew many Of themthough, and as
! | SuiVb iAS tAieiI tiSy SPonC LII 1871 W Ei
, enough, but that there must be death
in the place. 1t seems that their meth
. cd OF mourning for the dead Is to i'm.
pose a silence ON themselves until the
! body is buried. sc
, 1--WE observed that the crowd was
particularly thick about a. good-szed
| implanted log building, which stood Ii
) what would have been the middle of TIL,
5 street had there been any such evidence
7 Of civilization. 1t was the church, my
, driver said. We tried to get into tn,
7 place, and easily made our way, fol
e Godkin simply showed the Mennonite,
I aside and pushed through the throng-
! they offering no resistance to the intru
r der. The interior of the building wa
packed with men. all of them wearing
their hats. There were only two win
dows in the edifice. and by tbs din
! light that shone through the panes
| could make out the implanted logs O
the walls with their coarse lines o
plastering and the blackened interior o
the matched roof.
There was no sign Of ornamentatiol
: and no evidence of where the platform
or altar might be, except that the mei
] all faced the end most distant from Thu
, door. AS we forced our way to thu
) front the men pushing aside as though
| they did not feel our presence, wac
nearly overcome by the sitting atmos
phere and the heat of the place Sud
denly forgot all about the heat, for
, | stood beside a table which had evident
ly been used as a desk by the exhorte,
of the congregation in ordinary times
but which now bore the body OF yer,
$ old and very thin man. l was within
? two feet of the head of the corpse be
t fore saw 1t, and / was startled. TIL
: eyes were not closed, the head and fac
t We're almost destitute of hair and Il
the sunken mouth and cheeks wer
q signs of great age. The body, excep
for the head, was covered with a YER
handsome velvet coverlet, with blac
), ground and worked in silver tracery
!, Between the bier and the wall Their
stood a middle-aged man, decentl
dressed in black, whom I conceived t
be clergyman, but he said never
: word land If the people We're prayin
l. they were doing 1t silently. There wa
J. not the least expression of any sort O
e any of the faces about me; they stoo
= stolid as sticks of wood. / had a littl
time to watch them, for Immediately a.
6 ter our arrival several of the men sui
. rounded the table and raised the bic
: and bore 1t from the place.
There was no sort of attempt q
forming a procession. The crowd will
out had become very large and consis
u ed principally of men. The few wome
present wore brown or blue homespu
n dresses and black shawls, which wei
d drawn over their heads. The men a
e wore rather high-crowned, straigh
It brimmed, soft hats, and, with a few e.
v ceptions, wore brown fomespun suit
= The crowd surrounded the bier an
moved around back of the church an
out on the prairie some distance pre-
entity hating beside newly mao
$ grave. The body was put down by Il
= bearers and again the clerical-lookir
'e man stood beside it and there was pro-
lie ably more praying, though no OF
IN | spoke. After a time two of the me
to got down into the grave and the bi
was handed them and the body laid
3 the grave.
u, "A pile of limestone that stood besic
the open grave was then brought in
1T requisition and sort Of sarcophagl
was built about the body in few mi
- utes and the earth was present
- thrown in. No sooner was d
In body covered than there broke o
a babel of conversation. They {
n cd Il