The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-01-03
GRAVES OF NOTED MEN.
How They Are Guarded From the Dep.
relations of Relic Hunters.

How They Are Guarded From the Dep
relations of Relic Hunters.
The looting Of the graves of the famou,
dead in this country is no new thing. L
is matter of record that the graves o.
all the presidents have suffered from tn,
petty criminality of relic seekers. Unit
private contributions had insured proper
protection the tomb and home of Wash
lngton We're i'll danger of being carried
away piecemeal, says writer in the New
York World. The grave of William
Henry Harrison, ninth president of the
republic remained obscure and unnoteC
at North Bend, Hamilton county. o., unit
ms distinguished descendant, Benjamin
HARRISON, became u candidate for the
chief magistracy. Then the vandals
Hooked to that humble and obscure spot
and despoiled the grave of the hero o.
| 1lppecanoe, so that for the time being only
a mutilated tombstone remained to mark
the long home of Il gallant soldier and
honest gentleman. For months II mill
tary guard was kept over the last resting
place of James Abram Garfield in Lake
| View cemetery ut Cleveland o. The
troops have sometimes been withdrawn,
but watchmen with constabulary author
| ity still remain on duty. Less than a
4 y
steal from beneath the noble monument
in Oak Ridge cemetery at Springfield,
ILL.,. the remains of the martyred Lincoln,
| and but little later a similar outrage was
planned upon the body of Lincoln's noble
rival, Stephen A. Douglas, whose coffin
rests beneath a beautiful park which lies
in the center of the city of Chicago and
on the shores of Lake Michigan.
The most recent outrage attempted of
this sort was upon the grave of Andrew
Jackson. at his famous home, the Her.
mitage, II miles from Nashville, Tenn.
If appearances are to be relied upon, it
was the intention of the ghouis 10 dig up
and carry away the body, with the pur-
pose of holding it for ransom. Luckily
the scheme proved unsuccessful, and now
the last resting place of the man who won
the battle of New Orleans is provided with
constant guard.
The tombs of seven presidents of the
United States are today under unremit-
ting surveillance. They are those of
Washington at Mount Vernon, of .)etfer-
son at Monticello, of Jackson at the Her
mitage, of Harrison at North Bend. Of
Lincoln at Springfield, of Grant at New
York and of Garfield at Cleveland.
The belated wayfarer whose course lies
through Riverside park, near the tomb of
General Grant, will observe two stalwart
figures. They are the watchers at. the
last tomb, placed there to prevent the
baser sort of dissertation, such as is prac-
ticed by relic hunters, and the more Sc
rious crime of attempting to steal the re-
mains of the honOred dead.
II was the gifted O'Hara who wrote:
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead,
That is poetry. The prose of the. whole
thing is that something beside glory is
necessary to protect the last resting place
Of people who in their, lives were either
notorious, wealthy or famous. Nor the
famous alone, but the rich. also, are the
prey of these vandals, as witness the eel
ebrated and yet unsolved mystery con.
nected with the theft of the remains OF
Alexander Y. Stewart, New York's dry
goods prince 1t is because of such perils
to which the dead are subjected that he
graves of their dead ones are guarded by
the wealthy, even more effectIally than
are the graves of patriots ana martyrs:
The Vanderbilt mausoleum is type OF
the existing massive style OF mortuary
architecture.