Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-05-06

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thought that many accidents may
have happened from jet being turn.
ed down and left burning SO low thai
it may have been extinguished by a
sudden draft, or even the shock of a
sudden increase or diminishing Of the
force of the gas in the main, the burn
er thus being left open to discharge
it's contents into the room. At any
rate it behooyes every one who has
anything to do with it to use the
greatest care.
Just now the chief object Of interest
here in Boston is the subway. The
papers, the politicians, and innumer-
able knots af excited citizens are dis
cussing, with more of less luminosity,
whether it shall or shall not be dug.
and meanwhile the contractors go
right along digging. The end of the
] public garden nearest Boylston street,
and the lower end of the common
look like a big railroad job through a
new country, with their derricks, en-
! gines, piles of dirt, and cheap wood
houses where the tools are kept. By
common consent the settlement has
| been dubbed, after the name of the
contractor, "Mehanville." The huge
trench dug in the garden has now got
down to a depth Of thirty feet or
more, deep enough to strike the old
swamp bed which underlies all that
part of Boston, and the opening up of
this has set loose so powerful smell
of the vilest kind that aristocrat Bos
ton, and good part that is not SO ar
istocratic, holds it's nose as it goes by,
and wonders what is to come in the
future. Farther up on the common
the digging up of the mall which
skirted Boylston street, has brought
to light innumerable old tombs, filed
with human bones, and revealed,
what very few folks knew, and others
had forgotten, that day after day we
had been walking over these not so
very old caves. The dates on the
stones and plates found range from
1775 to 1880, and yet so quickly are
we forgotten when dead that until
quite recently, at least, there had
been only one inquiry made in regard
to any Of the remains by descendants
who took enough interest to see that
the bones of their ancestors were
properly re-interred. Many of the
family tombs had evidently been used
for some time. I saw one opened
which ooptoiyo1 tho ,oroo;pc of +u,o,,
ty-five people. It had been supposed |
that all the bones found were be-
ing carefully saved and turned over
to the proper authorities for re inter-
ment as carefully as was possible un
der the circumstances, but just now
some of the city papers are out with
a great hue and cry, declaring that |
men acting in collision with the con-
tractor and the diggers are openly
selling bones to the curiosity hunters
who hang about the place by thous
ands every day. One paper even goes
for finger bone is ten cents, or "three I
for quarter" With all it's gruesome
ness it is funny. Certainly if there is
such a trade there is ample stock on
hand. L was coming up through the |
common late one night recently just /
as the night Waterman, whom [ hap
pened to know slightly, was standing |
near the barrier which had been put |
up during the day to keep the crowd |
out. | stopped to speak with him, and I
referring to the work he asked me to |
step inside, and taking me around |
into a corner of the old graveyard |
showed me, covered under an old sail
cloth, several bushels of bones, the
harvest of that afternoons digging. |
[ do not think that I ever had a more |
weird experience than that of stand
ing there, as [ did, at midnight, in
that old burying ground, entirely iso
lated, and yet in the very heart of
great city the life Of which was throb-
bing all around me, holding in my
hands the skull Of some man so long
dead that his very name was forgot
ten, and examining that skull in the
rays of an electric light which would
have been as wonderful a mystery to
him as the very lightning itself.
[ went recently to reception given
at the Vendome by the F'Daugh-
ters of New HAMPSHIRE who are
residents of Boston, and it was quite
the pleasantest gathering of the kind
have attended this season. This