The San Francisco call., 1896-03-29
The Secluded Cemetery for Sailors
Among the Preside
Hills.
ROMANCE OF LITTLE MOUNDS.
In This Strange Company Are Gathered
Men of Almost Every Nation
on Earth.

II YOU are fond of long walks in the
suburbs of San Francisco, and you hap
pen to wander over the United States mill
tary reservation, your steps may lead to
a lonely spot out near the Golden Gate,
where, in a valley dreary with stanted
growths and hummocks of half-tamed
sand dunes, long rows of white posts bear
ing names and dates, and strangely sug-
gestive of plantation nurseries, intrude
upon the landscape. There are fences
round these rows of painted boards, and
then, as you draw near, there are mounds
side by side, all OF an equal length, and
all sandy, save where nature has spread
the golden eschscholtzia, and the blue
nemophils amid the tufts of weeds.
The parniture of the wilderness is in
perfect harmony with this desert spot,
for the place is very wild indeed, secluded
from worldly sight by kindly hills and
groves, and unknown only to an occasional
pedestrian who leaves the beaten path for
the Preside hills. With all its wildness
the mounds and the white boa rds within
Its rugged borders contain many roman
tic story. The story, however, IN each in
stance is a buried romance of the sea.
Every little hill marks the grave of a
saiIor-the resting place of Jack, where
there are no storms - for the acre OF
mounds in the sailors cemetery in San
Francisco.
Strange as it may appear, this burial
ground has at least 200 hardy fellows
under its sod, the men who came from all
quarters OF the globe to the port OF San
Francisco and never sailed away again
through the Golden Gate. They are the
sailors who came up from the sea in ships.
1t was their lot to brave the ocean through
many tempestuous mood and at last go
aloft like any ordinary land-lubber, and
after all their watches and wanderings to
have only place among the dreary sand
hills. with bits of white-palnted boards at
their heads.
How they came to meet this fate is an
other story that has various interesting
points, for around Jack in his troubles and
MS last struggle the men beside him say
there is ever something of the romantic
side of lie. 1t may be fate, as the sailor
himself would call this characteristic fea-
ture, but anyhow it is present. When
Jack comes into port from another part OF
the world and feels the hand of sickness
pressing heavily upon him, he forsakes his
bunk for bed provided by Uncle sam for
him in the Marine Hospital. 1t matters
not what his nationality may be- so long
as he is a sailor he belongs to the Republic
of the High Seas and the great leveler In
life-the sea-js his guarantee of solicitude.
And so out in the eGovernment institution in
Richmond there are constantly 100 sailors
gathered from all lands and suffering the
common ills of Humanity. Too often the
Journey TO the hospital proves to be Jacks
last voyage on earth, for every month the
TO lcall falls short in the local Institution
by four or five names. a short walk over
the hill and those same names NAV be
read upon the white boards, where flowers
have not yet begun to bloom upon the
sand freshly turned. The rows of whitened
boards have simply stretched out a trife
longer in the month, and the extension
represents the names that were dropped.
For this almost unheard of cemetery
within the City's limits is the burial
ground of the United States Marine Hos
j. pital.
= And what visitor to the spot Gao say that
Jack has not a tender hearth Here are
. sermons in simplest form. Even amid the
unlovely headbo and weeds one may
learn homely lesson from the work of
some rouch sailors, who are now God
knows where. The touches of tenderness
left upon the sandy mounds appeal to one
with pathetic earnestness, though, after
all. they be nothing more than wooden
monuments and frames, or fences, for an
occasional grave, a tiny marble slab or
cluster of Towering plants
About the last thing the crews of ships
have done in San Francisco before SAIL
ing" said an officer of the hospital. point
ing toward the few monuments, was to
come out here and decorate the graves of
their dead comrades.
1.-The crew of an English ship lost COM