The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-04
MR. BRADBURY'S COFFIN,

He Designed and Built it HimseIf-Has
 Seen That it Fits-It is Like GarfieId's'
 but More Standardization he Saved
 Money in Construction and Provided for
 his Wives-A Queer and Interesting
 Story.
 (From the San Francisco Call.)
 W. B. Bradbury, who lives in man sion at the corner of California street and Van Ness avenue, has just comple- ted three of the finest collins ever made in this country. One is for himself, the other is for his wife, and the third is for former wife, who has been dead some twenty-eight years. The body of the first wife is, so to speak, the first to enjoy the new and handsome bronze. It has been disnterred, and inclosed in the casket, has been placed in MT. Bradbury's mausoleum on the hill in the Masonic cemetery. The other two collins are there also, awaiting the coming of the other two.
 The collins and the mausoleum have been several years under construction, and have in measure served as a di- version to MT. Bradbury, who, one time prominent contractor and milIman. retired from business several years since
 This work of preparation for the in evitable is by no means prompted on the part of Mir. Bradbury by any feel ing of the immediate need of coffin. There are not many sturdier, healthier or happier men in the city.
 Certain 'misfit coffins certain imposi- tions by undertakers on weeping survi- vors. certain shallow pretenders in the matter of digging graves, certain shocking ingratitudes and weeds and small marking stones where should have risen monuments. have chanced under his observation in his lifetime and caused him to swear by the coffin of Mahomet as well as by the coffin of Bradbury that such things shall not occur in his case.
 So he went and had himself meas ured and drew the plans, and gradually as it went along became so fascinated with the work of making his own coffin that he finally not only wrought out what he considers the very handsomest in the land, but made three of them
 He has made house for his collins that he is willing to wager has not a counterpart in the country and above all will not leak. All the others leak Floods and Fairs and Baldwin's and Colonel Frye's-all of them, he says be cause they are made of granite. Gran ite has crevices. and he has made his of concrete. a solid block; used such a proportion of cement-one to three-as has been unheard of in ordinary con- struction; carefully selected the granite chips. broken them to proper size, and now as he looks into the little house he is satisfied it will never leak.
 The holes, as MT. Bradbury bluntly calls the catacombs or shelves for the caskets, are amply big, for he remem- bers the case of Millionaire Garratt, who had prepared his own grave, but had taken no thought of a possible growth afterward, and so when his body was brought to burial it could not be lowered into it. The mausoleum is a security against weeds, too, and with an absolute deed to the lot, the title of which was made sure after weeks of patient searching and correcting of the GcCOIuS. NIL IOI dubuIS utCloieS ilG IldS the dead cinch on the future" that there can be no hitch in his funeral ceremony, no plundering of his widow by undertakers. nor can his grave suf- fer greatly from neglect.
 I'll tell you how came to get into this thing" said MT. Bradbury yester- day. T had friend. w. H. Mills, 8 land speculator, lawyer and a Mason. He had accumulated a fortune of some two hundred thousand dollars, which. when he died went to his son, a young man about twenty-two years of age The boy was away east when his father died. and the train that brought him back was caught in the snow The body was embalmed and lay for two weeks before the boy got here. When he arrived discovered him to be com pletely broken down with grief 4 sug- gestion that the funeral take place on