Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-30

life always rather than have to decide
such a question" To which the governor
replied Eyes, I would gladly exchange
positions with any other man today"
went out to West View, the pic
turesque and beautiful new cemetery of
Atlanta the other day. 1t lies, as its name
implies, on the western suburb of that
city, and is connected with the center of
the town by an electric car line, which
runs through an attractive country.
Along this line you catch glimpses of ele-
giant homes surrounded by cultivated
lawns and gardens, several flourishing
negro colleges and institutes, and you
also nave an opportunity to see many of
the novels of Atlanta-in other words,
the seamy side of life. There are just as
many small cottages, just as many how
els and hutS there as in any other town
of the same size and pretension, and just
as much sorrow and sickness and suffer
ing. And these peregrinations that 1
frequently INDUCED in gave me an
opportunity to investigate this darker
side of Atlanta. So, on the way to West
View, found many gloomy little homes
Where the inmates looked weary and
worn, and where bare and deSolate yards
had neither flowers or shrub to break the
| monotony of hopeless poverty. But there
is an open, glorious country beyond these
novels, where the quiet beauty of nature
is beginning to catch the first witchery of
coming autumn and the waving of golden
sod is studded thick with amber buds.
The black-eyed Susans nod you well
come from the tall, thick grass, and the
authenticated daisies look up at you
from all the fields and. tanzes. On every
side there are signs of grading, and new
rsd earth is filling ravines and gullies,
and forming fine, good roads in all direc-
tions The electric car carries you by
cotton and corn fields, by Cherokee and
Usage orange hedges, up to the gate of
the peaceful city of the dead where
sleep many precious ones.
The great iron gateway is overgrown
with vines, and the little gray stone
chapel, with it's turretted tower, is cover
ed up to the very caves with the cling
ing branch of the ampolopsis. If you
lnger long enough you will hear the
slow, solemn tollng of the bell in the
gray stone tower, for no new sleeper ever
enters those iron gates unheralded or un-
announced. Over the sloping hillsides,
down through the shadowy nooks in the
bright wide open, softly sounds the ring
ing of that bell. which tells that anoth-
er soul is at rest, another body has come
to the last long home. The green slopes
are covered with a velvety emerald turf,
and here and there are beds of beautiful
flowers. The splendid white and gray
monuments CLEAN in the twilight, and
seem almost to touch the bending skies
as they point your sorrowing heart up
ward. On the side of one of the hillsides
is an immense anchor formed of white
petunias and foliage plants, and 1t
teaches i'm sweetness and silence the sub
lime gospel of hope and faith. Near this
anchor is the Grady vault, built of yell
lowsh gray marble, where rests the body
of that brilliant young Georgian, Hon.
Henry w. Grady, and in proximity to 1t
is another vault, vine covered, which Is
built in the side of the hill and presents
such restful look to the weary and tired
ones of earth. From the summit of the
highest slope can be seen the dome of
Georgia's capitol, as it Is dimly outlined
against the misty horizon, but there
come no sounds, no noise and hustle from
the throbbng city beyond to break the
rest of those who sleep in this lovely
place. Over the belt of trees that stand
sentinel around this sacred spot, beyond
the purple range of hills, the sun has
gone to rest, the shadows of night emerge
from the dark recesses of forest and glen,
and turned reluctantly towards the city
once more, leaving in that beautiful
Gods acre, sleeping the sleep of the just,
those whose hearts AND souls had been
part of mine in the years which lie back
of me. 1 told them goodnight as If they
still could hear me, for almost felt the
touch of angels wings and heard the mu-
sic of angels harps. The heavy gates
were closed behind me- closed and locked,
but neither bolts nor bars, earth nor
stone, can shut out from our hearts and
lives human love. 1t connects heaven
and earth with an invisible wire.
Only a comparatively few of our citi-
zens realize the great and far-reaching
work that Is being quietly accomplished
at the Hillman hospital by the board of
managers and the surgeons and ply
sicians in charge. Although the noble
women on the managing board have
purchased a residence on Eighth ave.
nue., that is not used by them as hos
pital, but they still retain the building
on Fourth avenue, generously placed at
their disposal by DR.. Copeland. There
they are caring for the sick and suffer-
ing-both pay and charity patients-with
all the best and most approved modern
appliances and with a corps of physi-
clans, surgeons and nurses equal to any
in the SOUTH Necessarily what is being
accomplished is upon limited plan, be-
cause of limited income, and the char
ity patients in consequence have been
confined to certain number, but as the
pay patients increase the managers will
be enabled to care for more charity pa
TENTS. The most skillful and difficult
operations known to modern surgery are
often successfully performed upon the
destitute sick, to say nothing of the med
ical treatment~received by outdoor chari-
ty patients, The sphere of usefulness of
the Hillman hospital is constantly en-
larging and its reputation is extending
beyond local limits going even into other
states, pay patients having been receiv-
ed from Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia
and Mississippi. At the hospital are