Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-11-17
About Bone Yards and Cemeteries.
ABSOLUTELY PURE

About Bone Yards and Cemeteries.
Mr.. Editor: The publ ic is notified
that the ladies of the Cemetery Asso-
citation are asking its aid through an
entertainment to be given on Thanks
giving evening.
The writer had been asked to furn-
ish something in the press that might
perhaps assist them. While sitting
with pencil in hand, he read in the
last Repub lican a statement made by
Robert Thompson respecting the
work of these ladies'; that it is a ques-
tion as to whether we would be
buried beneath "a bed of roses" or
underneath "a batch of weeds" This
is plain and brief statement of the
whole case; and suggests some timely
thoughts. My mind goes back to
the earliest boyhood days, which
were spent in village of four or five
thousand people on the bank OF the
Hudson. -Four or five generations
before a colony of Holla nders had
made settlement in what was then
a wilderness. About the churches
where they worshipped, they re-
served a scant plat Of ground where
they buried their dead. AS the num-
Der of the living increased, these lit
tie plats seemed to be worth more
to them than they were to the quiet
occupants; and so the living crowded
upon the dead, until at last the VIII
lage fathers decided that the dead
must vacate. AS they could not do
so without assistance, each church.
when ne ed required purchased some
cheap and worthless premises in the
suburbs, The old grave yards were
rummaged for the relics of those old
and forgotten generations. Their
bones as found were thrown into
great boxes to be buried in the new
"boneyards." Now and then a gold
or silver plate Mas found, telling of
some old and forgotten patriarch.
The value of these went into the vii.
lage treasury to help pay trans
portation., Each church had CON.
tended for,their, faith and possibly
they fancied that the controversy
would be prolonged and so the Dutch
and Episcopalian the Baptist and
Methodist were each laid away
among that company they had
chosen while living.
These neglected premises in time
were overgrown with thickets of
brush and brlers, until they became
waste and unsightly. Now and then
moved by curiosity or courageous
affection we would visit these unin-
viting places, exploring the sunkep
mounds among the tangled grass and
weeds and rub the moss from the
leaning or fallen stones. Full of life
and hope in a world of sunshine and
promise some staring tomb stone
would startle US with solemn warn
ing.
stop! stranger as you pass me by,
AS you are now so once was I,
AS am now, you soon shall be,
Prepare to die, and follow me,''
Such words would alarm us, as if
we had heard blast from Gabriels
trumpet. Living or dead the 'grave-
yard" had no charms for us. Its
solemnities and terror frightened us
away from the little mounds of the
boys and girls of them our alb
sent brothers and sisters. The only
cheerful feature of these desolate
places were the songs of the wild
birds that found an unmolested home
in the tangled thickets.
This description is a true picture of
thousands of others in the villages
and cities of the east.
In later life the writer went to
spend some school days in suburb
of Philadelphia and near to the
Quaker Cemetery of Laurel Hill on
the banks of the Shuylkill. Oh! the
happy hours he has spent in this
"city of the dead" Reader were YOU
ever at Laurel Hill Cemetery? When
you want glimpse of Heaven 90
there! green lawns and fountains of
water, and flowers and vines and
trees with sunshine and shadows,
full of shining monuments and mo-
dest tablets-a place where ''the
wei ry are at rest"
We only add a simple story lest
this article grow too tiresome. Death
had taken away the mother "a little
tot" hardly old enough to know it's
loss 1t went with the father to the
cemetery and saw the last resting
place, which she visited with the father
the following summer. The monu-
ments and tablets We're curiosity to
her. She knew the mothers place
and saw the green mound and marble
slab and exclaimed: "Why papa here
is where we put mamma" YES" he
answered. "And where is mammaY
"Oh! in heaven, 1 think" he said
"And did they put some one by each
of these white stones?' Yes. "An6
where are they? "In Heaven, hope
''Oh yes! 1 see! seep she exclaimed
in childish delight land here il
where thew left their clothaS >,