The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-23

Iacts herein related, even to the condition
u poverty mat caused almost public ex-
pense funeral for w. H. Crisp. In speak,
ing Oh the burial, Mr.. Smith said: Il was
WORKING at the time as an employee for
Old Man Morton, the pioneer undertaken
OF Dallas, long since dead. had not vet
gone INTO business for myself, as / am to-
day. We all (meaning the towns people)
Knew the Crisps as theatrical people and
hked them. When the old man died
was called upon In the capacity of under
taker to act as funeral director. John
Beetham (still well known in Dallas dug
the grave and l superintendent the lowering
of the coflined body into 1t. We never ex-
pected that the remains would ever be
called toror that any future prominence of
the FAMILY would suggest the giving of
any particular attention to the grave, and
II was, consequently, neglected, and final
ly became, like many others in which
Journeying or stranded strangers were
buried, an unknown. Years afterward
when Charles F. Crisp became speaker of
the national House of Representatives he
wrote letter to friends In Dallas, asking
that the grave be looked after and properly
marked, so that he later might remove his
fathers body to Georgia. / went out to
the old city cemetery, but no amount OF
the most diligent effort enabled me to To-
cate the spot where nearly twenty years
before l had laid to rest all that was NOR
tai of the dead and stranded actor
DR.. Arch Cochran, over whose drug store
the elder Crisp died, here spoke up and
said, II was out at Mineral Wells a few
days ago, and there met John Beetham
the old grave-digger of early Dallas We
talked about the Crisps and John declared
that he could positively locate w, II.
Crisps grave in the old city cemetery !;
that his old records of grave-digging were
still preserved and by them he could iden-
tify the spot, and that he would do so
when he came to Dallas" TO old John
Beetham's ability to make the discovery
so generally desired there was an almost
unanimous expression of doubt. When old
John comes, however, he will be given a
chance to try.
With the late ex-Speaker Crisp the writ
er had a fairly good acquaintance; such
as would be gained by newspaper man
| by an occasional meeting and chat during
| a session OF the federal congress in Wash
| ington. l spent the winter OF 1912 and the
spring of the last-named year at the ma
tional capital. Mr.. Crisp was then speak
| err. | had frequent talks with him about
| his visits to Texas in the early '70s In one
of our conversations, as l remember II,
/ he stated he was then about twepty-six
years old. He declared he had never had a
| liking for the stage and that
| he had never considered himself possessed
| of the qualities to make a popular or a
| successful actor. He simply Travelled
with the company as a matter Of neees-
| sity his mother being always anxious "a
have him with her. He spoke In the most
flial and tender terms of his mother and
with marked respect for his father He
announced it as his intention. so soon as
he should become able, to remove their
bodies to Georgia. He said that in the
early years after their death poverty pre-
vented him and other relatives from do
ing this. AS time rolled on his cares and
| duties multiplied and something always
seemed to intervene TO prevent him from
carrying out his determination. Texas
seemed to be so far away, and his early
experience had found 1t, in addition, sc
much of a frontier country, that the re-
moval Of the bodies of his parents had
been deferred from time to time to avail
a suitable opportunity. His own deatf
has at last cut this Off, and exemplifet
the trusms, delays are dangerous" ant
representation is the thief of time"
]. G. McNealus.