The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1898-01-28
TOMB IN SOLID ROCK.
GEORGE M. PULLMAN'S BODY SEALED
in AN IMPROBABLE GRAVE.

His Family Fearful That GhouIs Nigh
Steal the Remains. Like the A. T. Stewar
Case-The CasIket Embedded in Cemen
Banded With Steel Rails.
Learning wisdom from the pages o.
history, wherein it Is related that the
body OF Millionaire A. T. Stewart was
stolen from the grave and held for ran.
som, together with the frustrated at.
tempt OF ghouls to secure possession oil
the body of the martyr President, Lin.
coin, the family Of George NJ Pullman
decided to protect his remains, and
while the world slept men were engag-
ed in the work of encasing the mahog-
any casket holding the remains of the
dead millionaire in the heart of a solid
rock, banded by bars of steel, and i'm
pregnable to the attack of vandals with
picks or even dynamite itself
The body of George M. Pullman will
lie undisturbed at Chicago as long as
time shall last:
None of the Egyptian monarchs sup
posedly resting under the ponderous
weight of the pyramids, sleeps more
secure from the encroachment of the
living world than does the sleeping car
magnate in his grave at Graceland
The contractors having the making
Of the grave in charge moved their fur
naces, their cement and asphaltum in
to the seclusion of the bushes at some
distance from the Pullman lot, which
overlooks the pretty little lake. A
great rectangular pit was dug thirteen
feet long, nine feet wide, and eight feet
deep. A flooring of concrete was laid,
strengthened and made solid by bands
Of expanded metal. The work was done
with the utmost care. and when COM
pleted there was mass of concrete
eighteen inches thick at the bottom of
the excavation.
The foreman of the work says that
nothing short of dynamite could shat
ter the base, and it would take many
tons of the explosive to do that.
After the services at the grave and
the casket and its contents, inclosed in
the heavy lead-lined mahogany box,
had been let below the surface, the
workmen descended into the sepulcher
and moved the lowered burden until it
was equi-distant to a fraction of an
inch from the four sustaining walls.
Then they wrapped the polished ma
hogany box in tar paper and laid on,
about and under it an inch coating of
asphaltum, which hardened quickly.
This coating will prevent the ingress of
air, and, except in the case Of some ex-
,raordinary disturbing event, will pre-
serve the body and the inclosing cask-
It for ages to come.
This work Of asphalting the inclosing
wood being completed, the labor of
illtng In great spaces at the head and
ides with concrete was begun The
urface Of the concrete floor was re-
heated and the fresher substance was
aid on to 1t. The two masses coales-
ing and forming one homogeneous
'ulk. This process incased the as
halted box in stone-like mass to a
evel with it's upper lid.
The men worked until the inclosing
walls were half an inch above the as
nahum coating. Then eight heavy
teel IT" rails were brought and laid |
ransversely across the top of the box,
heir ends resting on the concrete walls |
either side and their lower surfaces |
tearing the asphaltum covering by |
lst one-half an inch, the distance to
hitch the side walls of concrete had |
cen built above the asphaltum. This
pace was left to make an allowance for
osslble settling and to prevent the
EEL bars with the weight of concrete
bove them from crushing in the top
the enveloping mahogany case.
As soon as the rails were in place
ley were bolted together with two
ing iron rods which passed through an
rifice in each rail, and ran parallel to
lie side of the lid of the coffin. More
II paper was then called into use to
'event the flow of the concrete into