The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-07

vention was informed that l would be
called upon to read a paper, or say
something to the superintendent OF
cemeteries who would gather here, and
at once the thought came What shall
my subject be; what can an ignorant
man say to men who are experts in the
art which he is asked to discuss?" And
cropping for an answer / thought l was
looking upon a strangely beautiful
scene in a far away country in the ages
long since passed.
On rug of intricate Oriental design
sheltered by tent of black cloth wo-
ven in rude looms from the hair of
camels, lay {. woman dead. Dark faced
haired mourners half hidden in the
tents deep shadows, often interrupted
by means and weird wailings, chanted
| { mournful song of DEATH outside the
tent a molly throng had gathered, for
a stranger had come among them with
his flocks and cames his servants and
family, and misfortune had overtaken
| him; Thanatos, the angel of DEATH with
ominous wing had overshadowed his
household; the wife of his bosom lay
dead in the tent and these men, by
| their presence and silence would assure
the stranger of their sympathy in his
| sorrow.
The people stood silent. Only the sad
voices Of the hired mourners seemed to
lift the deepening shadows and disturb
the heavy stiffness. And then Abraham
stood up from before the dead Sara and
spoke 40 the sons of Heth: II am
| stranger and a sojourner with you, give
me a possession of burying place with
| you that | may bury my dead out of
my sight
| Abraham bought the burying place
and Sarah was buried in the cave of
Macphela, the stone was rolled into the
cavern'a Gaping mouth, the hired
| mourners ceased their waillngs and
Abraham took up to burden Of his lone
ly life until by and by the cave of
| Macphela should be re-opened and he,
toe, should be buried out of sight by
the side of her he had loved so we'll
The cave on the hillside at Hebron is
one of the meccas Of civilized and half
civilized man. for 1t marks an era in
the worlds history and simple as the
service was it tells the religious and
social condition of the people, their laws
and habits And then l saw another
picture, the hands on the dial of time
turned back, the curtain of centuries
rolled up and I saw another cave, with.
wide open mouth, before which lay the
body of man. garlands of flowers COW
cred Him and fragrant wood burned
at His head and feet. Nearby great
fire blazed and roasting meat, cut from
the TANKS of mastodon and cave bear
filed the air with ita grateful odor.
A group of men and women, with loins
wrapped in the skins of beasts, sat up
on the ground partaking of the funeral
feast 1t was a happy company, and
the open cave, with it's waiting dead,
cast no shadow. Soon the feas. was
ended, the dead was placed within the
cave. the opening was closed with
massive stone and the dead was buried
out Of sight.
A cave was mans cradle and his
grave and the story of the worlds de-
velopment begins with the cave man
and the funeral feast.
Beginning there. if we could wander
through the graveyards of the ages, we
could read with little effort the same
path by which civilization has come we
should find the road wet with the blood
of murdered martyrs and paved with |
the whitened bones of crucified REFORM |
ers, but leading ever upwards towards |
higher standards of living, strcter rules |
of morals and truer ideas of religion. In |
fact the environment of the grave |
marks another else does the upward |
steps of the world; marks the steps al
most before they We're taken and tells |
the social, moral and intellectual condi-
ton of the people between the steps.
Possibly prin1eval men died as the
beasts die and kind nature cared for the
abandoned body as II did for the body
of the beast but long before the age of
Abraham while yet the seas. warm
from contact with the cooling earth
were filed with monster amphibianc,
and the great forests with gigantic her
bivora and carnivora, man had taken
one upward step and the protected body
in the closed cave marks both an aWak-
,ning respect for the dead and an awak-
eniug religious faith. 1t was the flfSt
step of man away from the beast; it
marked the point where it was no long
,r necessary for man to give his whole
soul to the battle for food, and the IN
;piration which suggested protection,
(Continud on Fifth Page.)