The Winslow mail., 1900-12-13
PREPARE THEIR OWN GRAVES.
Singular Custom That Is Followed by
Many People in Eastern
PennsylYaniR.

There is queer custom of preparing |
their own graves that is followed ly |
many people in the region of eastern |
Pennsylvania. In a number of ceme-
teries near Shoemakersyille graves and
tombs are made ready by those who ex-
pect some day to occupy them.
In a nearby cemetery are twin
marble tombstones. On one is an in
scription showing the death of farm
er's wife. On the other is simply the
name of the woman's husband. He is
still alive and in good health. When he
dies he will be buried there, and the
tombstone maker will cut out the date
of his death and his age. In life the
farmer has the satisfaction of seeing
exactly how his grave will be marked,
says the New York Sun.
In another nearby cemetery there
are three twin stones, for husbands
and wives, where the husbands are
dead and the widows living. A widow
with her gravestone in place at the
churchyard has never been known to
marry a second time. Twin grave
stones, therefore, seem to have the ef-
feet of keeping widows in their weeds
and of making them content to live
without marrying again. Some time
ago a country gravestone cutter was
asked by a friend what he would
charge to remove a twin gravestone
and what he would allow the widow
for the marble. He peremptorily re-
fused to have anything to do with such
a job, and told his visitor to tell the
widow to get married if she wished to,
and that when she died he would see
that she was buried by the side of her
first husband The widow remained
unmarried. The gravestone cutter
said that to remove such stone would
mean the worst luck for him as long as
he lived.
In some eighborhoods, where the
surviving husband or wife does not put
up twin stone, it is taken for granted
that he or she will soon be in the field
for second marriage. Where wild
over puts up twin stone the mar
riageable women folks don't bother
him. 1t is taken for granted that he
will never marry again. 1t is the same
with widow; she is expected to re-
main a widow.
Plenty of men in eastern Pennsyl-
vania have their graves dug and walled
up all ready for occupancy. They visit
their graves once a week and take good
care of the turf and the flowers. They
have the satisfaction of knowing that
when death does come the burial lot
won't be disfgured by earth thrown on
the grass, from the newly dug grave.
The earth to fill those ready-made
graves is brought in wagons. Some
men want such earth brought from
particular spot near their home.
Elderly women also have their graves
prepared in advance in accordance with
their ideas. One old lady has her grave
walled up with stones taken from an
ancient bake-oven in which her grand
mother baked the best custards she
ever ate in her life. She says that she
| knows it is only a notion, but she wants
it that way.
An old sexton of Lehigh county has
charged the young minister of the
church with one sacred duty, as he
calls it. The preacher must see to it
personally that he is buried without
coffin. He wants his body wrapped in
sheet and lowered into grave eight
feet deep and then covered with yellow
sand from a nearby hill where he
| played when a boy. The floor of the
grave is to be of the same sand foot
thick. He says the brave soldier boys
were buried in their blankets, and
sheet is enough for him.
Many girls and young men choose
their graves; but if they marry, then
the conditions change and their fu-
neral arrangements are reconsidered.
In the lower part of Berks county a
hermit in the Obey hills owns far
away corner in an obscure cemetery,
| where he wishes to be buried entirely
separated from any other grave. The
hermit's plot will not be encroached
upon in hundred years. He says he
wants no company, even in death, and
| his gravestone is to be inscribed:
''Here lies nobody" An aged church
organist died last year. His last re-
| quest was that he should be buried on
a hill in a certain cemetery and that
an aeolian harp should be erected over
his grave. He left 5000 to the grave
yard trustees to pay the expense of
! keeping such a wind instrument al
ways in good repair, SC that he would
| have music whenever there was a
breeze. Near the borders of Schuylkill
| county a well-to-do farmer has his
grave dug and in the side near the bot
| tom is an opening four feet long and
| two feet wide, a sort of crypt. At his
| death his favorite bulldog is to be killed
| and buried in the crypt, and his own
| coffin is then to be lowered by the side
| of his dog. He never had wife, and
says his dog is his best friend. He is
so well off and has so much influence
| that the church trustees will not re-
| fuse a cemetery burial to the dog.
An eccentric old stage driver has his
grave dug and the bottom of it is so
| bric1ed that the head of the coffin will
| be two feet higher than the foot. The
| old man suffers from asthma and can
not lie down to sleep, but has to be re-
| clining. He wants to have his head ele-
| waited even in death.
| Germany Is Always Ready for War.
The German officers are the hardest