Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-12-27
GRAVEYARD GUARDIANS.
How the Cemeteries Of Great City
Are Protected from Nocturnal
DepredatiOns.

Every cemetery IN CncaSO anu III
it's suburbs has Waterman, whose
work it is through the dark hours
of the night to make the round of
the vaults and the graves. Under the
belief that it must be hard task to
find men willing to stand guard by
musty tombs and new-made graves
when the moon is in the dark the Of
fcials of several Chicago cemetery
companies were asked if they did not
ever find difficulty in getting men to
make the nightly rounds, says the
Tribune of that city.
Difficulty? Bless you, no" was the
answer. "The place of night watch
man in cemetery is one that is sought
after. 1t may strike some people as
being an uncanny sort of job, but
its 'uncanniness' makes it attractive
There is no more trouble about get
ting a man to make the round of the
tombstones than there is to get one to
sit on stool and figure up how much
the lot-owners owe"
An easy way TO commit suicide and
to save friends the trouble of carrying
the body far for resting place after
death is to scale the wall of Graceland
or the fence of Calvary some time be-
tween midnight and dawn and go med
ding around some newly-made grave
or go fooling with the lock of some
granite vault. So ghouls confine their
eteries. Every graveyard guardian in
Chicago and vicinity is armed and is
said to be crack shot. The Calvary
Waterman cannot we'll miss his game,
| for he carries over his shoulder heav-
| lily charged double barrel shotgun, and
| shot scatter pretty we'll at distance
of 25 or 80 yards. This guardian of Chi
cago's Roman Catholic dead can follow
| up this shotgun fusillade with revolver
| bullets if necessary.
1t fell to the lot of man recently
to make an extremely early call at
Graceland cemetery. The sun was
just coming up as the visitor entered
the burial ground. The fact that it
was daylight saved him. AS he stood
on one of the walks near the center
of the cemetery, for he had gone thus
far undiscovered, man on a bicycle
whirled down on him. 1t was a case
of stand and deliver your intentions.
AS matter of fact the visitor had
gone there in the interest of a GER
tain newspaper whose city editor had
heard that the newly erected monu-
ment of a prominent man had been
overthrown. He wished to get the
story into an early edition. If the
editor could have entered Graceland
just as the tips of the willows near
the pond were being gilded by the
rising sun he would have seen his
emissary walking briskly toward the
gate just a few yards in advance of
a cross-looking man on wheel. 1t
was eight o'clock before the actual
fact. touching the condition of the
injured monument could be learned.
There are signs posted about Jew
ish cemetery northwest of Chicago
which say succinctly:
KEEP OUT.
Any Person Seen in This Cemetery Be-
| tween Shutdown and Sunrise VIII Be
| Shot No Questions Asked.
! 1t might seem at frSt thought that
the robbery of a grave well filled in
with earth would be the question of
too much time to allow it's successful
accomplishment. AS a matter of fact,
in those parts of the cemeteries
which are set aside for the sale of
single graves the bodies are placed so
close together that in digging one
burial place the side of the coffin in
the next grave is often uncovered.
The graves are frequently dug the
day before the interment takes place,
and in cases like this the taking of a
body from the adjoining place Of sep
ulcher by way of the newly dug
grave would be the matter of but a
minute.
1t is not, however, any great danger
from grave robbers that leads to the
extraordinary vigilance exercised over
cemeteries. There are ghouls of less
er degree, those whose booty is the
flowers left by friends on the resting
| places of their dead. The rare BIOS
SONS which are to be purchased on
the street at such extraordinarily
cheap prices are at times those which
the day before had been part of the
trappings of a funeral. There is
sale for the wire forms in which elab
crate flower designs are placed, and
these are not infrequently stolen.