Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-11-27
GUARD GRAVEYARDS.
Chicago Cemeteries Carefully Pro-
tected from Marauders.
Armed Wntchmen Patrol the silent
Cities of the Dend During the
Night and shoot without
Asking Questions.

|
Every cemetery in Chicago and in
] it's suburbs has a watchman, 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 a 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
ficials 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 a stool and figure up how much
the lot-owners owe"
TO save friends the trouble of carrying
the body far for a 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 fooing with the lock of some
granite vault. So ghouls confine their
n rfa
eteries. Every graveyard guardian in
Chicago and vicinity is armed and is
said TO be a crack shot. The Calvary
watchman cannot well miss his game,
for he carries over his shoulder heav-
lily charged double-barrel shotgun, and
shot scatter pretty well at a 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
tho burial ground. The fact that it
was daylight saved him. AS he stood
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 GER
tain newspaper whose city editor had
heard that the newly erected monu-
ment of 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 brislily toward the
gate just a few yards in advance of
a cross-loo<ing man on a wheel. 1t
was eight o'clock before the actual
facts touching the condition of the
injured monument could be learned
There are signs posted about a Jew
ish cemetery northwest of Chicago
which say succinctly:
KEEP OUT!
Any Person Seen in This Cemetery Be-
Shot No Questions Asked.
1t might seem at first thought that
the robbery of a grave well filled in
with earth would be the question of
too much time to allow its successful
accomplishment AS matter of fact,
in those parts of the cemeteries
which are set aside for the sale of
ciD DCr1n ha
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 funeral There is a
sale for the wire forms in which elab-
crate flower designs are placed, and
these are not infrequently stolen.
| Siberia n Land of Churches.
l,,s.ln,.i.,.. In, L.