Daily camera., 1901-01-09
GUARD GRAVEYARDS.
Chicago Cemeteries Carefully Pro-
tected from Marauders.
Armed Watchmen Patrol the silent
Cities of the Dead During the
Wight and shoot without
Asking Questions.

/
| it's suburbs has watchman, whose
| work it is through the dark hours
of the night to make the round OF
| the vaults and the graves. Under the
| balief that it must be a hard task 70
| find men willing to stand guard by
musty tombs and newmade 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.
'Ditfirulty? 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 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.
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 p dawn and 30 med
ding around SOB newly N-uads grave
or go fooling with the lock of some
granite vault. So ghouls cont ne their
operations TO unguarded country Gem
III
Chicago and vicinity is armed and is
said to be a crack shot. The Calvary
watchman cannot we'll miss his game.
for he carries over his shoulder IA heav-
lily charged double barrel shotgun. and
shot scatter pretty well al distance
of 25 or 20 yards. This guardian of Chi
cago's Roman Catholic de..d can follow
up this shotgun fusiilade 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
the burial ground The facr thai 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. a man on Il bicycle
whirled down on him. /, was case
OF stand and deliver your intentions.
As 4 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 a prominent man had been
overthrown. He wished to get the
story into an early edition. II 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 brisklv toward the
gate just few yards in advance of
cross-'onking man on wheel. II
was eight O'Clock before the actual
facts touching the condition of the
I'M jured monument could he learned
There are signs posted about Jew
ish cemetery northwest OF Chicago
which say succinctly:
KEEP OUT,
Any Person Seer in This Cemetery Be
tween Sundow1 and sunrise VIII Be
Shot. No Questions Asked.
1t might seem at first thought that
the robbery of grave well filed in
with earth would be the question of
too much time to allow its 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
body from the adjoining place OF sep
ulcher by way of the newly dug
grave would be the matter of but
minute.
1t 10 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 10 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
sale for the wire forms in which elab-
these are not infrequently stolen.