New-York tribune., 1910-06-07
C|TY'S OFFICIAL CRUSOE
John Bapp, of Hart'S island,
Lacks Only Romantic Garb.
HAS MANY A MAN FRIDAY
Forty Years He Has Paced His
Field, Happy in the Doing of
Melancholy Duty.

A second Robinson Crusoe has been dis
covered, and right off the coast of the En-
pfre State, too. De Foes imaginative hero,
dressed in goats skin, armed with gun and
revolver and attended by his man Friday,
was a victim of adverse fate. The latter
day Crusoe. while lacking the romantic
garb, is also completely armed and has men
Fridays a-plenty to do his bidding; but his
island existence is from choice, not cruel
circumstance.
John Bapp, for that is the mans name,
has lived on Harts Island, off City Island,
since 1870, in the capacity of keeper in Pot
ter's Field, and on June so celebrates the
fortieth anniversary of his coming. His is
the grewsome task of experimenting the
burying and exhuming Of the bodies Of the
unfortunates whose last rites are performed
at the expense of the public Such oc-
cupation might easily tend to make one
melancholy, but not so with John, for he
Is Is genial a soul as one would care to see.
He is said by some on the island to be more
than eighty years old. but to meet him and
see his bright eye. firm step and erect car
riage and, above all, to feel his strong and
hearty handclasp would lead one to con-
slider fifty years a reasonable guess of his
age.
-
during the last forty years He was
born in Germany and came to New York
City with his family when a boy. On the
death of his parents he decided to go
West, so joined a party in St Louis and
drove cattle across the plains to California.
Indians were abundant in those days, but
the only comment that John would make
on his experiences with them was: Yes
we saw plenty of them but the more you
see of Indians the less hostile they are"
In California he turned miner and knocked
about from camp to camp until the Civil
War broke out. when he Joined the Sd Cali
fornia and was stationed on the frontier
until 1866. The day after Lincoln's assas-
sination John landed in New York in the
days when business development had hard
ly reached 14th street
One day small boat put out from New
Rochelle with one passenger. who was
landed on Hart's Island. used as a camp
and Confederate prison during the war.
That was Johns advent to the place
where he has lived ever since.
DO I enjoy my life here?' he said in
answer to an inquiry Yes; l am happy
My hours are from in the morning until
at night, and l am out in all kinds of
weather; but only once that I can re-
member have 1 been sick. and that resulted
from slight accident, a few weeks ago.
bury, on an average, four thousand bod
les a year. and although l have been here
forty years never have I contracted a
disease, and a good many of the bodies
used to come from pest houses. Up to
last Saturday night the number of burials
was 163898. The bodies are sent here from
the morgues and we bury them in pine
boxes, one hundred and fifty in a trench.
Each body is identified by a number, for
we do not deal in names, and is so placed
that it can be located and dug up at any
time in a very few moments"
John has a gang Cf twenty-five work
house prisoners under his charge, but says
that he has never had to fire a shot to
keep his Fridays in order. He is a dis
and a valuable man on the
island