The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-04
GRAVEYARDS AND THEIR
OOOO1 EA1N - Before the Saturday Night Club

nation and so did the Romans from
the time of Marius
I desire to say, however, that the
| Greeks also practiced inhumatiOn and
we find it in the histories that Ii
curgus had burials made in populous
centers so as to give the youth a prop
er and philosophical familiarity with
death.
And that there were still more OBJ
jectionable methods of disposing of
dead bodies is amply proved. In our
own country the Indians wrapped up
their dead and stretched them out on
poles a dozen feet above the ground.
The Orinoco Indians suspended them
in the waters of rivers and streams to
have their flesh picked off by the
7 fishes. The Thibetians to this day feed
| them to dogs trained to do that sort
Of work. The Hindoos buried them
in the water of the Sacred Ganges,
the Parsees having a prejudice against
the pollution of the three sacred ele-
m ents, Earth, Water and Fire-fed
dead bodies to the birds Others dried
the heads of their friends, and kept
them in their homes for ornaments
Still others chopped them up and pot
ted them. One or two peoples burned
them and spread the ashes in the sea-
The early French buried their accounts
with the dead so that they may collect
them in the other world-a practice
not desire to see initiated in Kansas.
Other people buried their dead In the
walls of their houses until such a
time as their friends could pay their
debts when they were taken out and
given decent burial. Until the time of
George the Third in England suicides
were buried in the middle of the high
way with a stake driven through their
hearts. In Biblical times those who
died on the cross were mostly allowed
to hang there until the vultures would
carry their flesh entirely away In
Ireland warriors were buried standing
with their faces to their enemies
There have BEEN as you see, fash
ions in burial as in everything else.
Four or five centuries ago or more the
fad prevailed of cutting up the bodies
of the dead and burying them in diff
France had his bowels buried in one
place, his eyes in another, his heart
in another, his tongue in another and
so on. Richard the First of England
willed that his body should be buried
in three different places. and as re-
Gently as our own time Daniel O'Con-
nell, the Irish patriot, willed that his
body should be buried in Dublin and
his heart in Rome. I saw that heart
in Rome as I also saw the head of the
great General Montcalm preserved at
the Ursuline convent at Quebec. James
the OIL SCOIldnQ dSkSQ IIldl HIS
body be sailed and SeWed up in bulls
hide with the hair inwards and we
know King John of England was bur-
led in like manner and that it is en-
tirely possible, as some people suppose,
that the incident gave origin to the
expression of John Bull. Queen Eliza
beth's body was encased in a coat Of
wax before burial, and the body of
Alexander the Great was preserved in
honey. To enumerate the odd things
in burial customs would occupy much
more time than L can give to it.
Biblical students in the Saturday
Night club will not forget that .Abra-
ham bought the field Of Ephron at
Hebron for his family burying ground
and even to this day the tomb of his
lovely consort can be seen there. The
kings and prophets were also buried
in tombs but as a general thing the
Jews were buried in rock sepulchres.
origin of Collins.
Collins were not known in Israel I'M
til the time of Dorcas and were the
invention of the fishermen of Egypt.
They were shaped after the form of
the ancient row boat, and in fact,
many Egyptian fishermen were buried
in the boats they operated. The sar-
cophagus was also an Egyptian inven-
ton and many of them can be seen to-
day. On the other hand the mauso-
ASuIIl Was VI ASldllC origin anu was III
vented by Queen Artemisia for the
body of Moseleus- the name.
This lady so loved her husband that
she put a pinch of his ashes in her
wine as we would put pinch of nut
meg in our Tom and Jerry and kept at
it until she had him completely drank
up-as other women have done their
husbands in our day-but not in Kan
sas.
The graveyard proper-as we know