The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-05-30

dering the Potomac River and fac l ing the great monumental triad
 the Lincoln Memorial, the wash
 ington Monument and the Capitol
 of the United States, is Arlington
 National Cemetery. Upon it's 4os
 oak crested acres are more than
 4O,OO0 carefully tended graves ot
 American soldiers. Among these is I the tomb of the Unknown Soldier
 of the World War and the graves
 of more than 4,00o unknown dead
 of ether wars. s's@ es'a
 During the first nine months of
 the past year, Myrta Ethel Cawood
 writes in the Washington Star, 761
 flag-draped caskets were lowered
 into soldiers graves in Arlington. On one day alone the solemn strains of "Taps' were sounded
 over eleven open graves Yet this
 vast burial ground is only 65 per cent filled. It is estimated that
 judging from the present rate of
 burials, there will be room for new grave plots in Arlington for ap-
 proximately twenty years to come Although Arlington has been an official military cemetery for sev- enty years, it's largest and most i'm posing structures were built since the World War Among these is the great marble open-air amplii- theatre, where patriotic and re- lieious services of various kinds are frequently held Before this classic structure is the tomb of the Un- known Soldier, over which is 72- ton altar of glistening Colorado marble cut from a solid block of stone
 This imposing monument tells it's story simply: Here rests in Hon. ored Glory an American Soldier known but to God" On each of the longitudinal sides of the tomb are three wreaths symbolizing the six major battles of the American expeditionary forces in France. Three heroic figures, representing valor, Victory and Peace, are cary ed in alto-relief on the base of the tomb.
 The first soldier inferred in the Arlington plantation after it was declared national cemetery was Private William Christian of the Sixty seventh Pennsylvania in- fantfy. He was buried Friday, May 13, 1864.
 \ Each imposing monument tells its story = the Temple of Fame, the Canadian Cross, the Confederate Monument, the Spanish War Mem orial, the anchor of the battleship Maine, the Rough Riders Monu- nefit, the bronze equestrian statue of the one armed general, Philip Kearney, and the great grantee sacrophagus over the grave which contains the bones of 2,111 un- known soldiers, gathered in Septem- Der, 1866, from the battlefield of Bull Run Their bodies could not be identified. but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country -
 The oldest known grave n Ar lineton is that of Mary Randolph. wife of David Meade Randolph, an officer of the Revolution and after ward the first United States Mar shal of Virginia. Mrs. Randolph wrote the Virginia Housewife al famous Southern cookbook which | was published in 1924. She was a frequent and welcome visitor to 1 the Custic estate, then known as the Arlington plantation, for she 1 was the aunt of Mrs. George Wash i ihgtoh Parke custis and the god mother of the latter's daughter, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, who , married Robert E. Lee at Arlington. Mary Randolph died in Washington January 23. 1928, and was buried in ccnpliance with her own request on the front lawn of the Custis estate. ~
 For more than a century and a half the hills of what is now our National Cemetery have borne the name of Arlington. The name was given to the estate when John Fsarke custis, son of Martha Wash ington by her first husband, ac-'I duited the plantation in the year i778, for ll,ooo pounds Of Virginia currency He named it Arlington