OCR Text |
Show CHARLOTTE TEMPLE'S GRAVE. Xhe Most Popular Spot In Trinity Churchyard, Church-yard, New York. A few days ago passersby in Broad-wa; Broad-wa; . looking through the high fence that surrounds Trinity churchyard, saw a slender black gowned girl kneeling by the grave of Charlotte Temple. Her head was bowed in her hands, and she seemed utterly lpst to her surroundings. After awhile she arose with a very pale face, walked swiftly through the gates and disappeared in the crowd. She was only one of many devotees at the shrine of the poor girl who died for love. Nobody No-body ever visits Trinity churchyard without pausing for a few minutes before be-fore the big brown slab that bears only the name "Charlotte Temple." "Oh, yes!" said the gray haired old man whose duty it is to see that the ancient an-cient tombs are kept in order. "It is the most popular grave in the yard. J. have been here going on 17 years now, and there have been very few days in good weather when the grave has not had a visitor. Several times I have seenwSm-en seenwSm-en come here and stand in the cold and sleet and snow looking at tho tomb. Somehow they always look as if they were in trouble. "Seven or eight years ago I began to put potted flowers, geraniums and the like on the grave, and I have kept it up every summer since. It is mainly to mark the grave, so that visitors can find it. It is the only grave in the yard that has flowefs on it. Otherwise ,tho people would bother me to death. When they ask me where the grave of Charlotte Temple is now, I simply tell them that it is over on the west sida with some potted flowers on it That saves me a deal of trouble. "Several of the gravestones are crumbling crum-bling badly and will have to be repaired if the descendants of the dead want to perpetuate their memory. See; here is the oldest grave in the place. " Then the old man swept away a layer of dust from a crumbling gray stone aud showed the date, 1681. "We have several sev-eral that date almost as far back," said he, "but none of them is so popular as that of Charlotte Temple." Then tho ancient attendant tucked his broom under his arm, picked up his wheelbarrow and trundled away among the graves. New York Herald. |