| OCR Text |
Show mi w III !! MM r I1SJIM IIIIIISMWMMU ON UAJ2IU.V (JRIYES. j ermosmes flex ix the ancient I cRinriat or WAsntvaTov COU(KO) IIXIHJ.C. A little child's tea set spread out uj-in a new mrdo grave. What couli be more pathetic? The tiny cufa aud dish-a all carefully arranged ar-ranged as If fr a make believe lariy, Willi a small ten lot iu the middle. Rut the mite of a girl who should play the hostess at the lllll-putian lllll-putian te'ast is Ijiug cold and stitT In a wooden Ijox buried tlireu teet beneath tile mcu ml of fresh earth w hereon the tea set is arraxed. The little grate Is but oneof thousands thou-sands of such huddled together in an old colored people's cemetery out towards the northwest, beyot d the h) limits and dose by the lank of l!ook I'rcefc. Acre upon acre of the inclosiin-is so thickly occupied by the jrad Inst the graes adjoin e-ach Ciller Cill-er row upon row without an inch of sace between to set the fuot upon No enlure conceals beneath IU gieeu i-arjt the crowded hillocks of clay aud grael, nor do costly monuments arise to commemorate thciitues of the departed. There are m.t even headstones, but usual 13' slabs of wood instead, most of them merely shingle and old sera of lioanl stuck Into the ground, and all lids not became of ny lack of love or reverence, but simply for the reaou that the builders of this necropolis are poor. On the ple-ceof board at the head of tin grave where the tea set Is spread out Is this inseriptioi. MclioUa L.tll ia errr aSlctp i.Jt.1 AludlinOW This U by no ucans the onl grave on which toysandsueh tilings ure tils seen dtsiiyrd. On the enn.frary tieiily uvxty littio mound oreaVththat cover a chil!s colllu exhibits some rel'cs of the sort-Near sort-Near by U a soiugle semngtlie purpose of a head stone, against whluli is tie.1 with twiueadoll'r -Icalr uilli a clnnadoll slttiug in it. The doll's dress has liad all the color woahrdoutofUny tho rain, but it still sits there patiently as it has sat fur man a mouth, waiting foriLs mlstm t piek It up w hen the day 1j!I arrive and carry It before the Judgment seat. On a grate not far off Is a tin box full vf empty sjools once doubtless used for plat things to beguile baby hour and a mouth organ. Tied to another head tsar 1 L. a a!r of little reins, aud scattered over the mound are several Iominoe. A gra e that Is marked simply "No. I" may Ik the child had got no name was adorned merely with a stoppered nursing bottle. The nursing bottles scs.med to be of all things the most fresment decoration de-coration of the grates certainly the mi pitiful. As a rule the-y .. . r.. mrtlv (IIUsI with mud washed into tiie-ni by the storms. Hut they were not by any means the only kind of bottles tu lie notlnal on the mounds. Medicine Iwttles were thcrelu plenty enough, indeed, to supply an apothecary's shop with glassware. As w ell as could be dh cotered, it was much the fashion to pUceou a grate all the medicine bottles emptied bt the cee-ea-ed during the lastaud fatal illness. Tims one was enabled to sur-iniso sur-iniso at a glance whether or not the sickneM hai been very long or complicated. Some graves would have only two or three bottle", bot-tle", while others would make a showing of as many as fifteen. Many ol the medi ine bottles ou the other baud were partly full. One headboard bore thecpita'.li. our slr Mci-iasi) raUrto iialah land Id Hie -tl ! alel !' On the grate were a ruMwr doll, a tin firet ngliA. ttrt tauili rusted, auda little ehiua cat. A catlcus thing found on one ol tho mou uds t. as a east of a human foRt In ordiuarj plaster of tiie sort that U uosl fur hou-es. 1'erhaps the fatlierof tlw family was ill tliat busiuets. Olln r costs of augelsaud such things lu the same rude material ma-terial were not Inrrismeut. The most cauepicuouolject in the cemetery was a l.uge ljtby horse placed over a -mall lxi3 's grave. Manx a da3. douUlt-s", had he riddi u on It to Uai.lrfiry Cross. A juthrtlc ornament, orna-ment, t. ashed elown by the rain from a mound, was a child's -chool slate. Sticking up in the mud by it wt h half u-d slate p n li. The sUte it-elf w as broke a. One thing tha truik t!e ol-scr.er ol-scr.er in l.e ixmtery wa.- that all the ori-i-,' and rtn 1 t what-etirdf-Mniiu.ii ihat .i.sirated the grate j w.re wiihout eci-jtioii broke-ll l: deprived of their useful-lie useful-lie s in other ways. IfsuchJiaJ not Uen the case t!ie3' wouhl In likel3 , be canltsl ay. hm a tin tusin on one mound, led with runt, was punched fall of holes. A starch box on another grave was full of fragments of china eIoli, and even the nurfing hollies were craeked. The big hobby horse had lost its rockers aud etert-oueof the statuettes w ere more or less mutilated. muti-lated. Cifr.e xls with their nozzles noz-zles knocked oir in ter3 many cases i-ervexl the ue of ts for flowers, thoughiKi flowers were iu them, of couise. tt'tuMngtun Slur. |
