People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1895 — Sleeping in a Graveyard. [ARTICLE]

Sleeping in a Graveyard.

There is no rest for the wanderer — not even in the grave. At Oakland, Cal., a few days ago a tramp was arrested for sleeping in the empty vaults of Mountain View cemetery. Footsore and weary, hungry and ragged, the son of man hath not where to lay his head. A trespasser on the earth; owning not one foot of the great globe Into which he was sent by no will of bis own; his very birth a crime against the divine right of property. Driven out of the public parks by the policeman's club. Chased off the highways by the big orange planter’s buli-dog. Afraid to walk the streets of the cities lest he be arrested for being out of a job and without money. At last he wanders to the graveyard where death is supposed to make men all the same size. But even here lie is mocked by huge marble monuments erected to the glory of rich men, while in an obscure corner lies buried perhaps his own wife or child with a wooden slab to mark the spot. Filled with dumb pain he. kneels in anguish. He has been driven, hunted like a criminal. He breaks down here, becomes a man for the time; wishes that he might die, yet will not commit suicide. Worn out, exhausted by his feelings, he crawls in an empty vault to sleep. When he wakes the feeling of the evening before is gone. He faces again the harsh countenance of a world ruled by greed and selfishness. He is desperate and can’t help It—there are curses in his heart, as the cold hand of the law is laid upon his shoulder. The manhood is crushed out of him, and the wild, persecuted, passionate animal nature makes of him a very demon. Yet it is not his fault. He feels that heaven is a delusion, religion a snare, and all earth a hell. How can he help feeling that way?