Coffins Placed in Rough-Boxes and These Lie in Rain While Work of Digging is Completed
During the continual downpour of rain this morning considerable inconvenience was experienced at the Catholic cemetery, owing to the fact that the graves were not completed when the funeral cortege arrived for the interment of bodies. It is alleged that the grave diggers who had been near at hand when a Polish wedding took place imbibed too freely of the amber brew and as a result were in no condition to dig graves. With no blame attached to the undertakers of the town, they went to the cemetery this morning after the services had been held from the St. Patrick’s church at 8 o’clock to find that the graves had been digged but two feet or less. As a result of this, the casket was placed in the rough box and left sitting along side the partly dug grave. Other funeral services were to be held within a short time and as all of the funeral cars and cabs of the town were called into service, they could not wait for the completion of the graves, and as a result had to leave bodies in the cemetery in the rain while the graves were completed. No blame in any way is attached to the officers of St. Patrick’s church. They have done everything possible during these trying days.
The local undertakers felt the disappointment keenly, but as it was no fault of theirs, they could not be censured. No trouble was found at the other cemeteries, as extra forces of diggers had been secured and the work was pushed rapidly. The continual downpour of rain made it very inconvenient to hold the funerals at the best, but with the above disappointments it was much worse.