any that have not been there for their first quarter century are already crumbling, and have no more fibre than chalk. As one follows the flicker of the light creeping into those ghostly tombs, he cannot help moralizing upon the vanity of vanities represented in rose-wood and mahogany when worked into coffins, and the honesty of plain wood boards with wooden pegs to join them.

Of course, the Rev. Timothy Cutler was buried here, and there is a strangers' vault in one corner, and a carnal vault outside the regular line. Bodies were only allowed to lie for a specified time in the strangers' vault, and then the coffins were broken up and thrown as unrecognized into the carnal vault, there to wait till "a mightier voice than that sexton's old" should "gather them in." Among the noted names of those that have slept in this crypt is Major Pitcairn, a corpulent man, whose remains were laid away here after his fierce struggle and fiercer oaths against the "d-d Yankees' of the Revolutionary War. At almost the same time the body of one Lieutenant Shea, a very similarly corpulent man, who died of brain fever, was left in the same tomb. Shortly after the war, the friends of Major Pitcairn in England sent for his body to establish it more gloriously in a vault in Westminster. But during that very troublous period, while the old sexton's work had been driving, he had failed to keep so perfect a record as would have been well, and found himself at a loss as to which was which of the two large coffins. It mattered little. He sent on one of them to England. He alone knew of the uncertainty, and hence he alone fully appreciated the force of it when the report came back from England concerning a curious appearance about the head of the body that had been placed in Westminster, indicative, perhaps, of brain-fever. But murder will out; the sexton's secret came to the knowlege of a few friends, and by them was handed down as a sort of legendary wonder as to whether the body of Major Pitcairn had really been sent to England, or was still quietly resting in the dusty and almost forgotten crypt of Christ church, in Boston.

In 1823 the body of a Mr. Thomas was taken out of a tomb where it had lain for eighty years, and found to be perfectly mummied.

On the 18th of April, 1875, the church was elaborately decorated, and the lanterns were again hung in the belfry tower. This anniversary not

only set in motion a host of new stories of valiant deeds and wonders, but it also brought to light some unheard-of contradictions.

It was during this celebration that the tablet was proposed that now appears in the front of the tower with the inscription:

"THE SIGNAL-LANTERNS OF PAUL REVERE DISPLAYED FROM THE STEEPLE OF THIS CHURCH

APRIL 18th, 1775,

WARNED THE COUNTRY OF THE MARCH OF THE BRITISH TROOPS

TO LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.”

But such was the force of the contradictions that were raised, that it was not till three years, to a day, later, that the tablet was placed there. It was declared that the glory of the lanterns was not due to Paul Revere; that it was not Robert Newman who held them, and that it was not in the spire of Christ church at all that they were displayed. The community at large was so paralyzed by these startling charges against the faith that had never been doubted for a century, that even though there were many who were personally acquainted with the principal actors and had heard the story over and over again from their own lips, and had never heard any other, the doubts, for a time, seemed to have taken a victorious stand. And the more the believers looked into the matter the more tangled they became; for by degrees almost all of them had grown so used to accepting certain versions-Henry W. Longfellow's, for instance that when they found that he at least was certainly radically wrong, they were almost tempted to agree in doubting the evidences of their own senses and memories.

One of the most unaccountable facts in the whole course of the dispute was that such a man as Richard Frothingham should have taken the lead in doubting, founding his impressions upon so weak a footing as a little memorandum he had chanced to find which was without date, and was professedly written from memory and long after the occurrence of the events recorded. In this memorandum, the writer, Richard Devens, made it appear that he, and not Paul Revere, instigated and took charge of the signals, and that he sent Paul Revere to give the warning, and to "spread the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm." Some of Mr. Frothingham's friends, how

ever, when they saw how thoroughly worsted he was in the end, claimed for him that he himself had not believed what he had said, but, seeing that at some time or other the question would surely come up, he thought it wise that it should be thoroughly sifted while the living proof was at hand to set the matter once and forever upon an established and recognized basis.

The statement of the memorandum was as follows:

I soon received

intelligence that the enemy were all in motion, etc. Soon afterward the signal agreed upon was given This was a lanthorn hung out in the upper window of the tower of the N. ch. towards Charlestown. I kept watch at the ferry to watch for boats 'till about eleven o'clock, when Paul Revere came over and informed me that the T. were actually in the boats. I then took horse from Mr. Larkin's barn and sent him.

I procured horse and sent off P. Revere to give intelligence at Menotomy and Lexington. He was taken by British officers before mentioned, before he got to Lexington, and retained 'till near day."

With abundant other proof testifying to the error of this statement, Paul Revere's own account of the matter is still in existence, published in popular form in 1793, while all of the principal actors were still living to read it, and object if it were

Devens came to me and told me that he came down the road from Lexington that evening after sundown; that he met ten British officers, all well mounted and armed, going up the road." He adds that after leaving Lexington, having there given the warning, he was met and stopped by the British officers.

All of this, however, works sad havoc with

THE COLONIAL CEMETERY, COPP'S HILL.

of Richard Devens's story being strictly true. Paul Revere says, "They landed me on the Charlestown side. When I got to town, I met Colonel Conant and others; they said they had seen our signals. I told them what was acting and went to get me a horse. I got a horse of Deacon Larkin." He then says that while he went to get the horse, messengers carried the news to Mr. Devens, who is here for the first time mentioned in the narrative of Paul Revere. "Richard

Paul Revere himself who discovered the intention in the British to march, and who directed his intimate friend, Robert Newman, to hold the lanterns before he started to cross the river, in order that if he were prevented by capture or accident from gaining the other shore, Colonel Conant and others upon the Charlestown side might be able to take the matter in hand and carry on the work. Nor was it "in the belfry tower of the Old North church," as will appear later. Nor

THE CLARK TOMB.

was over.

set down Paul Revere as a fool, though he was one of the most prominent of those famous "North-end mechanics," by profession a gold-beater, an engraver upon copper of considerable skill, one of the movers of the great tea-party, a lieutenant-colonel in the militia, the founder of the first colonial powder-mill, the establisher of the first cannon-ball foundry, and proprietor of the Canton works in copper bolts and bars, as well as the first president of the Mechanics' Charitable Association, in which capacity he made the published statement referred to-by no means the record of a fool.

Another objection against Christ church was, that, being Episcopalian, it would doubtless be too thoroughly English to admit of such treason. But upon that very day the rector was expelled from the church, after an exciting demonstration, as being altogether too severe a Tory to meet the notions of the free-thinking congregation, and the keys had been given to Robert Newman, the sexton, with instructions to lock

The next contradiction came in the form of an address made at a later centennial celebration at Christ church by the Rev. John Lee Watson, of New Jersey, and a pamphlet which he published to the same end, in 1876, claiming that it was a relative of his, and not Robert Newman, the sexton, who held the lanterns in the belfry tower. The pamphlet was entitled "The True Story of the Signal Lanterns," but was so full of internal error that no close observer of facts gave it credence, and after a temporary and only partial withdrawal the laurels were again placed on the head of Robert Newman, where they undoubtedly belonged.

While these matters were under consideration, the statement that it was not Christ church at all where the lanterns were shown came up for discussion. To accept it they would be obliged to

At last the matter was once more settled, and the original trinity, Newman, Revere, and the North church, more strongly believed in than ever.

Christ church also successfully claims the distinction of having organized the first Sundayschool in America, though Drake and some other writers state to the contrary; and a neighboring church has innocently held it for many years, until at last, by its own records, it has been found that its Sunday-school was organized by several teachers and scholars who came over from the Christ church Sunday-school. Among the successful scholars of this first Sunday-school under the superintendency of Dr. Eaton were Dr. Edson and Dr. Price, of New York, and the late Dr. B. C. Cutler, with many others.

Not far from the door of the church is the famous Copp's Hill Cemetery. It is a lovely oasis, amid the surrounding dust and decay. It was in the corner of this cemetery that the British battery stood that set fire to Charlestown, over the river. From here Burgoyne and Clinton watched the battle and the conflagration. Just beside the

grounds, at the surrender of Quebec, forty-five tar barrels, two cords of wood, fifty pounds of powder, and several other appropriate combustibles were burned in celebration. Originally, there were four independent burial-grounds in this one, and, coming together, there was left in the very centre a bit of land a rod square that was owned by none of them; and to this day it remains an unencumbered piece of property. It was bought when half the cemetery was a pasture, by the famous shipbuilder, Joshua Gee, to accommodate his nervous and somewhat aristocratic wife, who loved quiet, and something a little out of the common rabble and round of the world. For the sum of thirtytwo shillings Samuel Sewall and his wife Hannah gave to Joshua Gee a free and independent title to one square rod of their pasture, adjoining the cemetery. Joshua secured a perpetual right of way to it through the existing burial-ground, and when his wife died he laid her body there. As the village on the hill grew and increased in size, the Gee square rod became, as it now is, the very centre of the town of tombs. Poor Mrs. Gee had lost her quiet suburban resting-place, and her demonstrative nerves are now subjected to the constant rumble and roar of the veriest city life. The little lot still remains in the family, and the very next heir could erect an ice-cream saloon upon it if he should chance to choose, or indeed it may yet be sold in some bankrupt estate between the block and the hammer.

At a litttle distance there is another lot, containing a green mound of earth. that covers an unlettered tomb, where the true, good-hearted Calvinists and Puritans buried all their babies indiscriminately, if the little ones were so unfortunate as to die without the rights of baptism, and thus become doomed to the eternal tortures of the damned.

There is a slab in the cemetery of most interesting design and extraordinary workmanship, dated 1625, sacred to the memory of Grace Berry, said to have died at Plymouth, May 17th, and have been removed to Copp's Hill in 1659, the year that the cemetery was opened. There is a disagreement about the latter, however, and a claim that the date has been changed, by manipulation, from 1695. But there are arguments upon both sides

of the question, leaving it still very possible that this is the oldest tombstone in America. This stone, being a prominent one, made a good target for the British soldiers to practice upon when off duty, and the bullet-marks still remain. A plain brick vault with a rough stone slab marks the tomb of the three Doctors Mather, Increase, Cotton, and Samuel, and at a little distance the willow is still weeping that was brought as a slip from the grave of Napoleon, at St. Helena, by Captain Joseph Leonard.

In a low stone slab there is a curious reminder of the fate that befell Captain Thomas Lake, who was "riddled with bullets by the Maine Indians." When his body was found and brought back to Boston, the bullets were taken out, and, being melted, were poured into a deep slit that was cut in the tombstone.

The boys of the neighborhood have made many raids upon the relic, and with knives and little swords have taken out and carried off most of the lead, but they have not yet succeeded in carrying away the slit itself, which now is filled with fine gravel. About a slab that is sacred to the memory of Betsey, wife of the grave-digger David Darling, there is an old mortality romance: a quaint request made by the bereaved husband is engraved upon the wife's tombstone. But when the time came to cover up the old grave-digger's ashes no one remembered it, and Darling's mortal coil was left in an out-of-the-way corner.

THE OLDEST TOMBSTONE IN AMERICA.