CAPTAIN WEBB'S BURIAL.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1104, 26 October 1883, Page 3

CAPTAIN WEBB'S BURIAL.

An American contemporary, in giving an account of the burial of the, late CaptainWebb, says Half-way between Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge, well back in the cemetery well named Oakwood, and in a heart-shaped plot of ground known as “ Strangers’ Rest,” the remains of the great swimmer repose. No one was ’present to do his memory honour. There were no tears shed by loving friends,' no regret by friendly neighbours, as the remains were lowered into their resting l place. It was a mere performance of duty by the sexton and undertaker, under orders from the Board of Health. It was a sad picture, doubly pathetic, when the life and deeds and daring of this champion are considered—a man for whom half a England, and more than that of the United States is mourning., There was no shroud, no clothing to hide his bloated form. Ih the same rough pine box in which the body was shipped from Lewistovvn to the falls it was carried. Imaginative correspondents have written of a ‘ neat suit of black,’ of ‘ clothing appropriate and welllooking,’and of a ‘stained coffin.’ But the fact is that the body of j the greatest swimmer of. the world was buried in the same condition as it was found floating in the quiet waters of the Niagara below Lewiston, except that the scarlet breech-clout with which he entered the treacherous waters, had ; been . torn away. Looked :at as the people at the Falls looked at this interment, it was, pathetic and pitiful 1”,