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A MISTAKE

The burial of John Mentzer, who died Wednesday morning and whose funeral was to have taken place yesterday afternoon, did not come off as originally intended.  The relatives of the deceased had called on Superintendent Wright and pointed out to him the place where they wished the grave dug and all things appeared satisfactory when they left.  The Mentzer lot is situated on the side of the hill, a short distance southeast of the entrance of the cemetery.  Three of Mr. Mentzer's children and his first wife are already buried on the west end of the lot.  The new grave was ordered dug next to the first wife, thereby leaving room on the other side for the second wife, but instead of doing as directed, Supt. Wright ordered the grave dug on the extreme east end of the lot, thus leaving a vacant space between it and the other grave. 

The funeral arrived at the lot and the ceremony proceeded until that point was reached where the coffin was lowered into the grave ready for the earthly covering.  The relatives at this point discovered that the grave was not where they ordered it, and the proceedings came to an abrupt end.  The mourners dried their tears and became mildly remonstrative.  The luckless superintendent was taken to task and given a severe going over.  He tried to pacify them, but to no avail.  They said it would not do and it must be changed to the place where ordered.  The workmen descended into the grave and took the coffin out and placed it in the cemetery vault.

A large number of spectators remained to see what the outcome of the matter would be.  Wright gave as his reason for not placing the grave where ordered, that it was his rule always "to place the man on the right".  A new grave was made and the corpse was to have been buried at 9:30 this morning.  The little operation will cost Wright $5, the price of digging the grave, as the relatives of the deceased say that they will not pay for two graves.

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