Cemeteries have always attracted the living
to their solemn precincts at stated times, anniversaries and fiestas.
It is so in all lands, among all peoples no matter what their creed,
and in all ages. Jew and Gentile alike, Mohammedan and Christian, by
visiting tomb or grassy mound with some token of their affection, the
prayer uttered, the tear shed, the blossoms laid on sacred soil, after
this manner cherish the memories of the departed. And it is well!
Scenes which the traveller may witness in the Campo Santo of Genoa or
in the Koimeteria of Athens, on Sundays, in the Mezaristans of Skutari
on the Bosphorus and Eyub on the Golden Horn, on Friday afternoons,
and in the Kibroth of old Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee or outside of
the walls of Jerusalem, on Saturday or in the Cimenterios of Mexico
City on fiestas, all testify to the universality of the deep and
tender feelings of reverence and affection which animate the human
heart and make all men as one in thought and sentiment as they stand
on time's shores and follow the receding forms of their kindred and
friends with wishful eyes bedimmed with tears across the Dark River!
While there is a Burial Place for the soldiers who die for their
country or in their country's cause, on the grounds of the Presidio,
the principal cemeteries of San Francisco seem to cluster around
Lone Mountain in the northwestern part of the city and south of the
Military Reservation.
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