University of Delaware - Blue Hen Yearbook (Newark, DE)

Page 19 text:

. LT AmssEssmm LR box and a third packing case for its long journey. On a Friday afternoon I finally set out on the trip to the Peruvian coast, the port of Mollendo, In the custom port of Guayaquil, yet on Bolivian soil, I found after consider- able search the Pernvian Consul, who promised to send at once a cable to Puno, the port of entry in Peru, so that there would be no difficulties in landing the body the next day. Yet when I eame to Puno no such instroetion had been cabled. Through the courtesies of the Peruvian Railway Corporation, I was, however, permitted to proceed at once to the eoast. Here new difficulties arcse. The cap- tain of the port had no official instructions regarding the matter, and as he had attended the previous night upon a firemen s ball, he felt very ill and exceedingly eross. But when the steamer was about to sail, he weakened and permitted the transfer of the precious freight to the waiting steamer. By this time 1 had a lot of doeuments about the matter and yet, on the Oronsa' the sanitary inspeector of the eoast, who was a fellow passenger, pointed ont to me that I had no permit to trans-ship the body from the steamer on which we sailed to another going farther north from Callao. After a good deal of talking I persuaded that same inspector to make out for me such a permit, which he did, and through which doeument I had no diffi- culty in trans-shipping to the Mexieo. My troubles, however, were not to be at an end as yet, for the purser of the Oronsa'' forgot to hand to the purser of the Mexieo' one of the doeuments, so that when we landed in Panama, the receipt which showed that the transportation of the silent passenger had been paid to New York was missing, It was really very fortunate that an experieneed traveler accompanied Mr. Frazer, for else there might have been a eonsiderable delay at this point. At last, however, even this diffienlty was overcome, and we sailed from Colon on the exeellent steamer Almirante'' of the United Fruit Company to New York, where Mr. Stanley Frazer awaited the incoming of the steamer. Sinee it was Columbus Day, we eonld not land the body that afternoon, but the follow- ing day the easket was shipped to Newark, Del. From the time we lifted the body out of its temporary resting place in La Paz, until it landed in New York City, it was trans-shipped from cart to railway, to boats and steamers fourteen times. What a comfort to know that at last the remains of Mr. Frazer rest peacefully in the beautiful cemetery at West Nottingham in the homeland and among the mem- bers of his own family. -G. J. B

Page 18 text:

He had made all his plans fo return to the United States next month to visit his family and friends whom he had not seen sinee he left there seven vears ago. For the last five weeks his physical condition was very much run down by un- broken and overwork. Tt is said that three weeks ago he had several fainting spells at the dining table in his home in Oruro. The following week sndthe first of this monthhe went with a party of five on a duek shooting trip to the Desagquadero River, The party spent four days there and killed 1,645 ducks. Iis score was next to the highest, about 500. The weather was eold and damp, and the men were in the water or wet most of the time, His physical condition, when he went on the trip, the exertion and shock ineidental to firing daily, not less than 200 heavy gun charges, and the exposure for four conseentive days produeed the only natural result. He contracted a severe cold and eame to this eity on the 9th inst. Malig- nant influenza developed, and one week later, the evening of the 16th inst., he died, He was buried from the legation on the afterncon of the 18th. The body was thoroughly embalmed and enelosed in a zine-lined sealed casket, which will make it possible to send the remains out of the country within the preseribed period of two years, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, Horace G. KNoWLES It was only through the efforts of Mr. Knowles, the United States Minister, that permission was obtained from the Bolivian Government for the immediate removal of the body from the eountry. Concerning the diffienlties encountered in transporting the body to the United States after permission had been given, much can be shown by the following letter from Rev. Gerhard J. Schilling : THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY OF ME. FRAZER. A short time after the decease of Mr. Joseph H. Frazer in La Paz, Bolivia, it was decided that his remains should be transferred to the United States. This transfer may seem to us here in the homeland a comparatively easy matter, but it is not 8o when you have to deal with distances and eireumstances, such as I in- tend to outline in the following narrative, Happily for the undertaking, the body of Mr. Frazer had been perfectly em- balmed by an American physician on the day of his death ; else there would have been no possibility of persuading the Bolivian Government to permit the trans- shipment before a term of five years had expired. As it was, the municipal stat- utes required that a body should remain two years in the cemetery of La Paz, before it could be exhumed.. Here, then, we encountered the first real difficulty, and the fact that it was finally overeome is entirely due to the diplomatic efforts of the Hon. Horaee G. Knowles, our American Minister to Bolivia. A special session of the municipality had to be called and a number of conditions had to be met, ere we were permitted to take the coffin which contained the remains of Mr, Frazer into a second zine 10

Page 20 text:

NOI'TVLLVH HHL