Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Wayne County, Ind.) 1831-1837, 1836-04-30

! had read so many harToWin &C
! counts of the burial place al Naples
that | went with an American OF my
acquaintance 10 visit 1t. An o!d mar
opened the iron door, and we entered
a clean, spacious, and well paved a
rea, with long rows of iron rings IN
the heavy slabs Of tho pavement
/ Without asking a question, the OLD
man walked across TO the iarthes'
corner, where stood a movable L.
yer, and fastening the chain into the
J, fixture, raised the massive stone COW
er of a pit. He requested US TO stand
back for a few minutes, to give the
eifluvia time to escape, and then,
sheltering our eyes with our hats, we
looked in. You have read, of course
that there are three hundred and SIX
ty-five pits in this place, on of which
is opened every day for the dead Of
the city. They are thrown in with
out a shroud or coffin, and the pit IL
sealed up at night for a year. They
are thirty or forty feet deep. and each
would contain perhaps two hundred
bodies. 1t was some time before We
could distinguish any thing in the
darkness of the abyss. Fixing my
eyes on the spot, however, the cut
lines of body became defined grad
ually, and in few minutes, shelter
ing my eyes completely from the sun
above, could see the horrors of the
scene but too distinctly. Eight cor
pses, all the grown persons, lay IN
confused heap together, as they had
been in one after another in the course
of the day. The last was powerful
made old man, who had fallen flat on
his back with his right hand across
and half covering the face Of a woman
By his full limbs and chest, and the
darker color of the legs below the
knee. he was probably one of the laz-
zaroni, and had met with a sudden
death. His right heel lay on the
forehead Of a young man emaciated
to the last degree, his chest thrown
up as he lay, and his legs showing
like a skeleton covered with skin.
The coarse black curis of the latter.
as his head rests on another body.
were In such strong relief that | could
have counted them. OF to the right,
quite distinct. lay IN a beautiful attn
tude girl, as well as could Judge.
of not more than nineteen or twenty.
She had fallen on the pile and rolled
or slid away. Her hair was very
long. and covered her left shoulder
and bosom; her arm vas across her
body. and if her mother had Land her
down to sleep. she couid not have
disposed Of her limbs more decently.
The head had fallen little way TO
the right. and the feet, which were
smal even for q lady. were pressed
one against another as If she We're a
bout. turning on her side. The sex
ton said that a young man had come
with the body. and was very i'll for
some time after II was thrown IN.
We asked him If respectable people
were brought here. "1es. he SAID.
..manv. None but the rich would
90 to the expense OF a separate grave
for their relations. People We're Of
ten brought in handsome grave cloths,
bat they were always stript before
thew We're left. The shroud. when
ever there was one. was the perquis-
tie Of the undertakers." And thus
are flung into this noIsome pit. like
beasts. the greater part OF the poPu-
lation of this vast city-the young
and the old. the vicious and the .lr-
tuouS together without the decencv
even Of a rag. TO keep up the dlstnc-
tons of life! Can human beings
thus be thrown away! men like our
selves-women. children. like our
brothers and sisters, | never was
SO Inundated in my lie as BY this
horrid spectacle. did not think that
a mana felon even. or ieper-
what YOU will that is guilty or deba-
sed-l did not think any thing that
had been human could be SO reckless
slv abandoned. Pan! 1t makes one
sick a, the heart! God grant l may
never die at Naples.
The following 10 a verbatim copy
of sign tina, a cobbler reared over
the entrance Of his workshop. IN one
of his moments Of Inspiration:
'.here Pie and cake and beer 1sel
good oysters stude and in the shell
and fried uns to for them that chuse
~,d with 1,Srafch hlack h.,ses and !