Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1838-09-14
VERMONT PHOENIX.
puBLIsHED EVERY FRIDAY ny
WIN. Il. RYTHER.
BURIAL PLACES AT CONSTAN-
TINOPLE.

tiLNOl LII.
A dense and motionless cloud of stagnap,
yapors ever shroods those dreary realms
From afar, a chilling sensation informs the
traveller that he approaches their dark and
dismal precincts and as he enters them. an
lev blast rises from their Utmost bosom.
PUSHES forth TO meet his breath, suddenly
strikes his chest, and seems to oppose his
progress. His very horse snufs up the
deadly %effluvia, with signs of manifest ter
ror, and exhaling'a cold and clammy sweat.
advances reluctantly over a hollow ground,
which shakes as he treads it, aud loudly re.
echoes his slow and fearful step.
So long and so busily has time been at
work TO fill this chosen spot,-so repeatedly
has Constantinople poured into this ultimate
receptacle almost its whole contents, that the
capital of the living, spite of its immense
population, scarce counts a single breathing
inhabitant for every ten silent inmates Of
this city of the dead. Already do its fields
of blooming sepulchres, stretch far away on
every side across the brow of the hills, and
The bend of their valleys; already are the
avenues which cross each other at every
step, in this domain of death, so heightened,
tina! the weary stranger, from whatever point
he comes, still finds before him many a
dveary mile of road between marshalled
iombs and mournful expresses, ere he reach
es his journeys seemingly receding end
and vet, every year does this common patri-
monv OF all the heirs of decay, still exhibit a
rapidly increasing size, a fresh and wider
line Of boundary, and a new belt Of young
plantation, growing up between new flower
beds OF graves.
As | hurried on through this awful repo-
STORY, the pale far stretching monumental
ranges rose in sight, and again receded rap
idly from my view, in such unceasing sue
%cession, that at last | lancied some spell pos
sessed my soul, some fascination kept lock
ed my senses and | therefore still increased
my speed as ifonly on quitting these melan-
chOly abodes | could hope TO shake off my
waking delusion. Nor was it until near the
verge ofthe f%unereal forest through which
Ihad been pacing for full hour, a brighter
light CLEANED athwart the ghost-like trees,
that | stopped TO look round, and to make a
more l~eisureIy survey Of the ground which
had traversed.
There said TO myself, lie, scarce one
foot beneath the surface OF a swelling soil,
ready to burst at every point with its tester
ing contents, more then half the generations
whom Death has continued TO NOW down
for near -four centuries in the vast capital Of
lsIamism. There lie, side by side, on the
same level, in cells of the size OF their bo-
dies, and only distinguished by a marble tur-
ban somewhat longer or deeper-somewhat
FOUNDER or squarer, personages in life, as tar
as heaven and earth asunder, in birth, In
station, in gifts of nature, and long labored
requirements. There lie, sunk alike In
their last sleep, alike food for the worm
that lives on death-the conqueror who fill
ed The universe with his name, and the peas
ant scarce known in his own hamlet Sui
Tan Mahmond, and Sultan Mahmoud's per-
hapS more deserving horse elders bending
under the weight Of years, and infants OF a
single hour, men with intellects of angels,
and men with understandings inferior to
those Of brutes the beauty OF Georgia, and
The black Of SEMINAR ~viziers, beggars, he
foes, and women.
There, perhaps, mingle their insensible
dnst, the corrupt Judge and the innocent, the
condemned, tie murdered man, and his
murderer, the master and his meanest slave.
There, vile insects consume the hand OF the
artist, the brain of the philosopher, the. eye
which s~parkled with celestial fire, and the
lip from which flow ed irresistible eloquence.
All the soil pressed by me for the last two
hours, was once animated like myself; all
The mould which now ,:ngs to my feet, once
nrmed limbs and features similar TO my
own. Like myself, all this black. unseemiy
Dust once thought, and willed and moved
And !, creature of clay, like these here cast
around |, who ira ell Trough life as | do
on this road, with Il remains OF my past
generation strewed aiong my trembling path
Whether my journey last a few hours more
OF less, must still, like these here deposited,
shortly rejoin the silent tenants ofsome clus-
'r oftombs, be stretched out by the side ofsome
already sleeping corpse, and while time con,
snues its course, have all my hopes and
ears-all my faculties and prospects-lald
al rest, on a couch of clammy earth"
Anastasius.
NJ