Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1853-08-22
The yellow Fewer at New Orleans


sons tramping the solemn music of funeral
marches In the countenances of podding pas
sengers were the lines of anxiety and grief, and
MANY door was iestooned with black and white
hangngs the voceless witnesses of wailing and
of sorrow. On the one hand slowly swept the
long coTteges of the wealthy ,nodding with pIumes
and drawn by pranclng horses, rejoicing in their
funeral vanltes on another, the hearse of the cit
izen soldier, preceded by measured music, envel-
oped in warke panoply, and followed by the
noisy tread of men under arms ;while there again
the pauper was trundled to bis long home on a
riekety cart, with boy for driver, who whist
led as he went, and swore a careless oath as he
urged bis mule or spawned horse to a trot, maxi
Ing haste with another morsei contributed to the
grand banquet of death. Now among the steepes
was heard the Ginning of the bells as of ghoules
up there mingling their hoarse voices as in "a che
rus of FORMULATION over the ranks of fallen mortal.
ity. Anon from some owly tenement TITLED the
low wall of mother for the child of her affection,
while from the corner opposite burst the song Of
some low bachana, mingling ribaldty with senli-
meut, or swearing prayer or two as the hunor
moved him.
The skies wore deusive aspect Above was
all coudless sunshine. but little in keeping with
the black melancholy that enseoped all below
Out along the highways that lead to the cities of
the deaf, and still the tramp of funeral crowds
knew no cessation. Up rose the volumes Of dust
from the busy roads, and the plunes ofthe death
carriages nodded in seeming sympathy 10 the
swaying expresses Of the swamp, enveloped in
theif dun apparrelling Of weeping moss-ht gar
niture for such scene
AT the gathering points carriages accumulated,
and vulgar teamsters, as they osed each other
in the press, ming led the coarse jest with the rib
aid oath; no sound but of prolane malediction and
IF,
rattle of wheels. AT the gates the wind brought
intimation Of The corruption working within Not
puff but was laden with the rank atmosphere
from rolting corpses. Inside they were piled by
fflies exposed to the heat of the sur, swollen with
corruption bursting their coffin lids, and snnder-
ing, as if by physical effort the llganents that
bound their hands and feet, and extending their
rigid limbs in every ontre attitude. What a feast
OF horrors! Inside, corpses piled in pyramids.
and without the gates, old aud wthered crones,
and fat huckster women, fretting in their own
& grease, dispensing ice creams and confectionery
and brushing away, with brooms made of bushes,
the green bottle-fles that lowered on their mer-
chandize, and that anon buzzed away to drink
dainty nhalatlons from the green and fostering
cOrpses. Mammon, at the gates, was making
thrift outside by the hands of bis black sweating
minons, that rendered sweetmeats and cooling
beverages TO the throngs Of mourners, or idle
spectators, who, inhalng the tunes Of rotting
bodies, already "heaved the gofge;'' while with.
in, the 'sking of Ferrors'' held his saturnalia.
with crowd ofgtolid laborers, who, as they tum-
bled the dead into bitches, knocked them dabout
the mazzard,' and swore dread oaths, informing
led with the more dreadful sounds of demaniac
jolity.
Long bitches were dug across the great human
chaTnel WIDE enough were they to enlomb a
legion, but only fourteen inches deep Coilins
laid 10 them showed their tops above the surface
Of the earth. On these was piled dirt to the depth
of foot or more, but so loosely that the myriads
Of flies found entry between the loose clods down
to the cracked seams Of the collins, and buzzed
and blew there their ouariG, creating each hour
their haiched swarms.
But no sound was there OF sorrow, within that
wide Geh. ma. Men used TO the scent Of disco
luton had forgotten all touch of sympathy. Un
couth lab0rers, with their bare shock heads stood
under the broiling heat of the sun, digging in The
earth; and as anon they would encounter an OBJ
structing root or stump, would swear hideous
oath, remove to another spot, and go on digging
| as before. Now and then the nattock or the
/ spade would disturb the bones of some former
tenant Of the mould, forgotten there amid the ar
mics OF the accumulated victims, and the study
laborer, with gibe, would hull the broken llag
/ iiSHtS Nu NC swan, SioNi iUIlit all energetic
d-n, and chuekle in MS excess Of giee Skull
bones were dug up from their long sculpture, with
/ ghastllness staring out
From each laek-lustre, eyeess hole.n
without elicltlng an "Aas, poor Yorick'' and
with only an exclamation from the digger, Of
''room for your betters"
Economy ofspace was the source Of cunning
calculation, in bestowing away the dead men,
Side hy side were laid two, Of gigantic proper.
-. IL ri
The central projections Of their coffins left spaces
between them at their heads and heels This
was too much room to be filled with earth. How
should the space be saved Opportunity, the
material Is at hand; for cart comes numbering
IN with the cOrpses of a mother aud her two little
| children. Chuck the children in the spaces al
the heads and heels ofthe Iltans, and the mother
! by herself, out there aone A comrade for her
will be found anon, and herself and babes will
sleep not the less soundly from the unwonted con-
tact!
The fumes rise up in deathy exhalations from
the accumnating hecatombs of fast coming
corpses. Men wear at their noses bags Of cam
! phor and odorous spices. for there are crowds
there who have no business but to look on and
contemplate the vast congregation of the dead
Ihey don't care II they die themselves-they
| have become so used to the reek of corrupton.-
death, and crack jokes in the horrid atmosphere
where they can scarcely draw breath for uterance.
Inc slocaI negroes, too. who are hired at five
dollars per hour, to assist in the work of inter
ment, stagger under the sitting fumes and can
only be kept at their work by deep and continued
potallons Of the 'ire waier'' They gup deem
draughts OF the stimulating fluid, and Keeling 10
Their tasks, hold their noses with one hand. while
with the other they grasp the spade, heave on the
mould, and rush back TO the bottle to guIp again.
II ls Jolly lime with these ebon la6orers, and
WIN Their white co workers, as thoughlless and
and as Jolly, and full as much intoxicated as them
selves.
AND thus, what with the songs and obscene
tests Of the grave dgses; the buzzing of the flies;
me slng-song cries ofthe huckster women vending
thelf CONNECTIONS; the hoarse oahs OF the men who
drive the dead cars; the merry whistle of the
Boys and the Sitting reek from scores of black
eeed cofpses; the day wears apace, and the work
oi sepullure IS done, and night draws the curtain.
--.NeW Orleans Delta
Ihw New O, leans Della of Aupust lltb saw.