The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1853-09-27
poMK AMo.G rHE DEAD.

~ 1NOs OOOs
DOWN. AMo.E TaE DEAD.
To verify the many horrible reports Of tho
doings among the doad, we tho other day Wis
tied tho cemeteries. In every etreet were
long processons, trampirg to the solemn uu-
sic of funeral marches, IN the countenances
of plodding passengers wore the lines Of anxi-
ETY. and grief, and many oor was festooned
with black and white hangIngs, tho voiceless
witnesses of wailng and of sorrow. On the
one hand slowly swept the long corteges Of the
wealthy, noddng with plumes and drawn By
prancing horses, rejoicing in their funeral van
tiles; on another, tho hearse of tho citizen sol
dier, preceded by measured music, enveloped
in warlike panoply, and followed by the noisy
tread OF men under arms; while there again
the pauper was trundlcd to his long home on.
a rickoty cart, with boy for driver, who
whistled as he went. and swore careless oath
as he urged his mule Ss sgaylpfao ssonSs29b N
uted to the grand banquet of death. Now a.
mong the steeples was heard The Ginning of
the bells, as of Ghouls up there, mingling their
hoarse voices as in a chorus of gratulatiOn over
the ranks of mortality. Anon from some low
| ly tenement trlled the low wall Of q mother
for the child of her affections, While from the
corner opposite burst tho song Of some low
accanal mipging ribaldly with sentiment, or
swearing prayer or two, as the humor moved
| him.
The skies wore a delusive aspect Above
was all cloudless sunshine, but little in keeping
with black melancholy that enveloped all be-
| low. Out along the highways that lead to the
cities of tho dead, aud still the tramps of fune-
| raj crowds knew no cessation. Up rolled the
| volumes of dust from the busy roads, and the
plumes of the death carriages nodded in see-
ing sympathy to the swaying Expresses of the
swamp, envoloped in their dun eppcareling of
sweeping moss-ft garniture for such
see @.
At the gathering points carriages accumula-
ted, and vulgar toamsters, as they jostled each
other in the press, mingled the coarse just with
the ribald oath; no sound but of profane male
dic;ion and Of riotous mirth, the clang Of whip
thongs and the rattle of wheels. At the gates,
the winds brought intima,ion of the corruption
working within. Not puff but was laden
with the rank atmosphere from rotting cOrpses.
Inside they were piled by fifties, exposed to
the heat of the sun, swollen with corruption.
bursting their cofiin-ids, and sundering as by
physical effort, the ligaments that bound their
hands and feet, and extending their rigid limbs
in every outre attitude. What feast of hor-
rors! Inside corpses piled in pyramids, and
without the gates old and wthered croncs and
fat huxter-womsn, lretting in their own grease,
dispensing ice creams and CONNECTIONS, and
brushing away, with brooms made of bushes,
the green bottlefiies that hovered on their mer-
chaadise and that anon buzzcd away 10 bring
dainty inhalations from the green and fostering
corpses. Mammon at the gates was making
thrift outside by the hands of his back and
sweating mininns, that vended sweetmeats and
cooling beverages to the throngs Of mourners
or of idle spectators, who, inhaling the fumes
of rotting bodies, already 'heaved tho gorge;"
while within the king of Terrors" held his
Sa urnalia, with crowd Of stold laborers.
who, as they tumbled the dead into bitches,
knocked them "about the mazzard,' and swors
dread oaths, intermingled with the more dread
ful SQUADS of demoniac jolliiy.
Long bitches were dug across the great hu-
man charnel. Wide oHough were they to en-
tomb legion; but only fourteen inches deep.
Cotiins lad in them showed their tops above
line surface OF the earth. On these was piled
dirt 10 the depth of foot or more, but SO loose
ly, that the myrisds OF flies found entry be-
tween tho loose elods. down to the cracked
seams of the coffins. and buzzed and blew
there their ovdrja, creating each hour their
new batchcd swans.
But no sound was there of sorrow within
that wide Gehenna. Men used to the scent of
dissolution had forgotten all touch of sympo-
thy. Uncouth !aborers with their baro shock
heads, stood under the broDg heat Of the sun
digging in the earth and as anon they would
encounter an obstructing root OF stump, would
swear a hidious oath, removed to another spot,
and go on digging as before. Now and then
the mattoek or the spade would disturb the
bones of some former tenaat of the mould for
gotten there amid the armies of the sccumula-
ted victims, and the sturdy laborer with give
would hur the broken fragments on the sward
growl forth ad energetic d-n, and chuckle in
his excess of glee. Skull bones were dug UP
from their long sepulture, with ghastliness
staring out ei nq
'From each lac.-lustrc, eyeless hole"
without elicing an "Alas, poor Yorick," and
with only an exclamation from tho digger, OF
room for your betters!'
Economy of space was the source of cunning
calculation in bestowing away the dead men.
Side by side were laid two, of the gigantic pro-
portions, bIoated by corruption to the size OF
Titans. Tho central projections, of their cof-
fms left spaces between them at their heads
and heels. This WAS too much room to be
filled with earth. How should tho space be
saved? Opportunely the material is at hand
for cart comes numbering in, with the corpses
of mother and her two children. Chuck tho
childron IN the spaces at the heads and heels
of the Ttans, and lay the mother by herself
out there alonel A conrad for her will be
found anon, and herself and babies will sleep
not tho less soundly from the unwanted con-
tactl
Tho fumes risc up in denhly exhalations
from the accumulating hecatombs of fast COM
ing corpses. Men wear at their noses bags Of
camphor and odorous spices-for there are
crowds there whe have no business but to look
on and contemplate the vast congregation Of
the dead They don't care If they die them
selves-they have become so used to the reek
of corruption. They even laugh at tho riot
ings of tie skeleton Death aud crack jokes in
tho horrid atmosphere. where scarcely they
can draw breath for uttcrance.
The stoical 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 POI oations of the "fire water" They
gulp deep draughts of the stimulating fluid.
ana reeling to their tasks, and bold their noses
with one hand, while with the other they grasp
Al La Loa n 1.anuld aud rush hank