Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1853-09-03
THE PEsTgLENCE AT NEW OR d.
LEANS.
HORRIBLE DOlNGS AMONG EHE DEAD!
Interesting Details.
From the N. o. Crescent of the llth.l


visited the cemeteries. In every street were
long professions, trampng to the solemn mu-
sic OF funeral marches In the countenances
Of ploddng passengers were the lines Of ankle
ty ond grief, and many q door was festooned
with black and white hangings, the voicekss
witnesses of waling and Of sorrow. On the
one hand slowly swept the long corteges OF
the wealthy, nodding with plumes, and drawn
by pranclng horses, rejoicing in their funeral
vanties on another, the hearse Of the citizen
soldier, preceded by measured music enyel-
oped in warlike panoply, and followed by the
noisy tread OF men under arms while there
again the pauper was trundled along to his
long home on ricketty cart, with boy for
driver who whstled as he went, and swore
a careless oath as he urged bis mule or spav-
ened horse to a trot making hast with snoth-
er morsel contributed to the grand banquet of
death. Now among the steeples was heard
the Ginning of the bells as OF Ghouls up
there, mngling their hoarse voices as in a
chorus Of graduation over the ranks oil. fallen
mortality. Anon from some lowly tenement
trilled the low wall Of mother for the child
Of her affections, while from the corner op-
posite burst the song of some low bac-chanal,
mngling, ribaldry with sentiment or swear
ing prayer or two, as the humor moved him.
The skies wore a delusiye aspect. Above
was all cloudless, sunshine. but little in keep
ing with the black m elancLoIy that envel-
oped all below. Out along the highways
that lead to the cities of the dead and still the
tramp of funerals knew no cessation-Up
rolled the volumes Of dust from the busy
roads and the plumes of death carriages
nodded in seeming sympathy to the swaylng
expresses Of swamp, enveloped in their dun
appareling Of weeping moss-ft garniture for
such scene.
At the gathering points carriages accumu-
lated, and vulgar teamsters rs they jostle
each other in the press, mingled the coarse
jest with the ribald oath; no sound but of pro,
fame maledictions and of riotous mirth, the
clang of whip thongs and the rattle Of wheels
At the gates. the winds brought intimaton
Of the corruption working within. Not puff
but was laden with the rank atmosphere
from rotten corpses. Inside they were piled
by fifties, exposed to the heat of the sun,
swollen with corruption, bursting their coffin
lids, and sundering as if by physical effort,
the ligaments that bound their hands and
feet, and extending their rigid limbs in every
oatre attitude What feast of horrors |!
Inside, corpses piled IN pyramids, and with
oat the gates, old and withered crones and
fat huSter women, fretting in their own
grease, dispensing ice creams and confections,
and brushing away. with brooms made Of
bushes, the green bottle-flies that lowered on
their merchandise, and that anon buzze0
away to drink dainty inhalation from: the
green and fostering corpses. Mammon at
the gates was making thrift outside by the
hands ofhis black and tveating minions, that
rendered sweet-meats and cooling beverages
to the throngs of moarners or of idle specta-
tors, who, inhaling the fumes of rotten bodies
already "heaved the gorge" while within,
the King of Terrors" held his Saturanalia,
wi Ii crowd Of stold laborers, who, as they
tumbled the dead into ditches, knocked them
"about the mazzard," and swore dread oaths,
ntermlngled with the more dreadful sounds
Of demoniac jollity.
Long ditches were dug across the great
human charnet Wide enough were they
to enlomb legion, bnt only fourteen inches
deep, Coffus laid in them showed their
tops above the suriice of the Garth On these
was piled dirt to the depth of 70 It or more
but so osely, that the myriads OF flies found
entry between The loose clods, down to the
cracked seams of the coffins and buzzad and
blew there their o0aria, creating each hour
new hatched swarms
But no sound was there of sorrow within
tha' wide Gehenra Men used to the scent
of dissolution had forgotten all touch of sym
pathy. Uncouth laborers, with their bare
heads, stood nnder the broiling heat of the
sun, digging in the earth; and as anon they
would encounter an obstructing root OF stump,
would swear hideous oath, remove to an
other spot and go on digging as before.
Now and then the mattock or spade would
disturb the bones of some former tenant of
the mould, forgotten, there amid the armies
of the accumulated victims, and the sturdy
laborer with gbe, would hurl the broken
fragments on the sward. growl forth an ener-
geuc d-n, and chucke in his excess of glee,
Skull bones were dug up from their long sep
uture, with ghastness staring out,
"FrOm each.lack-lustre, eyeless hole"
without elciting an "Alas, poor Yorick," and
with only an exclamation from the digger of
room for you betters!"
Economy OF space was the source of Gun
ming calculation in slowing away the dead
men, Side by side were laid two of gigan.
tic proportions, blolted by corruption to the
size of Tltans The central projections of
their cofins, lef spaces between them at their
heads and heels. This was too much room
to be filed with earth. How should the
space be saved? Oppotunely the material
is at hand. for cart comes numbering in,
with the corpses of mother and her two lit
tie children. Chuck the children in the spa
ces at the heads and heels of the Titans, and
lay the mother by herself out there alone
A comrade for her will be found anon, and
herself and babes will sleep not the less
soundly from the unwonted contact
The fumes rise up in deathly exhalations
from the accumula:ing hecatombs OF fast com.
ing corpses.--Men wear at their noses bags
Of camphor and odorous sprces-for there are
crowds there who have no business but 10
look Dn and nOntapnvlata tho yast oon,vrooo