The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1853-09-01
NO. 10.

dead into the bitches, knocksd them ga
bout the ma azzard," and swore dread oaths
intermingled with the most dreadful
sounds of demoniac iolity.
Long bitches were dug across the hu-
man charnal. Wide enough were they
to entomb legion, but only fourteen
ircbas deep. CoGUs laid in them showed
their tops above the surface of the earth.
On these was piled dirt to the depth of a
foot or more, but SO loosely, that the myr-
lads of flies found entry between the
loose clods, down to the cracked seems of
the cofins. and buzzed and blew there
their oUaria, creating each hour their new
Matched swarns.
But no sound was there of sorrow with
in that wide Cinema. Men used to the
scene of dissolution had forgotten all
touch of sympathy. UncOuth laborers
with their bare shock heads, stood under
the broiling heat of the sun, digging IN
the earth; and as anon they would en-
counter an obstructing root or stump,
would swear hideous oath, remove to
another spot, and go on digging as be-
fore. Now and then the mattock or the
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 4
give would hurl the broken fragments on
the sward, growl forth an energetic d-n1
and chuckle in his excess Of glee. Skull
bones were dug up from their long sepul-
ture, with ghastliness starting out.
"From each lack-lustre, eyeless hole"
without eIiciting an "AIas, poor YOrick,"
and with only an exclamation from the
digger, of " room for your bettcrs!"
Economy of space was the source Of
calculation in bestoWing away the dead
men SIDE - SIDE we're laid tvg. Ct -
gantic proportions to the size of Iitans.
The central projections of their cofins,
left space between them at their heads
and heels, How should the space be
saved? Opportunely the material IS at
hand, a cart comes numbering in, with
corpses of mother and her two little
children. Chuck the children in the
space 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 riso up in deathly exhala-
tons from the accumulating hecatOmbs of
fast-coming corpses. Men wear at their
noses bags of fcamphor and odorous spices
for there are crowds there who have no
business but to look on and contemplate
the vast congregation of the dead. They
don't care if they die themselves-they
have become so used to the wreck of cor
ruption. They even laugh at the riotings
of the skeleton Death, and crack jokes III
the horrid atmosphere, when scarcely
they can draw breath for uttcrance.
The stoical negroes, too, who are hired
at FIVE dollars per hour to assist IN the
work ofinterment, stagger under the sti-
fling fumes, aud can only be kept at their
work By deep and continued potations Of
the "6re water" They gulp deep
draughts rf the stimulating fluid, and
reeling to their tasks, hold their noses
with one hand, while with the other they
erasp tie spade, heavc on lie moufi, aud
rush back to the bottle to gulp again.--
1t is a jolly time with these ebOn labor
ers, and with their white co-workers-as
thoughtless and as jolly, and full as much
intoxicated as themselves.
And thus, what with the songs and OBJ
scene iests of the grave diggers, the buzz
zing of the flies, the sing-son cries Of the
huckster women vending their confections
the hoarse oaths of the men who drive
the dead carts, the merry whistle Of ths
boys, and the sitting reek from scores of
blackened corpses, the day wears apace,
the work of sepulture is done, and night
draws the curtain.