The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1853-09-07

OOO may be realized during the coming
year.
From the New Orleans Crescent.
Down Among the Dead Men.
To verify the many horrible reports o.
the doings among the dead, we the Other
day visited the cemeteries In every street
were long professions, tramping the sol
emn music of funeral marches. In the
countenances ofplodding passengers were
the lines of anxiety and grief, and many
a door was festooned with black and white
hangings. the voiceless witness Of wailing
and sorrow. On the one hand slowly
swept the long corteges of the wealthy,
nodding with plumes and drawn by pran.
cling horses, rejoicing in their funeral van.
tiles; on another, the hearse Of the citizen.
soldier, preceded by measured music, en-
veloped in warlike panoply, and followed
by the noisy tread OF men under arms;
while there again, the pauper was trund.
led to his long home on a rickety cart,
with boy for driver, who whistled as
he went, and swore careless oath as he
urged his mule or spawned horse 10 a !rot
making haste with another morsel contrib.
uted TO the grand banquet OF death. Now
among the steeples was heard the Ginning
OF the bells, as Of Ghoules up there, ming.
ling their hoarse voices as in chorus OF
graduation over the ranks of fallen NOR
tality. Anon from some lowly tenement
thrilled the low wall Of mother for the
child OF her affections, while from the cor.
ner opposite bursts the song of some low
bacchanal, ningling ribafdry with senti-
ment,r or swearing a prayer or two as the
hunIor moved him.
The skies wore a delusive aspect. A.
bove was all cloudlcss sunshine, but little
in keeping with the black melancholy that
enyeloped all below. Out along the high.
ways that lead to the cities of the dead,
and still the tramp Of funeral crowds knew
no cessation. Up rolled the volumns OF
dust from the busy roads, and the plumes
Of the death carriages nodded in seeming
sympathy to the swaying Expresses Of the
swamp. senveloped in their dun appareling
Of weeping noss-ft garniture for such q
scene.
At the gathering points carriages accu,
mulated, and vulgar teamsters, as they
jostled each other in the press, mingled
the coarse Jest with the ribald oath; no
sound but Of profane malediction and of
riotous mirth. the clang Of whipthongs and
the rattle Of wheels. At the gates, the
winds brought intimation Of the corruption
working within. Not puff but was Ia
den with the rank atmosphere from rotting
corpses. Inside they were piled byfifiies,
exposed to the heat of the sun, swollen
with the corruption. bursting their coffin
lids, and sundering, as if by physicaleffort.
the ligaments that bound their hands and
feet. and extending their rigid limbs in ev-
cry soutre attitude. Whatia feast Of hor-
rors! Inside, corpses piled in pyramids,
and without the gates, old and withered
crones and fat huxter- 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 buzzed away to drink dain-
ty inhabitations from the green and tester.
ing corpses. :. a'vssf f''7sa'9-f si.i--- o =
Mammon at the gates was making thrift
outside by the hands Of his black and
sweating minions, that rendered sweat.
meats and cooling beverages to the throngs
OF mourners or idle spectators, who. inhal.
ing the fumes Of rotten bodies, already
'heaved the gorge;' while within, the King
of Terrors' held his Saturnalia with
crowd stolid laborers; who. as they tum-
bled the dead into bitches, knocked them
about the mazzard,' and swore dead
oaths. intermingled with the more dreadful
sounds OF demoniac jollity.
Long bitches were dug across the great
human charnal. Wide enough were they
to entomb legion, but only fourteen
inches deep. Cofins laid in them show.
ed their tops above the surface Of the
earth. On these we're piled dirt to the
depth of a foot or more, but so loosely,
that the myriads of flies found entry be.
tween the loose clods, down to the crack
ed seams of the coffins. and blew there
their 'ovaria' creating each hour, their
swarms. t
But no sound was there of sorrow with.
in that wild Gahenna. Men used to the
scene of dissolution had forgotten all touch
Uncouth laborers. with their
bare shock heads, stood under the broiling
heat of the sun, digging in the earth; and
as soon as they would encounter an obs,
root or stump would swear hid
eous oath, remove to another spot. and 20
on digging as before. Now and then the
or the spade would disturb the
bones Of some former tenant Of the mould /,
forgotten there amid the armies Of the ac-
cumulated victims, and the sturdy laborer,
with gibe, would hurl the broken frag.
ments on the sward, growl forth an ener.
getic d-n, and chuckle in his excess of
glee. Skull.bones were dug up from their
long sepulcher, with ghastliness staring
out So ..
"From each iack.lustre. eyeless hole,
without eliciting an sAlas, poor Yorick,' :
and with only an exclamation from the
digger, Of room for your bettersl' !.
Economy Of space was the source Of
cunning calculation in slowing away the
dead men. Side by side were laid two. Of
gigantic proportions, bloated by corrup-
ton. to the size Of Titans. The central
projections of their collins. left spaces be-
tween them attheir heads and heels. This