Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-07-25
DAILY EVENING STAR.
The Pauper-D Dead Of Naples.

The Pauper- Dead Of Naples.
A writer In the Cincinnati Gazette gives
the following account of visit to the
place where the pauper-dead ofNaples are
buried:
About two miles from the city, in q
large square place, enclosed by q high
wall, there are 365 cistern-shaped vaults,
or pits, with an aperture on top, about
three feet square. These cisterns are
twenty or twenty-five feet deep by twelve
or fifteen in diameter, with the opening
covered by heavy stone, and tightly &C.
mented. One Of these are removed by
portable lever every day in the year, to
receive the dead of that day, and then
closed again for q year. They begin to
deposit the bodies about six O'Clock in
the evening, and end at ten. When got
there, about ten or twelve people had al
ready been thrown in; they were lying
prQmiscuously as they CHANGED to fall,
with head, body and limbs in every pos
sible attitude, across, over, and under
each other. An old priest, two or three
attendants, and few idle spectators of
the common sort, were lettering about.
Shortly after my arrival box was
brought in, containing the body of a
child, four or five years old; its hand held
bunch Of flowers, and rose was in it's
mouth. The priest mumbled a short
prayer, sprinkled it with holy water, and
turned away; man then took the little
fellow up by the neck and heels, and
pitched him in as he would stick of
wood. Seeing the flowers that fell from
its little hand, he picked them up and
threw them after him. His head struck
the curb as it went in, and it fell whirl-
ing to the bottom. In q few minutes
more man was brought to the mouth of
the pit, the priest again prayed and
eprinkled, the attendants took him up BY
the head and legs, and down he went,
also.
Then followed another child like the
first, and l was about leaving the ground,
when fourth subject entered. The lid
was thrown back, and in it was the body
of young and rather handsome female
She was apparently about twenty, and
had evidently died from some short ILL
ness. Her arms and face were bound
and full, and she appeared more asleep
than dead. The prayers and holy water
were again in requisition. The attendants
took her roughly up, and tossed her in.
Immediately stepped to the mouth of the
vault and looked down; her limbs and
those of the dead below she had disturbed
by her fall, were still in motion. Her
head was slowly turning, and her hair,
which was long, black and lu1uriant, was
settling in thick clusters across a very
white and naked body lying near her
For q moment the whole horrid mass
seemed instinct with life, and crawling on
the bottom of its loathsome charnel-
house. had seen enough; sick and dis
gusted, turned away, and moralizing on
the difference between such an interment
and . peaceful one in our own beautiful
cemetery at Spring Grove, mounted my
volante and returned to Naples, meeting
on my road some half dozen boxes,
great and small, containing more victims
for that Unsuitable NAV that opens its
mouth but once year to be gorged with
its dreadful banquet.
The bodies thus inferred are generally
from the hospital, and the sight can
be witnessed by any one three hundred
and si1ty-fve times year. Before the
pit is closed, quicklime is thrown in, and
nothing but bones are left when it is
again opened.