Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1854-01-11
HOW THEY BURY THEIR DEAD IN
NAPLES

N. P. Willis, in an account of his visit to It.
ally, speaks Of the buried vaults in Naples in the
following manner:
An old man opened the iron door, and we en-
tered clean, spacious and well paved area, with
long rows of iron rings in the heavy slabs Of the
pavement. Without asking question, the old
man walked across to the farther corner, where
stood a movable lever, and fastening the chain
into the fixture, raised the massive stone cover
Of pit. He requested us to stand back for
few minutes to give the effiuvia time to escape,
and then, sheltering our eyes with our hats, we
looked n You have read, of course, that there
three hundred and sixty Live pits in this place,
one of which is opened every day for the dead
of the city. They are thrown in without shroud
or coffin, and the pit is sealed up at night for
year. They are thirty or forty feet deep, and
each would contain, perhaps two hundred bod
les. Lime is thrown upon the daily heap, and
it soon mets isto mass of garbage, and by the
end of the year the bottom of the pit is covered
with dry white bones.
Il was some time before we could distinguish
any thing in the darkness ofth abyss. Fixing
my eyes on one spot, however, the outlines of
body became defined gradually, and in q few
minutes, sheltering my eyes completely from
the sun above, could see all the horrors Of the
scene but too distinctly. Eight corpses, all
grown persons, lay in q confused heap together,
as they had b0en thrown in one after another in
the course of the day. The last was power
fully made gray old man, who had fallen flat on
his back, with his right hand lying across, and
half covering the face of woman. Bv his full
limbs and chest, and the darker color of his legs
below the knee, he was probably one of the laz-
zaron, and had met with sudden death.
His riUht heel Inv on tho fnrnhpnd of q younO
man, emaciated to the last degree, his chest
thrown up as he lay, and his ribs showing like
n skeleton covered with skin. The close black
curls of the latter, as his head rested on anoth-
er body, were in such strong relief that could
have counted them. Off to the right, quite dis
tinct from the heap, lay in beautiful attitude, a
girl as far as | could Judge, of not more than
nineteen or twenty. She had fallen on the pile,
and rolled or slid away. Her hair was very
long, and covered her left shoulder and bosom
her arm was across her body, and if her mother
had laid her down to sleep, she could not have
disposed her limbs more decenty. The head
had fallen little way to the right, and the feet
which were small, even for lady. were pressed
one against the other as if she was about turn
ing on her side The sexton said that young
man had come with the body and was very i'll
for some time after it was throwni in. We ask
ed him if respectable people were brought here.
Yes" he said "many. None but the rich
would 60 to the expense of separate grave for
their relation People were often brought in
handsome grave clothes, but they were always
stripped before they were left. The shroud,
whenever there was one, was the perqusite of
the undertakers" And thus are flung into this
noisome pit, like beasts the greater part of the
population of this vast city-the young and the
olG, the vicious and the virtuous together, with
out the decency even of rag to keep up the
distinction of life Can human beings thus be
thrown away? men like ourselves-women,
children, like our sisters and brothers? sever
was so humiliated in my life as by this horrid
spectacle. | did not think man-felon even,
or leper-what you will, that is guilty or deba-
sed-I did not think anything that had been hu-
man, could be so reckessly abandoned Pah
1t makes one sick at heart God grant may
never die at Naples
PROFIT OF LITIGATIoN-At the present term
OF the Monmouth Court in New Jersey, there
was case decided between Mr.. Lewis and O
Mr. Pitcher, on suit of trespass. There was
disputed tract OF land about three feet broad al
one end, and running down to point at the
other, the value of which was varously estma.
ted at from one shilling to fifty dollars. The