New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-11-27

IX -a-TE
ssaee q W. cEouched down against wall q human
skuth MS cenQe MAO iallen % me ground ana gone
oQs me cod sweat poured rom ms body 10 great
ana ne va already 20 WEAK g g % unable 70
tdse e ~ nj unaided- ss. E. N
Aissr walk q more than hall : mile through this
labyrinth q derknea ~ arrived q nicely chseled
yeeun9A nearlnS on ~ square pllssters lngunrtols
Quotations from the Latin; TIE extremity q this
chambeF, deep IA tho solid stone WAL, there was
blAek door This WAS the door o. the Catacombs
proper, through which We were 70 enter. But this
door y kspt locked (why, one can hardly imsgineO
and the bot refused Al the Efforts Ct the engineer 70
in moment Of passion, that his sepulchral subjects
10 the interior were not living walking beings raped
on the door with his knuckles but 1t was relief to
the living on the outsde that no help came from that
aifeotson " singular hazard, the servant girl Of
the Gpanish Countess De H., who was Of the party
IN attendance ON her mistress found in her pocket
small screwdriyer This was passed to the engineer,
the lock was loosened the door swung on lie rusty
hinges, and w d06led into the ghAstly avenues OF
this vastest Of modern charnelhouses.
Tbs number Of human skeletons deposited here
amounts to the enormous figure Of three millions two
hundred thousand Il these were clothed in flesh and
he, ana arranged IA single ME IKE soldiers, allowing
Twenty inches to each individual they would reach
one thousand miles! Or II IN double le as they are
here, hve hundred miles But system Of architec.
turM packing is adopted which crowds this mass Of
more than fhree million skeletons into two walls Of
les than i've miles extent Such vast compression
down here among the dead, the French love OF sys-
tenn and o perfection in the decorative art receive
their maximum Of expression. The bones are ar
ranged ID two solid architectural wallis forming ave-
nues varying in width from ten TO thirty feet These
streets OF the dead are tortuous they twist and turn
upon themselves and ntersect like apexus Of nerves.
and at each turning one is startled with some new
caprice of mortnary architecture. Ordinarily the
long bones Of the body, the femurs tibas and hume
ruses form layer two feet high, endwse, like pile
OF c0rd-w00d then comes row Of skulls, face fore
most then smother layer OF the long bones then the
skulls then the long bones, and lastly, the skulls
three layers of eachperfectly adjusted in straight
The wall thus constructed is CHASTITY picturesque
but here and there the artist gives rein to his fantasy
and we meet wall decorated with q line OF the
famous skull and crossbones, or with curiously
ranged femurs and pelvic bones and sometimes we
meet with whole skeleton starting out of hidden
cornerin the bony wall Skulls that show balholes
and sabre cuts are honored with an aureoa Of raduses
and ulnas. fflst@e & Fs
At intervals occur square pillars Of stone to sup
port the root OF the vault and on these are entaba
lures bearing which recall death and the in
Significance Of life, with vvidness that appear alb
surdly superluons in such proximity. But some
allowance must be made for the national pride Of the
artist who conld not allow such occasion to escape
for displaying the mortuary literature of his country
happy association often gives wonderful intensity
to ideas Of the most diluted force
Ths ascertained extent Of the excavations under
the city Of Pars is about 200 acres but the engineers
are satisfied that they extend to at least onesxth Of
the city. These were ancient quarries, which were
long ago closed up at their entrances built and
forgotten ltiwas not till 1854 that the Government
deciding upon the gradual suppression of intra-mura
cemeteries and burias decreed that the subterranean
quarries of the city should be devoted to the recep
ton OF the bones OF the dead. The Cemetery of the