The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-09-16
T II E DISPATCH II.
MoRNINa.... sEprEMBEa 10. les.


The yellow fever 10 on the increase IN both New
Orleans and Charleston. In the former city the
deaths last week reached 40, and the Christian
Association IL teiagraphing 10 other cities for aid
In Charleston the deaths from fever lass week
we're 1903. letter from New Orleans In the Mem
phis Iuquirer gives an Interesting account Of the
mode OF burial In that city:
There are In the city and Its enyirons four teen
cemeteries. Some five Of these are in the midst OF
the city. surrounded By closely built aud deuseIy
populated streets. Owing to the peculiarity Of our
soii, these burial places are peculiar. We canuot
dig more then two or three feet below the surface
without coming to water-so that most of the dead
are buried above ground. These grounds are reg.
nlarly laid of In squares, the walks raised aud
yered With shells. The squares are built up with
vaults and mouuments-wapy Of thea very splen.
did and expensive, costing thousands Of dollars -
There are great variety Of models and devices,
many OF them OF rare and exquisite beauty.
Around these tombs are beautiful evergreeIs, In
termlxed with fair and fragrant flowers, which
grow with SO much luxuriance In our rich soil and
sunny cline.
The cemeteries below Canal and above Espiarde
street, called the French burying grounds. re-
gsrded as the most Interesting as exhibitions Of
seuiptnre, where grief records its wee or pride in
imperishable marble.
Around these cemeteries walls ten feet high
and eight or ten feet thick. These are pierced
with three or four rows Of tombs about two and o
half feet square, rising in tiers one above the
other and has the appearance of the pigeon holes
for letters in the post Office, though on much lar
ger scale. These are perfectly closed with slabs
aud ar-tight cement, except at one end. This is
open for the insertion of the ccffio.
The burial service at the grave 1s performed
thus: The procession moves from the hesrse to
the wall, where q certain one of the vaults has
been previously selected-say No. $50, (they are
all numbered) The ccfiin IL about two-thirds in
serted aud the service whatever may be its CHAR
acter is then attended to; this over the coffin is
ru },pd han
mortar, trowels and hammers, begins his work.
The family and friends stand uncovered until the
mason 10 done, when the date aud name all
written in the smooth soft plaster spread over the
brick, and the company depart and leave the
sleeper to his last aud lonely bed!
Ono gets used to like this, but at first 1t
seems so business like and mechanical; so like any
other labor, any other piece of masonry; aud con-
trasts strongly with the burial on the hill side,
where the turf 10 green and the old trees spread
their broad green boughs, and the little birds in
summer time sing requiehs, and the lone winds
il winter time murmur solemn dirges Ger the dead
The city authorities are discouraging interments
in the cemeteries iu the crowded portions of the
city, Some three miles from the city, about
midway from the river to the Lake, there 10 D low
ridge of land known as the Metaire Ridge Hare
fhe city authorities are laying out among the
live oaks public Park-and here there ia famous
race course-aDd here most OF our city's dead are
to sleep their last sleep! What strange usesi
The N. o. Bulletin noticing the philanthropic
Efforts of the Young Mems Christian Association
of that city. says:
The Young Mems Christian Association has diyi
ded the city, we learn, into twenty-five districts
and appointed committee for each, with physi-
clans aud apothscaries. and has established, at a
number of points, infirmariss TO which tho sick
when necessary, are sent.
In this divine work, woman, az usual, is the
chief agent. Woman! wherever there is pain to
be relieved, the broken hearted to be raised up;
where gaunt poverty and raging fever hold terrible
carnival; where deiirium and the deali, rattis
drive men from the abode of misery. there is fund
woman
1t must not be supposed that these women.
young and middle aged, many of them delicate and
educated, the ornaments to society, only go where
and when they are called upon for assistauce Not.
withstandiug the heat of the weather, with the
slight protection of. their bonnets aud parasois,
they take to the streets they explore the alleys,
they seek out those vho would otherwise never
receive the blessings of their presence. They push
into the aboies ef the lowy, the crowded and filth
apartments where the epidemic RACES with the
greatest power. Nor must it be supposed that
they confins themselves to the yellow fever alone.
They relieve suffering wherever they fiod it, and
take care Of the destitute sick whatever be the
ture oftheir disease.
Very touching, we'll as terrible. are some Ct
the scenes which some of these light-robed messen
gers of mercy have witnessed. In one place on
Girod street, they found German family of eight
persons ia the second story of house, seven OF
whom had the yellow fever, and the eighth, an in
fant, lay corpse by the side of its sick mother
who, in ber delirium, all unconscious that her
little one had been released from its suffsrngs.-
The little corpse was let down outside lest its
mother should become conscious aud the shock be
tUo great for her to bear. In another case, a well
educated woman, native of Phiadelphia, whose
father, understand, is living and wealthy, was
found almost entirely destitute, and upon whom the
progress of the fever had gone far be arrested
She coon passed from her sorrows, and unwilling
has e, che
We misht mention the particulars OF other cases
touching az these, but our space forbids it..