The weekly Butte record., 1858-12-25
How the Dead are Buried in New Orleans.

The yellow fever has been specially yirulen
and fatal, and some who were thought to b
long since acclimated have been attacked, ant
some of them have fallen victims We hop
1T has reached its climax, and will now steadi
ly decline-though we know not the end SOM
four hundred died last week. This sound
alarming, but it is small as compared with 1853
when three hundred died in single day.
Your readers will inquire: What do we dc
with all these dead? Where do We bury
them? There are in the city and euviron:
fourteen cemeteries. Some five of these are IL
the midst of the city, surrounded by closely.
built and densely- populated streets Owing tc
the popularity Of our soil, these burial places
are peculiar. We cannot dig more than two
or three feet below the surface without coming
to water, so that most OF the dead are buried
above ground. These grounds are regularly
laid off in squares, and walks raised aud cover
ed with shells. The squares are built up with
monuments, many of them very splendid and
very expensive, costing thousands of dollars
There are a great variety OF models and devi-
ces, many OF them of rare and exquisite beauty
Around these tombs are beautiful evergreens
intermixed with fair and fragrant flowers, which
grow with so much uxuriance in our rich soil
and sunny cline.
! The cemeteries below Canal and above Es
panade streets, called the French burying-
grounds are regarded as the most interesting
as exhibitions of sculpture, where grief records
its woe or pride in imperishable marble.
Aroutd these cemeteries are walls ten feet
high aud eight or ten ieet thick They are
pierced with three or four rows oftombs about
two and a half feet square, rising in tiers one
above the other, and has the appearance of the
pigeon-hoies for letters in the post Office tho
on much larger scale. These are perfectly
closed with slabs and air-tight cement except
ut one end. This is open for the insertion OF
the coffin
The burial service at the grave is performed
thus The procession moves from the hearse
to the wall, where c>rtain one of the vaulrs
has been previously selected-say No. 250-
(they are all numbered). The coffin is bout
two-thirds inserted, and the service whatever
may be its character is then attended to this
over, the coflir is pushed in-then the mason,
with brick and morter trowels and hammer,
begins his work. The family and friends stand
uncovered until the mason is done, when the
date and name are written in the smooth, soft
plaster spread over the brick, and the compa-
ny depart and leave the sleeper 10 his last and
lonely bed.
One gets used to scenes like this, but at first
II seems so buslneSs-llhe and mechanical so
like any other labor, any other piece of mason
rv and contrasts strongly with the burial on
the hillside, where the turf is green, and the
old trees spread their broad, green boughs and
the little birds in summer time sing requiems,
and the lone winds in winter time murmur sol
emn dirges over the dead. The city authori-
ties are discouraging interments in the ceme-
teries in the crowded portions of the city.
Some three miles from the city, about midway
from the river to the lake, there is a low ridge
Of land known as Metairie Ridge. Here the
city authorities are laying ont among the live
oak public park (and here there is a famous
race-course) and here most of our city's dead
are to sleep their last sleep! What strange
uses
There are quite a number of cemeteries laid
out here, and here already thousands "are at
rest" In these cemeteries are many ich aud
beautiful tombs and monuments, some Of them
private, and some the property of benevolent
associations. On the ridge Many are buried in
graves dug in shallow ground, but they often
fill with water 50 rapidly that the cofin has to
be held down until mud enough can be thrown
on it to hold it at the bottom of the grave.
Thus thousands of the poor are committed
''earlh TO earth.' Our feelings, at first, may
revolt from this way, but why? What does it
matter how the dust returns to dust !? Wheth-
er it sinks beneath the gurgng wave, withers
on burning sands, sleeps in sculptured vaults
or, like our lowly dead in the marshes of the
great river? The grand question is, whittier
has the immortal spirit fled To "fairer worlds
on high or ''to outer darkness, where there is
weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth -
Memphis Enquirer