New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-11-02
gotal gntelIi9qnte.
The Graveynrds Yesterday.

The Graveyards Yesterday
All Saints Day derived its name, during the
fourth century from the fact that it was to com
memorate the virtues of the large number of
saints to whose names no particular day was de.
voted in the calendar; and it is this day which has
been set apart from time immemorial by the
Catholic world to remind US Of our duties to the
departed, and of the mortality of all of human
kind
The disposal of the dead with rites of some kind,
to show the sacredness of the obligation, by
burial, burning or embaming, is one Of the first
customs we read of in history.
Among the Jewsit was similar to the method en-
ployed in this city except that the tomb was in a
| case or cut in rock; the Parsecs exposed the
bodies of their friends to the vultures, and col
| lected their bones the Greeks adopted the
Phrygian custom of burning the dead the Romans,
even after the custom Of incremation was in
troduced, buried their dead along the highways
as numerous tombs along the Appian road to this
day testify, while the metropolis at Alexandria,
with its magnificent nausoleums, palaces and
| temples in which Tile embalmed dead were
placed in cateCombs, and in which Cleopatra ap.
piled the aspic to her breast, tall Of the manner
| in which the obligation was regarded by tile
| gloomy race whom she governed.
| The word cemetery (fr5m the Latin cen1eter57tnl,
resting place., shows the point Of view from
which the act of internent was REGARDED bv tie
| Christian world, 1t was because tle Christians
believe in the resurrection of the dead" saws an
old chr0picler, that thew will have their deDnsi
tories rather styled places for rest than burying
| grounds" As it was here that the martyrs of the
| early church were buried, and on that account,
the cemeteries were first selected as places for
| assembly, and afterwards as the sites for their
churches. 1t was this custom Of building their
| churches above the resting places of tile martyrs
that has since caused the placing Of the bones Of
| saints under the altars of subsequent churces.
i Our cemeteries here will hardly compare with
that Of Naples Of Pierre ID Claise with its historic
dead or the Campo SantO of Pisa, with its lofty
arcalas of marble, sixty feet high and ground
brought from the Holy Land; nevertheless The
resting places of the dead, in our midst, are not
without their beauty and their historic in
terest. In the piou5 regard that is paid
their remains, our city will compare with
any. and the enormous masses of people
that were, in every direction, in motion yester
day, is proof of our assertion.
During most Of the bright hours, they con
tnued their pilgrimages, sometimes coming, some
times going, and filing the Streets in the bach
portion of the city, with larger crowd than is
ordinarily seen on Canal. This throng represented
almost every variety of our heterogeneous poPula
| tlon, stffed from Top TO Dottom, lcluulnS tht
rich as well as the humble, and alto3ethef mus
trating the respect that death eXacts from eaci
and all, 1t is a singular fact that among SO grea
80 r ,., l
variety OF VlslGOfS no cases OF FuueAesS, ToWuy
ism or disturbance of anv kind are renorted by thi
i7ilA " HA9't'A '''i'OS " '"J ~ - - =" -
police. The only care the latter had to exercise
=. j.. ~. -. .....-. . I. 81, c.
/ VINO were Stdtloheu aboHs Lle entEhHces oI tHe ct