Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-07-31

and the graveyard is Invaded by curious
dramatic iffYentions.b If you visit Pere te !
Chaise, the chief cemetery of Paris, you
find the tomb of Rachel, the actress, cox-
cred with the cards of daily visitors and
the railing round the base OF the great
in the Place Vendome, erected
to Napoleon the First, embossed with the
of his veterans and isvictories, is
hing with garlands of inana0rtelLes, some of
which are made of wire, as if to last for
ever. But nothing is at first so revolt
ing to an American as the Catacombs.-
Here, is, indeed, "a city of the dead. - =,
Anxious to let my readers know that 1 ,
have visited this famous 'Golgotha," )
a ticket from the proper authori-
ties, and, in company with several Ameri- ,
san gentlemen, repaired, last Saturday, to
the principal entrance, at the old bar
riere d'Enfer." Here we presented our
pass, and found 0congregated about two
hundred persons, males and females, most-
ly French. The Catacombs are only opened
tor exhibition twice a month, and the anx-n
iety to see them is so great, that the oau-
thorities Issue only a limited number of
tickets to prevent a crowd. Placing our z
selves in a line like, the voters on election
day. only in couples instead of singly, each
Of us armed with half Of a sperm candle,
costing three sous, to light our way, we
began to descend into, the vast scharnel-
steps seemed to Be. endless. and as the
French are the noisiest, though apparently
the politest people in the world, their ridic-
uious laughter and curious cries seemed .
hideots mockeries to our unframed ears.
When We reached the last step we found
ourselves at the beginning Of Q series Of ,
galleries, cut through the solid earth, like
the galleries in our colleries, and sup
ported by huge stone pillars or abutments.H
Following our guide, we passed through
the main gallery tor dae' least a mile, oanda
finally came to the octagonal vesttbale Of the ,
Catacombs.s This yestibule introdqced us
into rooms lined from floor to roof aqith. t'le
bones of three millions of human beings s1he3
arm leg, and thigh bones are in front, as4
closely and regularly arranged together as J
the best masonry, their uniformity being
relieved by long rows of skulls, at equal
distances. the skulls sometimes assuming
the shape of crosses, and always acting as
If to relieve the otherwise hideous monot-
ony. Z Behind thiso outer fortress of bones
are thrown the smaller bones. At inter
walls, in the centre of the sides of the rooms
or passages, Latin and French inscriptions
on white marble slabs are placed-some
from Lafnartine, some from Livy, some
from the Bibie-reminding thespectator of
the end of life and the folly of ambition
AS we entered upon this revolving company 3
al were silent-the silly Frenchmen ceased
their cat-calls, dog-barking and laughter
the priests (who like the soldiers you fiud
everywhere in France) crossed themselves
with many whispered GUe, and the wo-
men huddled to the side of their protectors
with a. pretty pretence and alarm. 1t was
a sight well calculated to teach us the utter
folly of selfishness, falsehood and oppres-
sion, and the priceless value of giving our
best efforts to the cause of ofhumanity. Justice
and freedom. One of the gravest questions
in such city as Paris1is the burial of the
n Or trnnhlQ
in the populous and powerful eras OF the
Roman empire, and it is related by an old =
historian that even after they resorted to
corpses and preserving the ash 4
esq they had not space to store away the
urns in which these ashes were preserved.
These receptacles for the bones of the dead
of Paris originated in e17S4, in nconsequencel
ofa decree for the clearing of one of the chief
cemeteries of the city: and from that time.
as the progress of improvement and the
opening of new streets made space essen
tial, other burial grounds have been closed,
and their human debris carefully gathered
into these eaverns. I noticed tablets upon
which was deeply carved the, cemetery
from which the closely-packed and grimly-
decorated bones had been removed, several
of these bearing the last years date. Ma
poleonis improvements stop atm impedl-
ments. He destroys the tenements OF the
living to open new streets, to widen old
ones, and otherwise to beautify the city;
and he does not hesitate to invade the sane
tuaries of the gray. There is something
fearfiIly calculating in the arrangement of
death and burial in Paris. have tried to
describe the mode of French living, the
systematic devotion to pleasure, the reg
ular1 disregard of what we call morality
and religion, the idolatry of high art in
painting, sculpture, music, decoration, and
dress, and the manner i'll which vice is
polished, not into virtue, but almost into
yeneration. ., The same elaborate order fol-
lows the human being to. his final abode,
aud the CHASTITY architecture of the Cata-
combs is the finished finale of heartless
programme. The lGao takes instant cogn1-
lance of the dead, as it preserves constant
guardianship of the living body. Notice
Of decease must be instantly made to the
mayor by the relatives, or by the tenant at
whose house the person died. The body is
then visited by the public physician, the
cause of dissolution ascertained, and no
burial takes place until twenty-four hours
after death. The undertaken is monopoly
in the hands of company which pays a
certain tariff to the government. There
are nine classes of funerals, the cost of the.
Lowest being about four dollars. and of the
first Glass as high as twelve hundred dol
lars, The poor are buried at public ex-
pense, close to but not upon each other,
and the graves are opened every five years
and their contents distributed in the mighty
vaults / have Just visited. AS / walked
through the streets of this terrible, cavern,
.e4lHpos6d of the relics of three millions of
my fellow creatures, one million more than
those who fret their little hour in the gay
city itself, 1 could not suppress reflections
that must be common to all who visit this
appalling receptacle. How many E"lmpe-
rial Casars"-how many poor Yoricksn-
how many soldiers, and statesmen, and
poets, land 2 hiIosophers-how many
beautiful women-had once looked and
spoken alternate command, wit, cour-
age, eloquence, song, sentiment, and
love- from these now-silenti and ltIs-
treless oskullsl Perhaps the head nearest
me was that Of the lost Robespierre, who,
after filling whole land with blood and
death, faded into utter oblivion! Around
me were gathered the victims who fell in
the massacres of the I'D and,3d of Septem-
ber 1888, that dread carnival which hasten
ed his own doom and opened the way for
6the splendid rule of Napoleon the First.
/ And it was almost Impossible, after COM
pairing the uncertainty and uneasiness of
the more enlightened government of Ma
poleon's relative with the terrible drama
chat ushered in and closed his own career,
to avoid asking the question, How long it
will beObefore another uprising of this un-
certain and exacting people contributes new
thousands to these skeleton millions?
7 '-'' "a '5'' D. w. f.
- 4------------
The Same Over Here.
The Logan Gazette, speaking of negro
suffrage says: na $3.50 l5ei E5ua1 y'
ave know, to dead certainty that nig-
ger suffrage, as proposed in the black Re-
publican platform of this State, is distaste-
Iful to three-fourths of the old Wings of