The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1871-12-07
Sieht Seafag.

nal gray-stone building over whose
portals is written IN large white let
ters the significant and startling
words, 's'The AIorgue.' With cold /
shudder 7 entered this gloomy place,
this .-CoHin Of European and Amer
iean dead, who in the fierce strug-
gle for existence are slain and for
gotten By the rushing crowd!
'sWby this secret dread. this Inward hor-
rori Why shrinls the soul -
Back on herself, and startlss at dsstructioh"4
Outwardly it is a square stone
building, set back one hundred or
more feet from the river, on twenty
fourth street, and without any pre-
tentions TO architectural Taste,
while its interior is equally plain
and simple, consisting of two large I
oblong. rooms separated by a glass
partition. Passing through the
arehed doorway We entered one Of
these apartments, the so-called re-
ception room.
This room is finished of in dark |
tessalated marble, and is some thir- /
ty FIVE or forty feet long. On the
wall hangs a set of ''Rules and Reg
ulatious of the morgue." Behind
the glass screen is another room of
about the same size and appear
ance, with the addition of four mar
BILE slabs, each about eight feet long
and about twenty-five inches in
width, which rest on iron stanch-
ions. and slightly inclined towards
the glass partition, which they face,
in order thai the bodies may rest
with an elevation Of the head and
shoulders. Above these slabes is
a long iron rod, upon which the
clothes of the dead are seen. An
iron water-pipe. runs along the cell
ing, and branches of above each
slab into an india rubber tube ter
minating into a sprinkler, that
reaches down near the slab, and from
which steady stream of water is
made to fow over the corps to save
it from putrefaction while on ex-
hibition.
| At the hour of our visit only two
of the slabs were. occupied. One
woman in the prime Of life, found
dead by the wayside. Her features
had anguish and despair impressed,
as with an iron hand, and we were
filed with horror at the suffering
the rigid features bore. TO her,
death must have brought relief
The other, young girl with such
an appealing look for pity, for
sympathy, for love in her cold white
face. that moan escaped us and
tears sprahg to Our eyes.
Her long dark hair, wet with the
dripping water, hung in ringiets
over the marble slab and one del
icate hand rested outside the black
oil-cloth which covered the body.
The few words found upon her per
son when lifted from the dark river
in which she had plunged-tired OF
the pitiless pain that had wrecked
her hopes-was the only clue to the
fatal act;
"Myra, forgive me. I am firmly
coRviaced a nearer or dedrer &c can
never unite Us-forget me.
Farewell! DAMON"
What a theme for romance these
sad realities suggest for a gifted
/ pen!
! "Love, by harsh evidence,
Thrown from its eminence;
Even Gods providence
Seeming eStranged 4"
The dead brought to the New
2 York Morgue are divided into two
r classes-identified and unknown
3 Those whose name, residence, car
be ascertained from papers upor
/ their person, are never exposed on
) the slabs, but at once placed in cot
: fnsand their relatives or friends
: informed of the fact. Should they
t not apply for the body, after a suf
| hcient notice, the remains are bur
: ried in the "Potters field" TIL,
/ unknown corps is at once place.
upon the marble slab for recogni
ton, and there remains several days
While those who have missing
!, dear ones, come, stricken with sor
= row. to recognize perhaps in the
e rigid form on the marble slab thei
: loved and lost.
e If the dead body is not recogni
n zed it is removed to place behinC
: the building, and dressed in the ap
parrel in which it was found, an,
Q placed in a coffin which is held il
: an upright position before a camera
, and an accurate picture taken
s Then the coffin is nailed up, pu
d upon a small steamer, and convey
IT ed to q paupers grave The horri
bic and ghostly Photographs are KEEP
J on exhibition for some months
$ facilitate search and identification
sc possibly in the future.
, And these picturesi horrible t
: look at, yet more horrible to dreaI
Of with their dying agony so visi
bic in their distorted facesl Her
is one with a dark mark around tn
st neck, with eyes protruding froE