Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1873-07-05
Sepulchral Shows in P lermo.


Connected with the convef of Santo
Spirito are two vaulted galleries, in
which are kept the skeletons of certain
noted persons. The anatOmies are at
tired in the garments they wore in the
flesh, and exposed in cases and cOffins
covered with glass. A ghastlier exhibi-
ton could not be devised and ~ You
come suddenly upon it, you are more
revOlted than if you had been gradually
led up to the dismal display. The OBJ
ject is devotional, of course. To wean
you from the living it is deemed desir-
able to disgust you with the dead.
What is the good of death, / should
like to know, if we are to have our re-
mains rendered repulsive! The skele-
tons are tricked out in the tawdriest
finery, and the contrast between gay
clothes and grave plunder would be
shocking to a mind not capable of see
ing the grim humOr of the thing.
On one side is the remnant of an army
officer gaudily adorned, his osseous APP
pearance clearly indicating, nOtwith-
standing his fine clothes, that he is in
no condition to receive company. Not
far away is what was once u wOman-
sadly ont of repair Mt present--in
"love of bonnet" the ribbons lying
upon her cervical vertebre. On the
bony fingers of late very late) leader
of society are white kid gloves, and her
tibie and fibula are covered with en-
broidered silk hose. Some of the grin
ming skulls induce you to believe they
are enjoying the droll, ry of the situa-
tion, and intimating by silent chuckle
that they are vastly better off than the
spectators.
The Sicilians never suspect that their
show is funny; and / question if its
comic element would be detected by
any one but an American. Palermo is
not the place for it. 1t ought to be re
moTed over here. It would draw in
Sacramento or San Francisco, and large
bets would be taken ON the relative
ugliness Of the different skeletons, leav-
ing the question to he decided by the
/ gentlemen in the cOffins.
Several of the feminine departed may
suggest other decayed ladies, who not
only refuse to be buried, but try to
hoOdwink You by pretending they are
still young. They may nsinuate they
are the counterfeits of animated social
| VI NouI CAtciHu
minus their toilet and the artful marvels
out of which they are created.
At the Capuchin Convent, .on the
other side of Palermo, near the Elsa
Palace, the mOrtuary specimens are still
more curious. A great many bodies of
both sexes re preserved there, having
been embalmed after death by pecu-
liar process, part of which consists of
exposure to running water &Or several
months. Every monk of ST. Francis
who has died in Palermo is deposited
in those gloomy vaults. the light failing
from small upper windows across the
groined arches. The ghostly friars arc
dressed in the habit of their order, and
either laid away on shelves, or fastened
against the walls in upright position.
There is an air of sportiveness in the
desiccated old fellows which they never
suspect. Some of them wear their
heods. and others are bare-headed,
showing the tonsure that marks their
priestly Office. Death is rarely ludic-
rous. nor are its surroundings and assO-
Citations of the sort to inspire mirth.
But l defy any man possessing tho
smallest vein of humOr, however un-
worked, to go through those catacombs
and examine the mummified without
laughing inwardly or outwardly. The
mode of embalming has given many OF
the monks decidedly queer and wag-
gish look. They were saturnists in life,
and they are involuntary testers. III
death. Beyond the grave they lost
their gravity; after sepulture they
they ceased to be sepulchral. None OF
them are erect indeed, they incline at
as many angles as the houses of Am
sterdam-and they are grouped togetheI,
very grotesquely. A number would
serve as illustrations of different stages
of ebriety, from the flush of elevation
, to staggeringly stupid intox,cation.
They lean upon one another after the
manner of incapacitated topers, they
/ pitch forward, they stretch backward
like monastic Toodleses, and you expect
? every minute to hear them ask in hoi
: low tones for dozen fagOns OF Lacrym'