River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-02-27
THE "BURIED ALIVE"
A Curious Custom at an EccIesInstfcal
Auction.


Curious Custom at an Ecclesin stfcnl
Auction.
A correspondent at Rome sends the
following interesting paragraphs in re-
lation to current affairs
"The government is taking posses .
sion of the converts with all possible
decorum. Wherever it can be done.
their inhabitants are allowed to retain
possession of parts of the buildings.
In other instances the inhabitants Of a
convent which is intended for the use
of the government are allowed to take
up their quarters in the empty cells of
another, one would think to their ex.
ceeding comfort. The usual formali-
ties took place recently at the tomb
(what else can one call it y of the
Sepolti Vive the Buried Alive y
in the Suburb. near the site of the
house where Caesar was born. These
poor women, twenty-nine In num-
Der, are always covered with a double
veil, black. lined with white. When
once this veil has been placed upon
their heads they never again may look
upon the face of father or friend,
mother or sister. Once year, covered
with this terrible pail, they enter a
room divided into two parts by an iron
grating. Within its bars hangs another
black veil. Outside of it their friends
gather, and pronouncing their names,
inquire after their health. In turn
they may ask after the health of their
l families; until, on some one of these an
| niversaries, no familiar voice is heard ;
/ then they learn that the "buried alive"
have all their dead to mourn. These
/ poor creatures, informed at the last
moment by their confessors of the
/ necessity of their appearance before
che representatives of the law, glided
/ in, one alter another, like the sheeted
+ dead, in their CHASTITY garments, took
I their stations at table placed al a
+ distance from all present, turned their
I backs upon them, and having signed
the necessary papers disappeared as
they had entered They are not to be
disturbed at present, and indeed will
probably continue their death in life
to tie end at the Suburb
The sale of ecclesiastical property is
carried On with decidedly favorable
T AlaAAAbs- NJ tue niSh AUCTION InlIIN-
three buyers had gone through with
the necessary formalities, and large
crowd assembled. An old custom
which prevails at public auction was
duly observed. On a frame prepared
for the purpose, small candles are
/ placed. They are so very small that
each of them will burn but four min.
utes. When a bid is made, one of these
/ candles Is lit and covered with glass
/ shade, that no intentional or uninten-
tional puff of air may reach it. As the
sale proceeds and another bid is made, a
second candle is lighted and the shade
removed TO t. The crier, as he covers
a candle, announces 1t thus: {" Primo
cdHdei c uergiRe; secOnda cdRdele Ger.
qiBc: terra cdndeie pergine," etc.
When a candle has benn lit for bid
der, and burns out without a higher
bid having been made, the sale is over.
One OF the first houses put mp belong
ed to the hospital of st, Giovanni.
The community BID for it, but several
candles were lit. aud II went up from
nineteen thousand to sixty thousand
four hundred francs, ard was purchas.
ed by private individual The see.
ond sale was equally spirited with the
first. Some twelve or fifteen pieces Of
prop rty we're disposed Of at excellent
prices. Another sale is exp ected Ia
take place soon.