Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-12-31

soI Finally, when the last hope which
ILL lined their epicurean pathway had van
ish,i into the vague and misty reals of the
great Uneaten, those guests slowly and re-
luctantly folded their napkins, rose from
the tables, and formed a mournful cortege
moving out of the dining-hall, the grave o
their iond aspirations, into the sordid. tur-
bulent street.
A Iisii to the Catsc0mbs.
BY GRACE GREENWOOD.
q" Scratch Russian and you will rouse a
CO -aek, says the old proyerb, and we say
scratch a young Frenchman, Of a certain
type, and you will come upon Darwin.
missing link" Anything more grotesquely
frolicksome, frivolous, and irreyerent can
hardly be imsglned. Nothing is sacred, OF
solemn, or even sad to him. He would laugh
in the face of Heaven and the Judgment
and fling blasphemous bon mot or double
enteadre in the teeth Of Death. These con-
victions were borne in upon our minds the
other day when our party went in proper
ly quiet and serious. though curious, mood
ON a visit to the Cataeombs, and there en-
couatered party Of young Frenchmen, who
went the dismal rounds in state of up
roarious hiarity, lit only for the lnaddest
reyelries Of the Mdrdi GrcS They made
that perpetual subter:anean night doubly
hideOus by their ghastly merriment they
were ready 10 10 - play with their forefath-
ers bones, and bowl with skulls One,
bowing before an old crane, yellow with age,
exclaimed 4" All my dear old grandmother
how do you tnd yourself down here ?'' at
which graceful pleasantly his companions
Slnntad IL "a L..
the American line. The whole behavior Of
the miserable fellows, who continued to Jest
10 this stupid way, 10 talk French slang, to
sing, dance, and smoke bad cigars, was re-
voting to all the visitors compelled to 90
the rounds at the same time, and yet the
/ guides, or guardians, made no effort to re
strain them. | can but think it would have
been different under the Empire II almost
seems that here order must 70 with absolu-
/ tism.
Our party entered the Cataeombs at the
/ old Bzrr.erfs a'Enjer, an entrance which
seems a little ike a reverse Of proceedings
At this point each visitor, after being pro
| yided with candle. descends nearly hun
dred steps Of dark winding stairway 20 a
narrow passage. damp, and OF course utterly
dark. From here he walked through per
feet labyrinth Of other narrow passages, all
| doublY sombre from the heavy coating Of
/ candlesmJke on the rock overhea d-walked
| for nearly half an hour before coming 10 the
/ great depository of bones On each side. all
the way throg-h the old quarries, opened
other archcd passages, leading of into awful
| distance ard darkness-Ways barred by
chains or marked L" dangerous" We pass
/ ed ca7erns like drifts in mines. and once
we came upon railing surrounding pit,
whose gloomy depths We yainly sought 10
/ sound with the trembling light Of our can
dies. 10 those IN the rear the effect Of the
/ long lane OF lights a.ckeriug, waving, pass
( ing in and out of the dark arches, winding
/ ana doubling. ws- something strangely
weird and awful All, / am sure, except
/ those brave young Frenchmen, who kept up
/ their courage with cat-ealls and cock crow
/ ing felt Oppressed hy the very darkness and
silence which we were 50 boldly invading
l Tor oar Ta7t, we were inclined 70 speak low
and 10 watch anxiously each her bit of car
/ die, l1r no friendly echoes OF our voices
came back rom the gloomy passages, only
/ dull, warning roar, and the heavy night
beaten back Tor little space by our tapers
/ seemed about to rash upon and ovcTwhelm
/ them and u. Surely there IS a difference
/ be etween the darkness of ever 80 sombre a
/ spot which NJ spme tine has known DAYLIGHT
and that OF place which no ray Of sunshine
has ever reached. The darkness here was
| OF the kind which d" can be felt some
/ thing meuac.ng sl.en. almost sayage-a
/ hopeless, blind night, which never dreamed
OF the dar. - .Jmbre and solitary, 80 IN
earthly, though earthly. was all this weary r..
winding way, bordering with gloom and
mystery, thar 1t was positive relief when
We reached tue great o-suary. Here, ut
least, were the representatives. OF what had
| once been life for in these long, wide gal
/ leries, these subterraneal streets and courts
are gathered The banes of 3 .00G 600 human
I beings-the yellow harvest of time, OF pes
! tllefce, and Of revelation. Ia these dismal
/ c0EAs5eS stand silent at last the actors of
many fearful tragedy OF French history ,
! but out Oi those eyeless sockets stares such
strange look Of watching and waiting and
/ fellowship that it almost seems as though
they are ready to rush back on the stormy
/ scene and take up again the roles OF the
! conSpirator and the reyolutionist. This
! gigantic Golgotha, this mighty magazine Of
! death, is arranged with frightful regularity
/ and system. Ii seems to me that it forms d
/ sort Of ghastly complement to the city over
! head. The great passages are named after
/ the streets and bOuleyards whose course they
follow, and suggest, by the contrasts Of still
ness, darkness ind immutability, the up
roar, the brightnesS, and the rush of the
| busy day above They suggest, with more
overpoweriDg force, the great, dread mys-
terry OF death which forever underlies our
] life Here, beneath beautiful churches, fra
grant with incense. gorgeous with pictures
and marbles, beneath altars bright with Ia
pers, and cleaning with golden vessels and
crucifxcs, are chapel-lke chambers, cut in
the rock. whose air IS heavy with the odor
/ OF mortality, whose ceilings are darkly fres-
! coed with smoke, on whose rough columns
are solemn inscriptions in black lettering
whose walls bear crosses Of skulls, set in
mosaics Of bones. There is even shown here
a singular collection, arranged BY cele-
brated surgeon, OF diseased bones-a sort of
osseous hospital. The Catacombs were con
secrated as burial place before the first
Revolution, bat the bones-brought from
the various cemeteries by night in funeral
cars, with religious rites-were shot down a
shaft and left in mighty indistinguishaole
heap. 1t was not till the time of Napoleon
the man of men to bring order out OF
chaos and to discipline even death-that the
present system was adopted and the mass of
commingied mortal remains ranged into
ranks. Since then inscriptions have been
| placed over every Few section, telling when
and from what cemetery they were removed
j This Is all the distinction now Here only
/ IL raal arfrsaiIfv opt Frrta "A
b, side, are heads which once toiled at the
great problems OF science and humanity and
heads that once posted smal thefts and as
sassinaten heads that once wore coronets,
I heads that fell under the knife of the gull
lotine, heads once pillowed on tie breasts of
| princes. heads tha; have lain on the black
slab of the Morgue. Here are skeleton
| hands that were once soft and fair and gilt
tering with Jewels strong. hands once
dripping with blood cunning hands Of mu-
sicians, rude hands Of executioners feet
which marched in all the campaigns Of Ma
poleon, feet that tramped the weary ways
of want, feet that have gone on weary pill
| grimages, feet that have danced at the Ma
| bile Pompaiour may here have mingled
her bones with those of some gentle Sister
of Mercy
The Peanut Nan.
From the Detroit FREQ Press.
He had his little cart on a street corner.
! yesterday morning, and as he blew the frost
out of his fingers nc cried
I peanuts Peanuts right from the oven l'
He was standing thus when 4 stoutly-
| built woman, with her hands encased in red
mittens, and her bonnet poised in jauaty
style, came around the corner. saw him.