The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-03-04
THE PARIS CATACOMBS.

the wooden door is opened, revealing q
spiral staircase of stone, which winds
into the darkness below. We
each light our candles, and then the
descent begins, no easy or pleasant task,
for the steps are uneven and worn, and
the walls are dripping with moisture, be-
sides which there is no rail or chain to
take hold Of to aid ones steps. Down
we n-dOwn-winding round
and round till ones head grows dizzy,
but we have ninety stairs to descend, and
must not stop or falter, as the staircase
is very narrow and the people behind
are pressing forward and following close.
ly. At last we reach terra .tf,ma and stop
q moment to breathe. Here two of our
party, a French gentleman and lady,
are stricken with sudden panic, and not
only refuse to go any farther, but turn
round and push past the still descending
train of people up the staircase, unheed-
ing the angry circumstances of the guide,
who would fain have them wait till every
body has got down, but they will neither
hear nor heed, SO wild is their eagerness
to get back to sunlight and fresh air.
Order is at last restored, everybody
emerges from the staircase, and we look
around and realize that we are in the
Cate combs.
A long, low-arched vault, with broad
black stripe painted on the roof, and
stretching far away beyond the space
which is penetrated Blythe light of our
candles-this is what we see. The ground
underfoet is gravelly, wet and plashy;
the air is warm and not at all damp or
close, though how or whence these sub
terranean corridors receive ventilation is
to me mystery. The guides (there are
two Of them, one to go before and one
to bring up the rear) now marshal US into
line and one of them starts of at brisk
pace, closely followed by the long line of
sight-seers, each with his lighted candle.
We march on through corridor after cor
rider, turning now to the right and now
to the left, stopping often to take down
the chains stretched across the entrance
to the different corridors, and pausing
sometimes, as our guide halts to point
out the mighty masses of masonry that
support certain buildings-here an aque.
duct and there hospital-while painted
letters Oh the walf give us the name of
the street that runs overhead and CORE
spends with the underground passage we
are now traversing. We pass continually
the mouths of other corridors stretching
away into the black, blank distance, and
now and then we are shown points where
the roof has caved in and choked up the
passage. The corridors which we are
traversing are lined and vaulted with
solid masonry-a firm structure of brick
and mortar-and, in the places where
they widen into large, square halls, huge
pillars support the roof, but at either side
we can see. at intervals between. the
masses of brickwork, the old, rough
walls of the ancient quarries, the crumb-
ling stones of which used to threaten
such dangers in ancient times. After
about halfhour's brisk walking our
guide stops at an arched doorway with
the Latin inscription "Memorie Majo-
rum" above it; he unlocks the iron door
and we all enter and find ourselves in the
far-famed Ossuaire des Catacombes
Bones to the right of us, bones to the left
of us, bones just in front of us; neatly
piled leg and arm bones, surmounted
with u row of grinning skulls and with a
second row of skulls running round the
piles half way from the bottom-such is
the CHASTITY wall that rises on either side
of US. Pious mortuary inscriptions
printed in black letters on a white
ground are placed at varying in
tervals, while fere and there a deaths.
head and cross-bones breaks the monot-
ony of the long line. Sometimes the
guide halts to point out an object of
special interest, such as the tombstone of
Francois Gellain Legros, the person who
aided Latude to escape from the Bastile.
but Re does not stop long enough to per-
nit US to copy the inscription, and to lin
ger behind him were destruction. In
scriptiOns in the masonry inform US
that such pile of bones came from the
Cimetiere des Innocents, and another
from the Convent st. Honore, while the
last placed and freshest of all announces
that on such a spot are deposited the
bones taken from cemetery devasted
by the Communists in 1871, the last batch
of guests which these mortuary halls
have received. The ground has long ere
this become firm, hard and perfectly
dry, while the air continues to be pure
and warm, without breath or draught
stirring to cause our candles to flicker
or to show the existence of any cOmmu-
nication with the outward atmosphere.
And yet some such communication must
exist, else the perfect purity and resy.ir-
ability of the air could not be SO admira-
bly, maintained.
The Catacombs, as has been ascer-
tanned by careful official explorations,
pass under all the principal streets of the
fifth, sixth, thirteenth and fourteenth
Grr0ndsssenents, and cover 800 acres in
extent, or about One-tenth of the surface
of Paris. Several of the most important
public buildings of this part of the city,
including the Observatory, the Luxem-
bourg, the Theater de rOdeon and the
Pantheon are completely undermined,
but great care has been taken in prop
ping up their foundations, the vaults un-
der the Luxembourg in particular hav.
ing been completely filled up with solid
masses of masonry; so that superb edi-
flee is in no danger of being swallowed
up, an accident which did actually befall
one of the chestnut trees in the Luxem-
bourg garden in the year 1924. The tree
was got out of the abyss with much diff
Guilty, and was replanted, but it
has never flourished since. The
existence of these vast ancient
quarries seems to have been almost un-
known till the year 1774, and they
were, so to speak, rediscovered, and
were partially explored. 1t was time !;
for at that epoch these subterranean
halls, abandoned for centuries and un.
dermined by the action of the waters,
while the weight of vast buildings
pressed upon them from above, were
rapidly going to ruin; the pillars which
sustained the roof had given way in a
number of places, the roof itself had
fallen in at more than one point, the
walls were yielding and cracking, and
streets, churches and palaces were on
the point of being swallowed up in an
immense abyss. Since that date the
work of repairing the Catacombs and
keeping them in order has been continu-
ously carried on; new pillars, new arches.
new sustaining-walls have been con-
structed in every direction and there is
no longer any danger of so terrible a
catastrophe. In 1886 the Csmetiers DIES
Innocents was suppressed for sanitary
reasons, and the idea then arose of utii-
izing the underground and deserted
quarries by dcpositing in them
the remains removed from the
cemeteries. The part lying under
the PLa~e de Mont S0uris was appro-
priated for the purpose; house known
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