Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-01-12
THE CATACOMBS OF PARIS.


A VAST tolgother Where sleep the Bones
of TIN re Million Human Beings-The
Harvest of Time. Pestilence and kevolu'
We clip the following from Paris
York Times:
Our party entered the Catacombs at
the old Baa1>iere d'Ehfer, an entrance
which seems a little like reverse of
proceedings. At this point each Wis
itor, after being provided with cendle,
descends nearly a hundred steps of q
dark winding staircase to narrow pas
sage, damp, and of course utterly dark,
From here we walked through perfect
labyrinth of other narrow passages, all
doubly sombre from the heavy coating
of candlesmoke on the rock overhead
walked for nearly half an hour before
coming to the great depository OF bones.
On each side, all the way through the
old ouarries. opened other arched pas
: pages, leading off into awful distance
and darkness ways barred by chains or
marked dangerous. We passed cav
ems like ssdrifts" in mines, and once we
came upon a railing surrounding a
pit, whose gloomy depths we vainly
sought to sound with the trembling
light of our candles. To those in the
rear the effect of the long line of lights
Pickering, waving, passing in and out
of the dark arches, winding and doubling
was something strangely weird and
awful. All, I am sure, except those
brave young Frenchmen, who kept up
their courage with cat-calls and cock
Growing, felt oppressed by the very
darkness and silence which we were SO
boldly invading. For our part, we were
inclined to speak low, and to watch
anxiously each her bit of candle, for no
friendly echoes of our voices came back
from the gloomy passages, only dull,
warning roar, and the heavy night,
beaten back for little space by our
tapers, seemed about to rush upon and
overwhelm them and US. Surely there
is difference between the darkness of
ever 50 sombre a spot which at some
time has known daylight and that of
a place which no ray of sun
shine has ever reached. The darkness
here was of the kind which s'can be
felt something menacing; sullen, al
most savage hopeless, blind night,
which never dreamed OF the day. So
sombre and solitary, SO unearthly,
though earthly, was all this weary,
winding way, bordered with gloom and
mystery, that it was positive relief
when we reached the great ossuary.
Here at least, were the representatives
of what had once been life; for in these
long, wide galleries, these subterranean
streets and courts are gathered the
bones of 100000 human beings--the
yellow harvest of time, of Iestilence,
and of revolution. In these dismal
couiisses stand silent at last the actors
of many a fearful tragedy Of French
history; but out of those eyeless SOCK
cts stares such strange look of watch
ing 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 revolu-
zionist. This gigantic Golgotha, this
mighty magazine of death. is arranged
with frightful regularity and system.
Itseems to me taat it forms sort of
CHASTITY complement to the city over
head. The great passages are named
after the streets and boulevards whose
course they follow, and suggest, by the
contrasts of stiffness, darkness and i'm
mutahility, the uproar, the brightness,
and the rush of the busy day above.
They suggest with more overpowering
force, the great, dread mystery of death
which forever underlies our life. Here,
beneath beautiful churches. fragrant
with incense, gorgeous with pictures
and marbles, beneath affairs bright
with tapers, and cleaning with
golden vessels and crucifxes,
ire chapel-like chambers, cut in the
ock, whose air is heavy with the odor
# mortality, whose ceilings are darby
rescoed with smoke, on whose rough
olumns are solemn inscriptions in
lack lettering, whose walls bear crosses
f skulls, set in mosaics of bones.
here is even shown here singular
ollection, arranged by celebrated
urgeon, of diseased bones-a sort of
sseous hospital. The Catacombs were
onsecrated as burial place before the
rst Revolution, but the bones
rought from the various cemeteries by
light In funeral cars, with religious
tes-were shot down shaft and left
Ia mighty indistinguishable heap. It
as not till the time of Napoleon-the
AN Of men to bring order out of chaos
10 to discipline even death-that the
resent system was adopted and the
ass of commingled mortal remains
nged into ranks. Since then inscrip-
,ns have been placed ever every
w section, telling when and
om what cemetery they were
moved. This is all the dis
action now. Here only is real
uaIty and fraternity. Here, side by
lie, are heads which once toiled at the
eat problems of science and HUMANE
and heads that oLce plotted small
efts and assassinations; heads that
zee wore coronets, heads that fell I'M
r the knife of the guillotine, heads
ce pilloved on the breasts of princes,
ads that have lain on the black slab
the Morgue. Here are skeleton
nds that we're once soft an0 fair and
ttering with jewels; strong hands,
,e dripping with blood; cunning
Ids of musicians; rude hands of exc