The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-06-01
POTTBR,s FIELD.
paa.9sr Btirytfsg sroHaa II Aeae York
2As l e.,,,- sarbarot.s zfode of Bartei
gieboHi5tg Recital

The Potter's Field Or PUBIC purlal
,aas Il Kings county, covers an area If
Plas thrse and one-half acres Of the
n rDo farm 1T Flatbush. 1T fronts on
a A. street, al the rearof the auna-
n ss0lum and Il barely stone Throw
- l+.rt from the Aims house, Charity
pasnital and other public institutions.
+ Sc selected al pauper burying-
found when the old Poor house, which
od near what is now the corner Of
rirsi.iug and North Portland avenues,
81. abandoned nearly thirty years ago,
.ssn NJ present location which il now
sbicklv populated, was only sParsely set-
I'M since then thousands Of deceased
s.rsoBs. many Of whom have died Of
small-pox and other contagious diseases,
Ssve been buried in it's trenches, which,
+ warm weather, emit calculations alike
dangerous and disagreeable to persons
vbo have unWittingly purchased and oc-
npied houses ii It's vicinity.
trenches about sixteen feet deep and
+venty feet square, dug BY able-bodied
nsuners constitute the common graves
ef,aan women and children in Potter's
fsld The bodies are crowded into
rorob pine boxes which cost about two
doIIars each and which are piled indis-
ultimately one above another in the
trenches. IA thin layer Of earth which
/. soon washed away by the rain it
s,ripkled over them, and when one
trench il filed another i dug close be-
side IT Small boxes containing the re-
mains Of infants are wedged into the in
tsrstices between the larger ones, and
when The earth ID washed away from the
tops they warp and crack in the sun un-
Iii The surrounding atmosphere i filed
With nauseous and pestilential odors.
From 500 to 100 bodies are annually
inferred ii this barbarous way, though
efforts have been made BY philanthropic
citizens at several different times to have
better and more humane method
adopted and more suitable place estab-
rsbed More than half Of the area has
been already filled with the remains Of
The Old and young of both sexes huddled
tssosher il trenches, which virtually
iorn.a single pit crowded with human
bodies iii every stage Of decay.
Bodies can not Be recovered by rela-
tiyes Of friends Of the deceased unless
application Be made promptly after
burial and under favorable circumstance.
The boxes were formerly numbered only
with chalk, BUT latterly black paint has
been used fol that purpose 90 that the
numbers which arc the principal and al
most the only means for Identification
are less easily obliterated.
Ia most cases those who seek the re-
mains Of lost relatives Or friends in this
mammoth death-pit, are doomed to dir
appointment. In hot weather the search
especially difficult, for then the inter
mentsare SO frequent that several tiers Of
aOfinsare made ia few days, and the task
ofremoying them while searching, j. 50
dangerous and unpleasant at that season
thateven the hardened keeper shrinks
from it with disgust.
Such, III brief, is an imperfect descrip-
ton Of the public burial place Of Kings
county, with its more than half million
otinhabitants, whose philanthropy, lib
erality and culture as displayed IN al
other directions il proverbially great,
Millions Of dollars are annually raised BY
taxation for various public purposes, and
half q million dollars are annually got
aside for charity, but none to provide
q decent resting place for the remains q
tle pauper o. stranger. The voices q
the living have been raised without avail
put the mute appeal still comes from the
thousands Of The departed whose bodies
ile rotting and neglected in the horrible
trenches az pnffaxSs Fia1a