The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-01-06
THE CATACOMBs OF PARIS.
Grace Greenwood Tells MS NIL About Them
In the Most Interesting Manner.

Grace Greenwood Tells us nll About Them
In the Most Interesting Manner.
The famous catacombs of Paris will
always be subject of interest. In O
letter to the New York Times, Grace
Greenwood tells us about them as fol
lows: Our party entered the catacombs
at the old Barriere d EiJen. At this
point each visitor, after being provided
with candle, descends nearly one hun
dred steps of dark winding stairway
to narrow passage, damp, and of course
utterly dark. From here we walked
through a perfect labyrinth Of other
narrow passages, all doubly somber
from tbe heavy coating of candle smoke
on the rock overhead-walkedfo for nearly
half an hour before coming to the great
depository of bones. On each side, all
the way through the old quarries, opened
other arched passages, leading off into
awful distance and darkness-wavs
barred by chains or marked danger
ous." We passed caverns like "drifts
in mines, and once we came upon rail
ing surrounding q pit, whose gloomy
depths we vainly sought to sound with
the trembling lights of our candles. To
those in the rear the effects of the long
line of lights Pickering, waving, passing
in and out of the dark arches, winding
and doubling, was sometimes strangely
weird and awful. All felt oppressed by
the great 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
q 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 dark
ness of ever so somber spot which
at some time has known daylight and
that of place which no ray of sunshine
has ever reached. The darkness here
was of the kind which "can be felt
something menacing, sullen, almost
savage-a hopeless, blind night, which
never dreamed of the day. So somber
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 ossuary.
Here, at least, were the representa- YES
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 tine, of pestilence,
and of revolution. In these dismal
couliSses stand silent at last the actors
of many fearful tragedy of French his
|. l.,,4 6 tc
stares such strange look of watching
and waiting and fellowship that it al
most seems as though they are ready to
rush back on the stormy scene and take
up again the roles of the conspiratol
aud the revolutionist. This gigantic
Golgotha, this mighty magazine OF
death, is arranged with frightful rcgu.
larity and system. 1t seems to me that
it forms a sort of ghastly complement to
the city overhead. The great passages
are named after the streets and boule
wards whose course they follow, and
suggest, by the contrasts of stiffness,
darkness, and immutability, the uproar
the brightness and the rush of the busy
day above. They suggest, with more
overpowering force, the great, the dreat
mystery of death which forever under
lies our life. Here, beneath beautiful
churches, fragrant with incense, gor
geous with pictures and marbles, be
meath affairs bright with tapers, ant
cleaning with golden vessels and cruel
fixes, are chapel-like chambers. cut il
the rock, whose air is heavy with th'
o lor of mortality, whose ceilings are
darkly frescoed with smoke, on whose
rough columns are solemn inscription
in black lettering, whose walls bea
crosses of skulls, set in mosaics of bones
There is even shown here singular col
lection, arranged by a celebrated sur
geon, of diseased bones-a sort o
osseous hospital.
The catacombs were consecrated as
burial place before the first revolution
but the bones-brought from the variou
cemeteries by night in funeral cars, wit
religious rites-were slot down shat
and left in mighty indistinguishabl
heap. 1t was not till the time of Napc
leon-the man of men to bring orde
out of chaos and to discipline even deaf
that the present system was adopte
and the mass of comingled mortal re
mains ranged into ranks. Since the
inscriptions have been placed over ever
new section, telling when and from wha
cemetery they were removed. This
all the distinction now. Here only
real equality and fraternity. Here, sid
by side, are heads which once toiled O
the great problems of science and hU
manity, and heads that once plotte,
small thefts and assassinations; head
that once wore coronets, heads that fe
under the knife of the guillotine, head
once pillowed on tho breasts OF princes
heads that have lain on the black sla
of the morgue. Hero are skeleto
hands that were once soft and fair an
glittering with jewels; strong hands
once dripping with blood; cunnin
hands of musicians, rude hands of ex'
cutioneers; feet which marched in a
the campaigns of Napoleon, feet thi
tramped the weary ways of want, fe'
that have gone on pious pilgrimages fe
that have danced at the Mabille. Pom
padour may here have mingled her bon'
with those of some gentle sister
| mercY.