The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-04-12
THE DEAD MEN'S LEvEE.
rhe Place Whore the Dead of New York
Hold Their Perpetual Stnte Receptions.

Hold Their Perpetual State Receptions.
Twenty-sixth street, on its last block
next the East river. has gloomy and sug-
gestlve surroundings. Where broad
gateway pierces the long high stone wall
upon the northern side one gets view
OF the enormous Bellevue hospital build
ing, charmingly surrounded in the ge-
mai summer time by green grass and
trees, but itself gigantic monument of
pain and death. All the year round
hundreds of poor wretches groan and
writhe in those long wards; not day
passes that the death rattle is not heard
from the throat of some sufferer; not n
night that men do not bear away from
its gloomy doorway, on the ground
floor, to "a little house near the college
building, long, shapeless forms careless
ly draped, extended upon biers. On OPP
posite sides of the street, near that gate
way, stand two medical colleges.
Just back of this college building
stands smaller one. II is the morgue.
Behind it and at its side are outlying de-
Tendencies and contingent reminders i'll
the shape of strangely connected rooms
and various sheds. Here the men bring
those ghastly shapes n,ter nightfall from
the hospital. Entering one of these
sheds we find thirty or forty cheap cof-
fins of pine wood, stained or painted II
dull brick red Several, of which we
raise the lids, are empty. Others have
inmates. In one we discover the face of
a woman, horribly emaciated, and of
bluish-white, skim milk color. The nose
stands ont thin and prominent; the teeth
are seen through the partly separated
lips; the eyelids have not been closed 50
tightly but that one sees glinting line
of the dull pupils beneath. Perhaps
she is not more than twenty years old
she may, however, be forty, misery has
SO aged her. In another of the red
boxes there is an old man with fine
head, prominent brow, square jaws, and a
splendid beard. His hair is almost
white, and so placid are his features
that he seems but sleeping and dream
ing some serious dream that causes him
to set his face sternly. A third coffin,
small one, contains the corpse of a
child, meager little thing with sore
eyelids and thin blue hands, bound to-
gether on its breast by a strip of muslin.
The last we opened displays the re-
voting clay of a bloated, rum-sodden,
diseased vagabond, n loathsome filthy
creature, a mere animal, SO dirty that
dirt seems deeply ingrained in his evil
face. Is it possible that the death of a
man like this should have been regretted
by any one? Gould any one have loved
or cared for him? Who can tell how
long faithful heart may have chung even
to him; striven in vain for his redemp-
ton; wept over his miserable fate =? But
speculaions are idle and not pleasant
upon such topic
In another room we find more stylish
coffin, its lid screwed down, and the at
tendant informs us that it contains the
body of a man recognized in the morgue
by his relatives and awaiting removal at
their order. The bodies that we have
seen are those of persons who have been
patients in the hospital, excepting the
tramp, who died over on the island
where he was serving out in the work
house ten days sentence for habitual
drunkenness and vagrancy.
A door from this room admits us by
the back way into the mocgue, to reach
the floor of which we have to descend
two or three steps. We are in large
room, through which runs, dividing it
into two halves, great glazed partition
with door in the middle. The front
door is wide, the window is broad, and
there is an abundance of light. The
floor is tessalated tiling.
Inside the cage or inclosure are four
stone tables, two with DO lies upon them,
above the faces Of which bangles q now
useless rubber hose with sprinklers on
the end Of it. In warm weather cold
water was kept constantly dripping upon
the dead faces, bat it is more than
doubtful if it ever pre,e YES corpses. Its
prin ;ipal Use is to keep hi s from deposit
ing Jnsir eggs and breeding maggots in
tine eyes an noses of the dead. Mr.. A
NJ. Waite, tie kee Der. informed us that
a corpse will here keep we'll through
four or even five uoll months and still
be in 'tfansiye, but this is pre-supposing
that 1t was in pretty good condition when
it came
No ice is used on them. The morgue
is cold damp room, always at low
temperature, even in summer, and 50
humid that in winter bodies turM brown
and m!ldey before they decay. Only
two bodies are on exhibition at the time
OF our visit-one IS that OF man who
has been here some Ninc weeks without
anybody claiming him; the other that of
Young girl who was dragged from the
river a week ago. There were others
earlier in the day, but friends have
claimed and taken them away.
Now and then carriage stops before
the door, nj a heavily yelled woman
comes in, gazes at the dead faces, and
then either shrieks or faints in demon
stration of her identification of one, or
else turns away and departs muttering
" Not there Thank Golr
Upon the wall opposite the dead folks
compartment are exhibited a great many
carte-de-visites, and few
tin-types of unrecognized corpses. Out
of the entire number but one female
face is pretty, and but one mans coun-
tenance that has anything noteworthy in
it.
Being free to the public, the women
drop in and retail their gossip; outside |
the building old crones sit about, knit
ing in hand. One young Irish woman,
not long ago, idly saunteredin with some .
of her friends out of mere curiosity. |
She had bundle of keys in her hand,
which she carelessly iingled against the
partition. Suddenly she dropped the |
keys andscreamed. She had recognized |
her husband ON one Of the slabs.
Communists In RuSSia