Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-06-17
Monks at Malta.
A AcArucurS cHucKLE go YEARS OLD

A
Valetta. the capital of Malta, has n
noble harbor, lined, with fine buildings.
towers, and Notifications. Many traces
of the old knights of St John are to he
found here, as one tolls up the hlliy
streets of the city. We had time to
visit the famed Church of st. John, and
Capuchin monastery, which boasts of
large catacombs. We were determined
to see these. In the Capuchin Chapel
We were accosted by a monk-an old fel-
low with a'rough bristly chin, coarse fab
by features. a shaven pate, and large
paunch. He Was attired III a dirty brown
yestment, and round his middle lone
could not call it waist WAS tied piece
of new clothes-rope, the only clean thing
about him. He had dirty, blinking.
crafty Il ok in his eye, and as he waddled his
barrel body, one could not believe he had
q soul above beer. Had he been seen
driving brewers aray he would have
occasioned no remark. This holy friar,
with stump Of candle in one hand and a
bunch of keys in the other, led us to what
resembled n spirit vault
He opened the door, which led down o
flight of stone steps-then he locked 1t
behind us, and we groped our way by the
guttering taper. He paused, and held
the light toward niche in the wall.
There stood an upright corpse Fnrth-
er on, another -another-and another
dozens of them, all standing sentry i'll
the recesses, and each supported under
the elbows by cross piece of wood.
They had all originally been placed in at
titudes Of devotion, but the grinning
heads now hung limp behind the clasped
hands, and some who had been posed in
an ecstasy of strong faith had toppled
sidelong into the comic plight Of q
drunk and incapable" The cswl and
gown of the defunct still remained, but
had collapsed upon the shrunken body.
The bones stood out boldly through the
cloak, the dust of years lying in thick
ridges on the ribs, like a snow drift on d
railing. Our unceremonious guide held
the candle close under the chins of the
dead, frizzling up the cobwebs that now
did duty as whiskers, and makiug the
spiders staIt out Of the eyes. The mouth
resembled n burst cricket ball gaping,
dusty and full Of leather like stuffing.
The close light Of the candle caused
the faces to stand out weirdly in the sur
rounding darkness all Of them with
musty smiles on their parchment fea-
lures, as If produced by some grim joke
of the charnel house passed along the
ranks. One reverend brother had been
standing ''sniggering" there since 1920.
Fancy a chuckle 260 years old These
were the bodies of the saints who had
died in the monastery names being
put on tickets hung alongside the bodies,
as if the latter had been museum speci-
mems, Whenever one Of these Capuchin
monks departs this life. it ia the rule for
the Oldest mummy to courteously make
way for the new conner, the former being
henceforth put ON shelf. ''Ah !" said
our guide, having a corpulent sig zone
day | shall stand there too !" We thought
he would have to wait long time till he
thinned down sufficiently to be inserted
In one Of these inches. After thoroughly
seeing this human wax-work exhibition,
We ascended the stairs, preceded by our
pious Falstaff He hung about with
greedy eyes till We had given him a
gratuity, then rolled up the chapel aisle,
and presently was chanting an Ave
Maria" with his fellow monks -Kef,nedg
a., T,,,I,a