Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-11-17
The Catacombs Of Rome.

The Catacombs Of Rome.
You are taken down a long passage
TIL you find yourself at the entrance Of
q gallery forty feet under. the ground,
and with lighted torches you walk
through miles and miles of the dead,
who as they have been lying here fifteen
hundred years may be said to be very
dead.
There is q series of subterranean cor
ridors, a labyrinth which to traverse is
only safe by those who know its intricate
~turnings and twistings.
The receptacles for the dead who lie
in these subterranean cemeteries are
inches in the walls of the passages,
though occasionally when the deceased
was of more than usual consequence, Or
n whom his friends considered more
than common, he was embalmed and
laid out in asarcophagus all by himself.
Inasmuch as his name is quite as much
forgotten as those of lower degree, he is
now no better off than the in%distinguish-
able "a who repose higgledy-peggledy
all together. After two thousand Years It
makes precious little difference where one
is buried. It's all the same after a certain
time has elapsed. 1t begins by strewing
flowers on tombs, till the wife marries
again or the children have spent the
money the old gentleman painfully ac-
cumulated. then the dead are forgotten
and its dust and ashes merely. One
might as we'll have his dust and ashes
mixed with the dust and ashes of a
thousand others, as to have it separate
in a sarcophagus, provided everybody
has forgotten who is in the sarcophagus.
And even if the name be remembered it
dosn't make much difference to the de-
ceased. Either in Heaven or the other
place, what happens to his poor remains
on earth, above or below, makes no diff
ference to him.
The catacombs were originally Pagan
burying places, but afterwards the
Christians took possession of them. The
Inscriptions on some of the tombs are
Pagan, but those Of a later date are
covered with the emblems of the new
faith.
A tour through the catacombs is all
very well if you could only go by your
self. A dozen miles more or less of
corpses underground isn't a very cheer
full thing to explore, and so, were you
alone, you would merely look into the
first passage, take q short excursion into
the second, and diverge into some one
of the chapels, and then get out into the
fresh air where there is something be-
sides death. But unfortunately you are
always in a party, and some n in that
party, always an old lady with specta-
cles, will insist upon making the tour of
the entire business. After you have
seen a half mile of mortality you have
seen it all, for the next half mile is an
actual repetition of the first, but she
wants every inch of it and as the guide
is paid for it all he cannot refuse to con-
duct us, and as one in you cannot get
out without the guides assistance, you
are booked for the entire trip. And SO
you 60 on wandering among through
passages filled with the remains of the
dead and as full of ghostly suggestions
as an egg is Of meat. The old lady stops
and makes enquiries as to every indi-
vidual niche she comes to, thinking: she
is possessing herself with information,
every other member of the party wish
ing heartily that by some process she
could be lost and the rest of us per.
mitted to get out into the open air.
And when we emerge she immediate.
ly asks the guide if there are not more
catacombs near by!
There are sixty of these catacombs in
and about Rome, but they are all alike.
1t was an expensive way Of interment to
dig these frightful passages out of the
solid rock, but it pleased the people Of
the day and its none of our business.
The most of the graves are pictorially
ornamented, and very bad pictures they
are. However, one large class of visi.
tors go, into raptures over them, and
they doubtless serve some purpose.-D
&. Locke, IN Toledo Blade.