Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-12-07
NJ EXlCANs AND THEIR DEAL
The Dismal customs Which Render the Pres
" ence OF the Reaper an Exceedingly
n Unpleasant Occurrence. r.
The Graveyard a Tot Pouri of Bones Calcu-
lated TO Give Gabriel Deal
e., Of Trouble


EsrADo DE CoAHU1LA DE ZARAGozA, Specia'
! CORES ..ondence, Nov. 19.-Tbe days Of All
Saints and All Souls. through which We have
| just been passing, are the saddest of the year
| to religious Mexico-and that means everybody
| Of La blood within her borders. In our own
! older republic few church festivals, except
Christmas and Easter, call for special observ-
! rance from the people at largo; but in Mexico
| despite the ''new epoch since the war Of
church and state. in which the latter is now
supposed to rule) the church is still the all
prevailing power. tits said that the holy days in
her calendar far outnumber the days OF the year,
| but among them all none touches every heart
so tenderly as these two days de-
voted to the d. al. Black Friday
commemorative Of tie crucitixion-is sad
an ,ugh; for tren no sound of wheel or ham
| mer Or human labor is heard; no carts or car
| riages are permitted upon the streets; and the
whole nation, clad In black. goes to church to
mourn with the Virgin Mother. But that far
away tragedy, with nearly nineteen centuries
between, does not come homo to all hearts
| like the common sorrow Of every household
| for death Is alike a tragedy in palace or howell
Va All Saints day, after early mass, the people
crowd the cemeteries--an1 it is the only day in
| the year when those cities of the dead are ever
visited, except by sightseeing strangers. But
| This day is m''re especially devoted to the re-
membrance of those who died in other
years-the saints and martyrs and orious
army OF Just men made perfect" who
are supposed to Lave safely passed the
pains of purSatory and loug since become
acclimated to the atmosphere OF Heaven. On
All Saints day each prays in church for his
! own Dead and--as "there is no Il .ck, h. ,wever
watched and tended, but some dead lamb is
there"-every fanny high and low, rich and
poor, SENDS its iamentng Rachel. Cathedral
| scenes on that day are long to be remembered.
For hours the bells tolled dismaiiv and the
streets were full of mourning figures, with
black shawls or rebosa, covering their faces,
silently wedding their way to the place of
prayer. In tho center of each darkened
church the ack-palled funeral 'dais was
| erected. with it's Pickering candles and grim
suggestions. The al!arS were draped with
Grape, the usual gaudy roses replaced by black
ones, and somber banners lore, in Spanish, the
words, II member the Dead The kneeling
crowd, all with devout faces turnod toward tho
| cross-the symbol Of their iope--repeated
their prayers SO earnestly that the
| united voices sounded like the distant roaring
Of the sea, Tney were mostly of that sex who
are first at the cradle and last at tho tomb"
| and it was easy to read in the upturned coun-
tenauces whose sorrows were freshest. There
were orphaned children, the widow in her weeds.
the white-h haired mother brrrft of sons aud
daug hters---every f ,ce l:a,i its history And it
did not de'ract from the solemnity Of the &C.
| catiVn to know that the floor upon which they
KIN 1t was a succession of trap-doors, covering
vaults Fl led % the brim with the bonos of a
csnlury's dead
DISMAL CEREMONY.
A Mexican funeral is very different from the
! same sal ceremony in the United States, for
here all hat is ghaStIy is brought to the front
and every com orting suggestion carefully ex-
| Guided. Apparently these people mean to en-
| joy "the luxury of gr-f'' to the full, and do
| C inc to be robbed Of single pang Here no
! floral tributes are sent by sympathizing friends
! no pillows Of white carnations, with s!Rest'
! in pur; IL immnrt lies; no crosses and anchors
| Of 81 otless lilies; and the dear departed are
| not laid away in beds Of blossoms, with tube
rosf upon their bosoms If flowers are us"d
| at all, they are generally the gaudiest Of arti-
| fetal, with leaves and little streamers of gilt
papers, precisely like those fastened to
| iron lltthS WHICH are thrust into the
bulls hile during the Sunday advertisement of
| the Ia de Torros. l have seen bunch Of
| these floral monstrOsi'ies as big as a cabbage
! in the waxen lands Of dead lady, aid the
gray bead + an old man crowned with wreath
! of bloodred roses, which gave tho corpse O.
whatever hour Of day night q person dies
| in Mexico, it Is customary to appoint the flu
neral services just tweuty-four hours thereaf-
ter, or as near to it as can possibly be ar
ranged 1t is a wel-knowu fact the wide world
over, that tho ma jor ty of souls 20 out of bodies
at that mystic hour between night
o life are at their lowest u ebb; t t6fres
! fore--in consequence Of the national custom
/ aforesaid-rlosJ funerals are conducted before
sunrise, All bodies must be carried to the
church before being laid in cousecrated ground.
but it is net the fashion here for WON N to at-
| tend funerals. So the wife, the mother. tho
| sisters, the daughters, take their last farewell
! zen casa," and the dead are then borne bv
M lie relav and friends, first to the cathedral.
| and tn n 10 the tomb. How mothers can en-:
| dure this, when their children die, passeth
| American comprehension, but the iron ha I'd of
! custom is evrn more inexorable here than in
| our own country, and none dream of defvi g
cient to make any mother's heart ache.
are frequently met in the twilight Of
| the early morning; little procession Of
| men on foot with never woman among them)
vending heir way to the campo santo-feid
of saints, as the cemetary is called The BE-
reaved father march"s in front, with the little
biue-paln'ed coffin bal&lcad upon his head
The male relatives follow with lighted candles,
and the rear IS brought up by bow, carving
the cofin lid. The deal child is plainly Wis
lble within the open box, dressed in the gay est
clothes, adorned with many paper flowers, and
of en- the little ia ures can scarcely be recog
| zed from the dust of the sire
which settles upon it before the s'dust
to dust" process begins. Except among the
| wea thy, the coffin il rot BURIED with the body,
but is merely rented for thu journey between
house AID cemetery, the same pine brx, which
for 'ults is painted black, outlined VITA white
and yellow stripes, serving the purpose great
| nun, Der Of times. I learned the wisdom, Of ex-
Guiding women from, the last horrible rites in
this country during my first visit to s'ft Id Of
saints Arriving st the grave. whether the
DO " be inferred with or without a coffu, it is
always first covered with linn, thai it may the
| more quickly dec impose. In most cases, the
corpse is taken out of tho coffin, laid in the
! dirt without any covering the sisht]e$s
eyes wide open) and quantity of
| unslscked lime thrown il, and eaith shoveled
upon 1.-THE sexton now aud then jumping in
aud stamping down with his feet t, make all
| snuS Even then the poor cadaver cannot be
| said to nave gone to his 'iong home," for,
! though buried like dog, he is not sure of his
| grave long eDou h to decay decenty in. 1t is
| an actual facr, ali over the length and breadth
I Of Mexico, that Except among the fsw who are
| rich enough to own family yaultsj the graves
are mostly rented for from three months to
not more than years time
A MELANGE OF BONES.
| Most of these ancient cities have only one
| small CAMPO santo-a veritable Goods acre.
in point OF size-wherein the dead of several
hundred years have been disposed OF. That is
| the secret Of the quick lime. have looked
down into many freshly-du graves, aud all
| presented the same appearance-the sides a