The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1884-01-08
IN A MEXICAN GRAVEYARD.
A Walk Among the LIme-SprinkIed
Bones In n Mexican Cemetery.

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Fannie Brigham Ward In Pioneer Press
Most Of these ancient cities have only one
small campo santo-a workable Goods acre.
in point Of size-wherein the d sad of several
hundred years have been disposed Of. That
Is the secret Of the quick lime. l have looked
down INTO many freshly-dug graves, and all
presented the same appearance-the sides a
perfect sandwich of layers upon layers OF
crumbiing bones and bits of collins which the
spade had cut through, looking like huge
slices of chicken salad or old-fashioned mar
bic" cakoI 1t is doubtful whether the scrip
lures can be fulfilled here as TO the gathering
together of bones on the resurrection morn
ing. But these good Catholics do not be-
lieve in that They think the body Is OF no
more value after tho soul has been safely
prayed through p~urgatory, and no sense Of
sacredness attaches TO the clay casket after
the jewel Is gone. When the time has eX-
pired for which the grave was rented, the
occupant Is unceremouiously eyicted, TO make
room for a new tenant II the time has been
long enough and the lime active, there Is lit
tie left TO shovel out; but the three months
allotted TO the vast majority in which to de-
cay Is insufficient in obstinate Gases, and
bones are sometimes unearthed not yet quite
bare OF flesh, and skulls with capillary adorn-
ments still elinsing TO them. In walking
through tho campo santos ono comes upon
ribs, marrow-bones, sections of the vertebrue,
bits of shrouds and broken collins ut every
step.
But this Is by no means the woI st OF 1t. In
the rear of each graveyard Is a smaller In.
closure, which one with weak nerves had bot
tor not visit The first glimpse is enough to
make the strongest man forego his dinner;
but one gets used to all manner OF things in
time, you know, and generally ends AS 1 did
by poking over the bones with his umbrella
70 find a nice, white skull for an ink-bottlel
The bones are carried 10 this charnel house
aud left in heaps untl the annual cremation
time comes around, when they arc burned
and left for the winds TO scatter. Poor
GABRIEL What a time no will have on that
last great day trying to fulhl his contract in
this countryi
Golgotha must have been an Eden to this
PLACED Every step reveals a new horror.
Here are scores OF well preserved collins, still
half-full Of the lime, which failed to complete
its work, mixed with grave-clothes In which
tho bodies havo rottsd, their gay colors
scarcely faded Scattered all about are
babies tiny shoes; leather enough in half-
decayed boots and slippers to start a shoe
making establishment; women's combs and
other parnphernalia; skulls of all sizes, and
piles Of bones in tho corners of the walls
higher than a mans head. Here Is a skull
matted with gray hair; another with a long
black tress attached, which doubtless loving
hands caressed in other days; and another
smaller one-white and shining like ivory
evidently that OF a child Sometimes the
stcnch is intolcrable. enough to give tho
cholera in any other atmosphere. and VIZ
Americans retire from the spot, firm in the
determination not to die in Mexico, whatever
else we may do.