Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-07-12

NE petiessz wsIs sllitksd u;sk ks.d.cs.
zne ~ ~ preeu<scgy ,eyno>ens o. vsllox
ever ~, ei,eE aooat foriy hours thsJ wers
recovered and i IL sid shat they are now
imperyiocs 10 The disease.
During the Last session Of ths Mexican
Coogress Q proposition was presented by
several Deputies to the Secretary Of the Ia.
terror, to the effect that the Executive be
penuoned 10 name commission of compe.
tent physicians and scientists Ito investigate
the work Of prophylactic or preventive vac.
cinason for yellow fevor." The commits
sion, which President Diaz thereupon sd.
pointed, in due time rendered q most favor
able report Afterward Congress author
lied the Executive to invest an additional
$4,000 in the expenses Of q second com.
mission. which, says the record, .shsll be
instructed TO more fully investigate the all
Important subject and report at the earliest
possible moment Whersupon, If the report
be favorable. the President, after due cou-
sultation with the Health Counsel, shall
issue legal provisions Tor the administration
Of the prophy tactic incubation for the pre-
vention Of yellow fever"
In Hermossillo, q city Of Sonora, which
State is annually devastated BY the pssri-
lence, the authorities have issued decree
calling upon all good citizens to come up
and be yaecinate, and there is little doubt
that the next Mexican Congress will pass
law compelling this.
Naturally one turns from the yellow fever
subject to the great cemetery at Vera Cruz.
This Pantheon is q city of the dead which
is ten thousand times more populous than
the one lying all around it. Three immense
enclosures, connected by gates, are sur
rounded By q continuous wall so thick aud
high as to form succession of vaults, piled
six deep oLe above another around the
whole vast space. The small square open
iDgs of these vaults, which look precisely
ike bakers ovens, are just wide enough to
admit the end OF coffin, and eaoh is Ia
belled with the occupants name, en-
belished with such Suggestive pictures
"a skulls, crossbopes, &c, while the cen.
trail spaces are filed with a forest
of tall, black-pointed crosses. Most Of the
graves do duty for several tenants, packed
like ssrdines in box. aud numbers of
them are pits filed to the brim with the vic
tins of vomito and Yellow Jack. 1t must
have been as late as o'clock when we en-
tered the gates Of the cemetery not long
ago, and before we were aware Of the hour
darkness suddenly settled down like pail
upon the black forest Of crosses, aud q yell
low moon arose to light our passage among
them. None but homesick wanderers in
strange lands can appreciate the weird
effect of the scene Strsying about in the
ghostly shadows, we were frequently startled
by the rusting Of wings. not of angels, but
Of zopilotis, for myriards Of those birds find
q nightly resting place upon the arms of
pale ghmmer Of light appeared to be moving
to and fro, which investigation proved it to
be lamp thss is kept perpetually burning
before the tomb of q woman who sacrificed
her life on the altar of charity in 1903. hsv.
ing foraker home of wealth to nurse
hospital patients during fearful cpl
demic.
Rambling around the grass grown streets
of this quaint old town one finds many
traces of the past, pertaining especially to
that period when buccaneers rayed the
coast and robbed the treasure ships of
Spain. Like all Hispano-American sea
ports, Vera Cruz has its traditional tales of
horror. The history of the buccaneers and
their exploits of blood aud booty are too fs-
miisr for repetition. They originated in q
lsudable effort to avenge the gross wrongs
inflicted by Spain upon traders from other
countries who yentured to traffic within
that extensive region which the Pope had
obEgingly bestowed upon the King of Spain
ito conquer and subdue." It was Eliza
beth of England who first raised question
as to the validity Of the Spanish sovsreign's
claims, and who had the temsrity 20 insist,
in spite of the Holiness, that Spain had no
rights in America beyond those Of discovery
followed By possession. But the King was
too good Catholic to have rights thus
called in question, and whenever q hereto
ship was caught lowering around the West
Indies, or anywhere within that vague region
known as the Spanish Main, the horror of
priests and the svsrice of officials at the ap-
proach Of heresy led to summary dealings
with the luckless crews and their cargoes
The inhuman treatment which Spain in
hicted upon honest traders soon aroused the
adventurous to make seizures by way of
retaliation, and so it came about that all
vessels venturing into those seas went fully
armed. Private war was the consequence,
and the superior proves Of the Dutch and
English made sad havoc with the ships Of
Spain, and the plumber which the Spsniards
had been wringing from the natives for
more than hundred years. Finally, the
6hbusters degenerated into pirates and rob-
bers, and the Kings gslleons and all the
towns upon the Spanish-American coast
were victims to their depredstions.
The fury of the buccaneers was chiefly d.
rected against the holy fathers, aud when
reaching city they never forgot to pay an
especial visit to the converts. When Vera
Cruz fell before the English eorssir, Nieho-
las Agrsmont, in 1908, compelled the nuns
and monks to carry the plumber Of the town
to his boats which lsy tossing in the bsrbor,
thereby" says an unehsritsble comments-
tor" "grieving the pious creatures most of
all because they share in the spoils loaded
upon their own backs"
FANNIs B. WAEp.