Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-11-14

body is of no consequence after the soul
has been safely prayed through purgatory,
and to them there is no sense of sacredness
connected with the clay casket after its
jewel is gone.
When the time has expired for which the
grave was rented, the occupant is uncere-
moniously shoyeled out to make room for
new tenant. If the time has been long
enough-thanks to the lime-there is little
left to evict; but the three months allowed
to the vast majority in which to decay, is
not time enough in obstinate cases. Bones
are sometimes unearthed not yet quite bare
of flesh, and skulls with capillary adorn-
ments still clinging to. them. In walking
through these Campo Santos, one comes
upon such cheerful sights as sections of
vertebrae, ribs, marrow bones,
BITS OF sHRoUDs AND BROKEN ooFFINs
At every step. But this is by no means
the worst of it. In the rear of each grave
yard is q smaller Enclosure, which had bet
ter not be visited by persons of shaky
nerve. The first glimpse is warranted TO
make the strongest man forego his dinner;
but one can get accustomed to all manner
of things, you know, and generally ends
as | did-by poking over the bones with an
umbrella to find a nice white skull for an
ink-bottle! The bones are carted to this
charnel yard and left in heaps till the an
nual cremation time comes around when
they are burned to ashes and left for the
winds to scatter. Poor Gabriel-what a
time he will have of it on that great day in
trying TO fulfill his contract Golgotha
must have been an Eden to the place we
lately visited. Every step showed a new
horror. There were scores of well-pre-
served collins, still half-full of the lime
which had failed to complete its work,
mixed with shreds of grave-clothes, their
gay colors scarcely faded. Scattered about
were babies tiny shoes; leather enough in
half-decayed boots and slippers to set up
St Crispin in trade; women's combs and
other paraphernaia skulls of all sizes.
and piles of bones in the corners of the wall
higher than mans head. We noticed a
skull matted with long, gray hair; another
with q long, black tress attached, which
doubtless loving hands have caressed in
other days; and dozens of smaller heads
white and shining like ivory-evidently
those of children. Naturally the stencil is
sometimes acknowledgements to give the
whole country the cholera in any other
atmosphere; and as in this mountainous
land the Campo Santos are generally To-
Gated on hills outlying the cities, it is not
to be wondered at that the residents imme-
diately below, who
RECEIVE THE WAsHINGs INTO THRIR WELLS,
Die off like sheep at certain seasons of the
year. The other day prominent citizen
died, and Betsy and l determined to attend
the funeral, notwithstanding the custom
excluding women. The cathedrals are al
ways open, and under pretext of perform
ing our devotions unusually early, we hied
US thither. Imagine gray November
morning, at the witch-hour' of S. dim
old church full of ghostly shadows, with
here and there some conscience-stricken
creature kneeling upon the floor in peni-
tential prayer, or whispering at confession
al windows. The funeral pyramid-pine
boards painted black. ornamented with
skulls and crossbones, and nlome,lti mora in
criptions-occupied the center of the
church. This pyramid and its four side
pieces, which are shaped exactly like cof-
fins, was stuck full of suffering candles,
in whose Pickering light the shadows
swayed to and fro, like ghostly visitants
trailing their shrouds behind them, getting
ready to return to the vaults below after a
nocturnal revel For Betsy's encourage
ment, 1 whispered that cheerful stanza
somwhere, in desolate, wind-swcpt space
In twilight land-in mo mans" land
Two shivering shapes met, face to face,
And bid each other stand.
Shuddering in the cleaning light
81 know not" said the second shape
g only died last night!'
Now the funeral procession enters (of
course all mem, who bear the coffin upon
their shoulders and deposit it upon a black
paled dais in front of the pyramid. As
usual, there is no cover upon the coffin,
and the wide-open eyes, with no more
speculation in them, stare straight up
l.,4 whit 70 oil ha -,
altar. But the blood-stained Christ thereon
gives no sign to that unhoused SOUL which
seems to say, " This day shalt thou be with
me in paradise" At the side of the cathe-
dral an image of the Virgin of Sorrows,
with clasped hands and a dagger sticking
in her heart, looks down upon the dead
man, as if mourning in place of the wife
and mother who should be there
A procession of white-robed priests en-
tiers, preceded by a boy bearing a huge
brass crucifix, which he stands at the head
of the coffin. Then follows long mass,
chanted by the priests in monotonous
minor tones-as wierd as any Indian in
cantation in the wilds of our own north
and burning incense shaken, till the whole
vast pile is full Of spicy odors. Meantime
the sun has risen, and his first beams
penetrating barred window high up un-
der the roof-fall asant the crucifed
Savior about whose feet some white doves,
who make their home in the church, are
| joyously twittering. Gazing upon that
symbol of the Christians faith, we fall to
wondering-with the unutterable longing
all human hearts feel in presence of the
dread mystery of death-whether the in
Vulnerable procession Of dead who have
DIED IN THE LORD"
During all that eighteen centuries are bet
| ter off to-day, now that their bodies are
dust, than equally devout followers OF
Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius or Quetzal-
coat?
Now all that can be said or done for the
dead man here below is accomplished-and
on the shoulders Of those who yesterday
were friends and neighbors. of this inscru-
table thing now called 1t" the coffin is
borne toward the Campo Santo, followed
| by the multitude on foot, each with his
| lighted candle. Come" whispers Betsy
we have caught blues enough this morn
| ing to last us a week.
! Outside gentle shower is Just passing
over, and rainbow arches the ancient city
It's ends appearing TO rest upon the mount
! ain tops at either side. Looking down the
narrow street at the vanishing procession
our thoughts revert to the weeping women
| ID the deSolate home, who may not even
accompany their beloved on his last short
| journey. But the rainbow spanning the
skies is an suspicious omen. q" am the
resurrection and the life; whosoever be
lieveth on me, though dead, shall live
again" Though death and sorrow is the
common heritage, the promise endures fol
| all lands. and we must believe that some
| how-somewhere-it will be fulfilled
FANNIE 3. WARD.
ABOUT THE BosToH GIRLs.-A gentleman
| who was apparently rather deeply tinget