Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-12-30
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A well-known Chicagoian, who has re-
Gently returned home from the Isthmua
a Panama after reaidence Of one year |
fn that dclectable locality, was interviewed |
the other day by reporter. When l
landed, y he said, tat the dock at Asptn- |
wall, from the Pacifc Mail steamship City
OF Para, and gazed around me, thought
Of Artemus Wards description OF his re-
ception at the same spot. As doubtless
Won have read, this genial philosopher
wrote that there were 80 many partially
enrobed colored men (all chastely attired
10 flIth and rags) trying TO seize his
oarpet-baz 10 carry Il to the hotel that he
did mot know who of the number TO trust
his personal baggage with. In this di.
lemrna one of the officers OF the ship
called his attention to one of the most
yiQorods OF these sable solicitors for tenn
porary employment, who, ahoeless, hat
less and attired in brief fragments of
pants, evidently Of ancient Spanish origin,
and aged United States army jacket en-
bellished with mu,sh dirt, attached to his
person by old shoe stringa, exclaimed !:
Take him, Ward. He's all right. He's
President of the Republic My next re-
Election was that l was viewing q sub
urban section Of hades. The streets are
narrow and filthy, without any resent
blance whatever to modern civilization.
In walk of fifteen minutes duration
counted three dead bodies and five men
sick lying on the public thoroughfares.
seThe City of Panama, on the Pacific
side, is in o little better condition, but
not much. There, as all over the 18TH
mus, evidences Of the awful mortality OF
the climate are TO be seen on every side.
The first Sunday spent in Panama, ac-
conpanied by one of the Spanish state
officials, visited the cemeteries of the
city. There are Ave of them, all stretched
side by side in CHASTITY row, about one
mile from the centre of the city. There
are tho native or Catholic the Jews, the
Chinese, the strangers or foreigners, and
the fifth, q sort of burial ground, where
what You might term in English miscel
laneous humanity after death is deposited
ST will select the largest of these grave
yards for description, it being fai
representative picture of them all. M
lots or graves can be purchased there a
In this country. You can simply lease
grave, paying rental for tfOr the perio,
Of eighteen months. Ground is entirel
too scarce and deaths too numerous an
frequent to sell grave or allow one dea,
person to use ground more than yea
and half. At the expiration of tina
period Of time the grave is reopened, an
II there is any thing left of the originf
occupant 1t is dug up and thrown asid
almost anywhere. In this grave-yar
there are no monuments or tombstones
saw over ten Thousand graves, all exactl
alike, marked with cheap, black, woode
cross, all precisely the same, upon whic
Is simply inscribed number which co
responds TO similar figures upon II
oficial register of the cemetery compan.
This huge book contains the name, af
nationality, &c, of the buried bodie
There these ten thousand solemn, weir
black crosses stood in regular rows Ill
some immense, silent army significant
pointing to the awful evidences OF Il
terrible mortality of a climate which u
eloquence of Cicero coult but faint
portray. In what is termed the new Sc
ton of this graveyard, although, MS
have said. it was Sunday, | noticed ~
25 stalwart laborers busily engaged
digging graves Finally one hunir
new graves were open, ranged III "
significant rows. WHO are Ill these d
graves for p I curiously inqu red Ia
Ignorance. sOh said my spanish &C
panion, the people they are intended
ara not dead yet. As we can not k
bodies long in this climate we are &C
81 PEELED to dig the graves in adyan
Thus, you see,' he cheertully add
'they are all ready when needed, and
unnecessary delays take place
"Oofins are very scarce. None
made on the isthmus, and the most in
are brought from Kingston, the Eng
city ON the island of Jamaica. As
death rate is 30 appalling, collins are Y
expensive, and from these facts has ari
the necessity for renting cotins, or,
other words, of literally using seco
hand cotfins. The way this is done
this: When person dies, if his fan
can not afford the great expense Of buy
coffin out right, a secondhand cofh
selected from warehouse set apar
the graveyard for that purpose.
course, one is taken that they think
about TT the corpse. Rent must inv
ably be paid in advance, and after
little extremely necessary Formally
concluded the rented coffin is take
kho l~~S~~.S -----~..i- .
sac u5Ueaoeos peisOA 80, ne 10 =
IN il as well AS he can DE under thr
cumstsncAe. ths body incased in coli
taken to the leased grave, dumped o.
the coffin into the ground, covered u
13 months, and the second hand cot
returned to the secondhand coffin
already FOR another customer.
"The average funeral there-and
nearly score while in this grayeya
simply consists of the corpse-the
figure in the sad ceremony--a SET
hand coffin, an old wagon, constr
before the establishment of the Rep
of Colombia, an attenuated and
mule of great hunger and much Sage
and a driver who is chiefly conspic
by the wealth of his Spanish oaths b.
at current events, and his TOO paia
evident habitual absorption Of alcohol
freshments. As rule there are
few, il any, relatives or friends prese
the place is considered by the ge
public entirely too unhealthy for e'
brief visit.
Living, as my American friends
there and myself did, in what mig
termed close fellowship with death i
our habit when we first met in the n
ing, as we went aoout our duties --sa
the cathedral pla2a--not to greet
other with the customary United
salutation OF How do you do this |
ing P or Good morning, but 10 u
each other with much surprise, Al
exclaim, in great astonishment v
not dead vet p