The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-12-07
IN THE MORGUE OF PARIS
THE CHASTITY PLACE THAT AT
TRACTS THE MULTITUDE.
The House of the Dead-The Hall
Where Murderers are Confronted
With Their victims-FreezinR the
From the Philadelphia Times.

PARIS, Nov. 1S.-A little square house on
ali island, just behiud Notre Dame is one of
the great show places of Paris. 1t is the
morgue. The true Partisan, a being at best
incomprohensible to the sedate and sober
minded citizsn Of tbs world. is at once the
most frivolous and the most serious of man
kind. lis evenings, oft devoted to wild
| hilarity, albeit provoked by circumstances
! which would fail to excite the ri,ibility Of a
scboolboy, are ofttimes followed by mornings
spent in profound melancholy. In this IN
enviable mental condition monsieur appar-
emily finds a congenial cOmpanionship in
| the blistered and boated remains of the
! flOtsam and jetsam If humanity, which lie
| ghaslly and stark, awaiting Identification,
on the marble slabs of the morgue. On fine
| DAYS constant stream of well-dressed
visitors invade the gloomy precincts OF the
! dead house, and the ate ldantS say that
there are bu dreds of Parisians whose faces
are rarely missing at the gruesome morn
| ing receptions.
IN THE MORGUE.
The English-speaking visiter is usually
satisfied with a single visit to the Hall Of
Tear He enters at one door, gaSseS in
front of the glass PARTITION, which, reach
iag from ceiling to foor, effectually sepa-
| objects to DIS morbid fancy, and gazing
awhile on the silent sleepers whose ever
| lasting trance shall know no waking, passes
out by another door. and breathes freely
again in the bright, exhilarating air of the
city of pleasure. This is about all that the
average tourist sees at the morgue
or learns of its history and methods, for the
attendants are uncommunicative to
strangers, and the subdivision of the dead
house to which the public have the right of
unquestionei admittanceis the only portion
OF the building the visitor unprovlded with
pass is allowed to enter. Armed, how
ever, with a line from DR.. Brouardel, the
chief of the bureau of judicial medicine. an
important department Of the French law
courts, much that Is interesting NAV be
seen and learned at TIE mOrgue.
THE HALL OF THE DEAD.
About one-third of the large room is
are exposed to the public gaze. This
lofty hall, or room, is divided across
the center by partition built of polished
wood up to a hight of three feet or so, above
which rises PANIED glass screen reaching to
the ceiling. Behind this screen marble slabs
are arranged in a double row on the floor of
tue hall. They stand on iron supports and
are raised about foot from the ground.
The slabs slope downward toward the parti-
ton and thus the faces of the occupants are
brought more clearly ito view and recog-
milton from the other side of the glass
screen is thus rendered ease-
Iron rails run across the bal directly over
the heads of the slabs, and hooks are de-
pendent therefrom. Directly over each
C 2rpse are hung from these hooks the clothes
of the deceased, which, when, as is often the
case, the body through having been long in
the water has become almost unrecogniza-
BILE, are the only means of Identification.
Until a year or two ago spray of water
played from pipe overhead on each
corpse, but since then the plan of freezing
the bodies has been adopted and low
temperature maintained il. the apart
ment of the dead this constant dripping has
been dispensed with. Hanging on the walls
are photographs, hundreds of them of
corpses which have never been recog aized
or claimed. Pieces of clothing, knives of
peculiar make, pocketbooks, card cases,
purses and other small articles that might
possibly lead to the Identification Of the per-
sons on whose bodies they were found, are
also affixed to the sides of the room.
FREEZING THE BODIES.
In an outbuilding in the rear of the NOR
que is row Of stove-like compartments in
which the bodies after being placed in long,
narrow boxes, are frozen until they be-
come literally as hard as stone. After
being subjected to this process they will
stand on their feet without support, and a
more gruesome sight than three or four of
the unknown dead standing erect in the
freezing house, awaiting removal to the
slabs in the next chamber, the lover of the
horrible could hardly desire to behold
Should these ghastly remains fall down or
be accidently overturned, as indeed is not
infrequently the case, unlike stone statues,
which in their frozen condition they so
much resemble, they remain unbroken
A door in the wall at the back of the rear
row of slabs bears the inscription, "Salle
d Autopsie," and here the post-mortem ex-
aminations take place In the centre of the
room is a table like the ones used in the
| amphitheaters of all the French hospitals.
Here DIR. Brouardel lectures once week on
judicial medicine, finding fruitful texts for
his discourses among the silent tenants of
the marble slabs hard by. Applicants to
attend the chiefs lectures are far more nu-
merous than accommodation can be found
for in the little sale. and none but medical
students in the third year of their probation
and few favored doctors are admitted.
CONFRONTED WITH THEIR VICTIMS.
Out of this room again opens door lead
ing into the Sale de MagistratS, where
criminals or suspected murderers are con-
fronted with the mortal remains of their
victims. The attendant appeared to take a
pride in recalling for the visitors benefit
thc VI hOlJilOuS W no nave
here wIithed in agony or sat in stolid indif-
ference while the mute victims of their rage,
jealousy or lust for gold have been carried
like logs of wood into their presence. Over
the backs of the chairs hang little tablets,
on which are inscribed the names of notori-
Gus malefactors who have endured in
them possibly the most agonizing
moments of their lives. Here, with
scowl on his morose Gascon features, as the
courteous attendant tells the visitor, sat
Provost, the Paris policeman, gazing
without sign of remorse, on the dismem-
bered body Of his wife, which he had, after
cutting her throat, hacked in pieces and
cast in the sewer Of the city. The infam-
Gus Toppmann, the brutal murderer, who
killed whole family at Pantin, sat hud-
died up in the chair opposite the door. COW
ering his face with his hands as each of his
five victims were borne into the apart
ments by stalwart attendants. In the chair
directly facing the magistrates desk
sat Campi, whose mysterious asSassinations
set all Paris talking awhile ago, aud in the
one in the corner Pranzini reclined with an
air of easy grace peculiarly his own, smiling
contempluouslY meanwhile. as he careesSly
regarded the disfigured features and black
ened throat Of the beautiful but abandoned
woman on whose bounty he had made so
brave q show of his hand ONE face and
figure on the boulevards, and whom he had
ruthlessly cboked TO death for the sake of a
few thousand francs and her jewels.