The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-05-26
A MUSEUM OF DEATH.
A PLACE THAT Is FULL OF SEN
SATlONAL HORROR.

Catacombs of Sicily's Capital-Plctorial
Tragedies In the Ante Room-Skele-
tons in Full view-The Dead standing
in inches Like Statues.
The capital of Sicily-Palermo-which
claims nearly quarter million people, is not,
upon the whole, a very interesting city, al
though what we in America call a very
"smart" one. 1t is slowly drawing the life
blood from Messina, on the other end of the
north coast. 1t has the average number Of
churches, with their costly spiritual furni-
ture; it has handsome views from the hills
that nearly surround it: it has a museum
containing some Of the stone fragments of an
cient Greece and Rome; but by far its great
est and most unique curiosity is its Museum
of Death. 1t is situated near one Of the
edges Of the town, and is called the Capu-
chin catacombs said that catacombs
were generally dull affairs; but this is most
startling exception. do not believe there
is any one place in the world that is so full
Of sensational horror.
PICTORIAL TRAGEDIES.
You enter plain hall hung with a multi
tude Of small paintings. These are pictorial
tragedies, telling the form in which death
came to those within. One pictures a duel;
another the frightful stampede of horse
the victim crushed under his heels; another
the poor victims fall from housetop;
another the fatal bite of a serpent; still
another portrays death in the shock Of bat
tie. Many are pictured dying quietly in
their beds; some are floating away from
themselves into the regions of eternal bliss.
I used to wonder at the Italian in America
who came to the stonecutter and wanted him
to engrave upon his little boys tombstone
picture of the load of hay from which he fell
to his death, but here was the same thing,
only it was Sclian hay, and done in oil in
stead of marble.
But this was only the anteroom to the great
assembly room of death. A mild, innocent
looking barefooted monk led us into a long
corridor, with strong shelves upon each side
arranged not unlike the berths of
steamer, only there were five or six of them
in a tier. Upon these shelves lay in full view
the skeletons of the departed--many of them
clothed as if they were still living. Some Of
them had white kid gloves upon their hands;
one woman was dressed in pink satin, and
the poor grinning skull wore a white lace
cap surrounded by wreath of pink art-
fetal roses. Two brothers embraced in
DEATH sometimes whole family were thus
reunited.
Often there were suspended near the bodies
their photographs while living. There never
could be given to mankind a palmer lesson
concerning the vanity of all earthly objects
The beauty of womanhood smiled within a
few inches of the shrunken bones that formed
its doleful wreckage. Handsome and intel
lectual man faces apologized for the poor,
idiotic looking remains that lay behind them.
A lovely girl of Is and a grand faced old
lady of 50 were among the life and death
contrasts
THEIR OWN GRIM STATUES.
Many of the dead stood upright in inches
their own grim statues. Some bowed their
blighted heads as if in deep reflection; others
were kneeling as if in prayer. Sometimes a
group of cronieS sat together, as if talking
over old times None but could easily be
found by inquiring friends, for each and
every one bore tablet containing the name
and the date of death Cardinals in their
faded red robes were there; bishops by the
score, lords and ladies by the hundred, and a
king and queen were not wanting to rule
over this silent and peaceful colony of the
grave.
Through not only one but many Of these
awful corridors our bright faced monk led us
for there are 5000 guests in the solemn hos
telry In the middle of the floors were great
piles of collins, heaped up like luggage at
railway station. Some of them were VIM
dowed with glass and showed plainly their
CHASTITY occupants; others charitably sealed
their contents from the eye. This commu-
nifty of the dead years is not without its little
ones; in many places lie the skeletons of
children dressed in dainty baby clothes. In
fact, there is no lesson in the great text book
of mortality that this unique cemetery does
not teach.
AS | emerged once more into the blessed
air and saw live sunbeams dancing around
me it was with an effort that adjudged my
self still of the living felt for while like
an escaped skeleton, and after pounding and
myself to be sure that l was all
there walked away, thanking God that the
soul and body are two different institutions.
Will Cartoons Sicily Letter in New York
Star