The Princeton union., 1890-08-21
THE CATACOMBS.

The Sth of November, 1873, must
foreverrem memorable in the rec
ord ofmy life. 1t was the last day
on which yisisors were permitted to
descend into the catacombs ofParis,
and | had with great difficulty pro-
cured permission from the chief en-
gineer for a small party, consisting
OF three gentlemen and three ladies
tall English), a professional guide
and myself to make the subterranean
pilgrimage. To my companions
have stated word for word what /
am about to write, and they are
ready, if my narrative is challenged,
to verify those portions of which
they are cognizant by affidavit or
otherwise.
shall now proceed to relate what
happened, without attempting any
establishment, letting the plain facts
speak for themselves. And, first, lit is is
necessary to dwell for one m oment
on little incident which has an i'm
portant bearing, as will beseen here
after. A few days before had seen
little old woman feeding the Eng
lish sparrows in the Tuileries gar
den. She broke up loaf of bread,
threw the crumbs into the air, and
the timid things caught them flying,
as they do insects. They were so
tame they would eat out of the good
Woman's hand. She was very poor,
worked at some place far away to
the north OF the Tuileries, ndlodges
far to the south; yet she never fails
to visit the gardens, and spare loa
of her daily bread to her teathered
pets.
Now | had planned a visit to the
gardens on Nov. 8 to try my hand
at the birds, and had provided nv
self with two small loaves of bread.
for which gave ten centimes. / cal
culated that | should have time
enough to do this before the car
riages came to drive us to the Cata-
combs. Various matters, however.
delayed me, and | had to give up
this part OF the programme, but /
kept the bread in the pocket of nv.
overcoat, meaning to bestoW it on
some beggar instead of the spar
rows.
We started at 1890 from the
Grand hotel, and drove rapidly to
the Barriere 'Enfer and alighted in
a courtyard, where we found two or
three hundred persons waiting for
the opening of the low browed door
which gives access to the catacombs
in that quarter of the city. There
are about seventy different stair
! cases for the same purpose scattered
through Paris. Here each person
was provided with a candle fixed in
the end Of q pine stick, with small
circle OF cardboard to serve as & tray
and catch the drops Of grease. Each
guide formed his party into single
file, and enjoined the members to
hCVP uO$,VOA1Vl3 Cu1lu OOk1O WI y CCtISlul
of their footing as they went down
/ into the dark depths below.
Now here occurred the first strange
incident cf this memorable day. A
man joined our party wearing the
dress of the Undertakers' company
that is, a cooked hat like the first
Napolean's, black coat trimmed
with silver lace, high boots and a
black overcoat with large cape.
He was very thin, and his clothes
hung about him like shroud on q
skeleton.
I shall never forget his face ais he
turned and looked at me. The skin
was like parchment, the cheeks hol.
low and the eyes luminous and deep
/, set in cayernous orbits. The look he
gave me thrilled to the very marrow
Of my bones, and when he saw the
effect it produced he smiled, disclos.
\ ing q set of yellow teeth, SO fatal,
and yet SO sad, that I could not helI
Saying to myself. This is deathln