The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-08-01
THE CATACOMBS.

the catacombs of Paris, and l had with
great difficulty procured permission from
the chief engineer for a small party, con-
sisting of three gentlemen and three la
dies {all English, a professional guide
and myself to make the subtcrranean
pilgrimage. To my companions | have
stated word for word what | am about
to write, and they are ready, if my mar
rative is challenged, to verify those por-
tons Of which they are eognizant by
affidavit or otherwise.
| shall now proceed to relate what hap
pened, without attempting any embel-
lishment, letting the plain facts speak
for themselves. And, first, it is neces-
sary to dwell for one moment on a little
incident which has an important bear
ing. as will be seen hereafter. A few
DAYS before l had seen a little old wo-
man feeding the English sparrows in the
Tuileries garden. She broke up a loaf
of bread, threw the crumbs into the air,
and the timid things caught them fly
ing, 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, and lodges far to
the south; yet she never fails to visit the
gardens. and spare a loaf of her daily
bread to her feathered pets,
Now l had planned a visit to the gar
lens on Nov. s to try my hand at the
birds, and had provided myself with
two small loayes Of bread, for which !
gave ten confines. l calculated that l
should have time enough to do this be-
fore the carriages came to drive us to
the Catacombs. Various matters, how
ever, delayed me, and | had to give up
this part of the programme, but kept
the bread in the pocket of my overcoat,
meaning to bestow it on some beggar in
stead of the sparrows.
We started at 1890 from the Grand
hotel, and drove rapidly to the Barriere
d'Enfer and alighted in a courtyard,
where we found two or three hundred
persons waiting for the opening of the
low proved door which gives access to
the catacombs in that quarter of the
city. There are about seventy different
staircases for the samep purpose scattered
through Paris. Here each person was
provided with a candle fixed in the end
of a pine stick, with a small circle of
cardboard to serve as a tray and catch
the drops of grease. Each guide formed
his party into single file, and enjoined
the members to keep together, and to be
very careful of their footing as they
went down into the dark depths below.
Now here occurred the first strange
incident of this memorable day. A man
joined our party wearing the dress of
the Undertakers' company-that is, a
cooked hat like the first Napoleon's, a
black coat trimmed with silver lace,
high boots and a black overcoat with a
large cape. He was very thin, and his
clothes hung about him like a shroud on
a skeleton.
I shall never forget his face as he
turned and looked at me. The skin was
like parchment, the cheeks hollow and
the eyes luminous and deep set in cavern
Gus orbits. The look he gayeme thrilled
to the very marrow Of my bones, and
when he saw the effect it produced he
smiled, disclosing a set of yellow teeth,
with an expression so sinister, so weird.
so fatal, and yet so sad, that l could not
help saying to myself, This is Death!'
l was so overcome hat l could not
challenge his assumed right Of Joining
our party. In a word, he had COM
pletely ~magnetized and paralyzed me.
What was strange, from time to time q
lady Of our party turned and chatted
with me, apparently unconscious of the
black figure and terrible face intruded
between us.
And again, when the guide counted
us aloud he called out fve-the number
of our original party. He, too, was
then as unconscious of the presence of
the stranger as the lady to whom / have
alluded. WasImad? In this perturbed
state of mind l began the descent of the
catacombs.
The stone staircase was spiral, coiling
down Ikea petrifed serpent, along walls
Shiny and humid. We had lighted our
candles, but the change from the glare
Of daylight to this c%ayernous gloom pre-
vented our seeing anything, and we had
to grope our perilous way. Suddenly an
icy whisper, waited on a poisonous
breath, entered my ear like a poniard.
'Strange things have happened in the
catacombs, sir. The dead resent intru-
sion OF the last resting place given them
after the world has violated their first
sanctuary. Sometimes they insist on
the living sharing their hard bed with
them. Some men who have come down
here have never seen the pleasant light
of day again.
81 believe, sir, l replied, in as indif-
ferent a tone as l could assume, chat
owing to the precautions of the author
tiles no such accidents have occurred of
late years"
Il nm glad you think So" was the re-
ply, followed by a sneering. Mephisto-
phelian laugh-what the French call ri
canement.
A dead silence fell upon our party, We
were walking steadily onward, some
times walking on loose planks, our
weights sending up jets of water, but
generally on a dry and solid stone path
way.
The glide held up his 1iaring torch to
the low ceiling.
observe" he said, ''that broad. black