The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-08-23


generally spread in an adjoining apartment,
at which visitors may fortify themselves
Tor this onerous duty of friendship, or re-
fresh themselves after its performance
Among many odd incidents pertaining to
funerals The following is much talked of
hereabouts. Some ten years ago we'll
known citizen of Conception, who had
served his country faithfully and lived sans
peur ct sans reproche as Gillian citizens go,
quarrelled with the middle aged mother of
his half dozen children She took tF7rench
leave, one night, and nothing was heard of
Der afterwards. Having remained in single
blessedness year or two, without being
able to ascertain whether the runaway
spouse was living or dead, the gentleman
took younger woman to wife, contrary to
the wishes OF the church. Shortly after
the second marriage he became so sick that
us lie was despaired of. OF course,
The FRIENDS SENT FOR PRIEST,
who came and commanded the man to re-
nounce the new wife before he could re-
celye absolution. This the husband refus-
cd TO do, and the priest retired in high
dundgeon, without leaving behind the de-
sired pass through purgatory. The man
grew rapidly worse, and the priest was
called again, and yet again, the latter al
ways making the same demand, with the
same result. Threats followed. of direst
eternal consequences; and finally the Door.
harrassed man, unable to give up the ghost
IN peace, seized a revolver from under his
pillow and drove the priest from the room.
Hall an hour later he was dead and the
church refused to bury him. The family
appealed to the mayor of the city, who or
dered his burial; the priests appealed to
the bishop of Conception, who declared that
ne should not be buried. Here was pretty
Kettle OF fish Nobody would ever think of
being buried in other than ''consecrated
ground, F" and in those days the cemeteries
all belonged to the church Meanwhile. as
time went on, the cadaver became in the
condltlon OF Lazarus of Bethany, as de-
scuoed by Martha when the Savior visited
tne tomb-'Lord, by this time he stinketh -
The president of the republic was appealed
TO, and he overruled the bishops ruling,
and ordered that the man be buried in the
cemetery. There was no gain-saying this
verdict, and the 'bone of contention'' was
finally inferred. But the matter did not
end there, for the whole nation became
stirred up about it. For months the unsay-
Org subject was in every body's mouth: the
newspapers teemed with its pros and cons.
and adherents of both sides of the contro,
Versy made 1t test case of ''strike for your
affairs and your fires, strike for the green
graves OF your slresH-or more properly
speaking, for their adobed inches in the
pantheon walls. The church hurled anathe-
mas al the president, denouncing him bit
terIy as a hereto and corruptor of all that
is good, aud popular sentiment ran so high
that revolution seemed much more probable
than 1t did month before the present war
began.
think 1T was in 1884 that President Dom
lngo Santa Maria (Balmaceda's predeces-
sorl
SETTLED THE MATTER JCDICIOUSLY
by inducing congress to pass a law which
threw all the public cemeteries of Chile open
to people of every religious faith, or of no
falth at all. Previous 10 that date thew had
oeen the exclusive property of the Romish
church, and had yielded large revenue.
besides the s. tax on every cadaver, burial
lots were sold at high price. In the big
cemetery at Santiago, the longest time for
which a lot was sold was four generations
about thirty years. An average lot
about two yards long by one yard wide
cost $50 for q period of four generations:
the same size lot for one burial one year So.
For the privilege of erecting family mon
ument after the lot was paid for, $50 addi-
nonal. A record was kept, and when the
stipulated time expired the friends of the
deceased could continue in possession only
by renewing the release and paying another
so. IL the family had moved to another
part OF the country, or were all dead, their
LOT was resold when the lease expired and
the former tenents evicted; but if they de-
sired to remove theirdeed to another place.
$50 was charged for permission to do So
Inc church of Santiago owns a first class
hearse, which is used only for great digui-
tarles, at the cost of $50 for conveying the
corpse on It's last Journey II also has a
second class hearse for common people.''
the fee for using it is SIP; and third class
hearse Tor $. And so on down the social
gamut TO the sixth class, composed of the
churchS most devoted servants, who. hay-
ing no money to pay for any hearse carry
their dead on a stretcher and lay them.
cofhnless, IN the rotos dragged people's]
corner
The great cemetery of Chile's capital
with its more than 800 600 registered dead.
is certainly the most populous. if not popu-
lar, public resort in the country. And the
population. still CONSTANT, increasing, Is a
permanent one, disturbed by
NO MAY-DAY MovINGs,
or revolutions, or changing governments
Ii is divided into five parts, one for digni-
tarles OF the church, one for wealthy and
influential people, another for commoner
clay, and another for "rotos," who are too
poor TO pay anything. Passing into that
Slty OF Silence, through lofty arched gate
way topped by tall cross, one stands
amazed at the multitude of bronze and mar
Bile statues, many of them executed by the
most famous sculptors of Europe-a crowd
Of costly and artistic shapes, far exceeding
10 number those to be found at Greenwood
or Mount Auburn. Thousands of NOM
ments are in the form of crucifixes. remind
ing the visitor Of some ones tboupht.
Let US hope they have gained the crown
for behold the multitude of crosses thew
have left behind" Evergreens. Willows
towering shrubs, roses and forget-me-nots
riot everywhere with that uucannv luxnri.
ance peculiar to graveyards.
Should you tarry to watch the sexton Dip
cling a grave, you would observe that his
spade soon encounters something hard in
the sandy earth. 1t is only the fragments
Of some forgotten PERSONS coffin which
with skull and marrow bones, are carelesslv
ratified out upon the sward A little deem.
Or down he is sure to come upon another
poor Yorick," and yet another; four Law
srs of them being about the average.
1t is still spoken of with bated breath in
Conception, how, when the famous .'ceme-
cry bill, T" which compelled the authorities
10 permit the burial of Protestauts and
'ther heretics in the public psntheons. had
passed both houses of congress and receiv-