Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-06

the vultures by the hundred swoop down upon
the naked dead babies of the Parsees they
we're laid upon the Towers Of Silence at
Bombay. and 1 have wandered among the
tombs Of the thousand generations Of China
men which I'LL the sides of the White Cloud
mountains near the big city Of Canton.
have admired the sculptured marbles repre-
senting living wives bending over their dead
husbands in the wonderful Campo Santo in
Genoa, have seen the dead piled naked on top
of one another in the cemetery at Naples and
have wandered among the bone receptacles Of
the catacombs at Rome. have seen the mummy
tombs of Egypt, the burning CHATS of the
Gauges. the crsmations and quick-lim burials
of the japanese. but the sights of this Mexican
cemetery are stranger than all do not find
them down in any of the books on
Mexico. and / would hardly have believed that
they existed had / not seen them with mine
own eyes Imagine. il you can, the bones Of
100000 human beings torn to pieces and piled
one on the top of another like so much corn IN
granary. Put all ages and sexes together.
Tear them limb from limb and mix the mass of
skulls, legs, arms and ribs together and the
parts OF the different skeletons lose themselves
in the vast pile Of this vaulted granary Of
bones
PIGEON HOLES FOR BODIES.
This gives but faint idea of what saw to-
day. The cemetery of this city of Guanahuato
is situated on the top of high hill overlooking
the town. / rode up to it on a little donkey
and was admitted 20 ii by an Indian. who had
a hat fully foot high on his swarthy head
revolver a foot long tied TO his leather belt and
pair Of buckskln pantalOons which fitted his
lean legs Ike glove. This town is a mile ard
half above the sea- The air here is as
dry as are the bones of these skeletons
the year ronnd. and nature wears a perpetual
smile OF blue skies, bright flowers and bracing
air. The cemetery gives a view of hundreds of
m In IAN Ia of nh, Oh
lncaleulable riches of silver and gold. and the
precious metals undoubtedly lie under the
very bones of these tens of thousands of the
dead 1 entered by its wide gate and found
myself surrounded by great walls in a
court which contained perhaps five acres
of ground. The walls of this court were
about eight feet thick. and as i examined them
i found that they were, in fact made up of
pigeon holes about three feet square and SIX
feet deep. some of which were open and Others
OF which were closed with marble slabs, on
which were printed the names and virtues of
the dead who were shelved away within
There were thousands of these pigeon holes
and my guide showed me a card giving the
rates. From II / see that these holes
are rented out TO the bodies of the dead.
and the guide tells me that the most of
them are taken for about five years. after
which the bones of the deceased are taken ont.
the pigeon hole is cleaned and it is ready fer
the next occupant. 1t costs SIS for the use of
this seems to be the shortest term for which
they are leased. A man who wants one per-
Pesually can have IL by paying 800, and if he
cares TO crowd his whole family into the same
hole be can have it for the lump sum of $780,
GRAVEYARD sANDwICHEA
The ordinary dead are, however. buried in
the ground The city Of Guanahuato is rich.
but its great wealth is in the hands of a few
The majority are too poor to buy vault for
any number Of years and the masses are buried
The rates are also on the rental basis 1t costs
a dead man 81 to lie two years in these burial
groundsan and after that his bones are taken up and
another body fills the hole. The five acres
which make up the court of the cemetery
are literally composed of bone dust Each
removal has left some pieces of his skeleton be-
hind and the ground is made up of the dust of
past humanity. The hole made is about tyo
feet wide, seven feet long and from six to eight
feet deep. The first corpse that comes gets the
bottom BERTH He is taken out Of his rented
CONN and laid with his head on a bunch
OF leaves and over him is put PERTAINS
SIX inches Of dirt The grave Is then
ready for the next arrival. who is buried
In hike manner. and the bodies are sand
vlehed one on ebp of the other until the grave
Is hlled- Guanahuato Is a very unhealthy city
and the death rate is very large During the
past month there were four burials a day in
this cemetery and / saw six deep graves al
ready dug when | visited il. Three of these
were only half filled and the others had nothing
whatever in them