Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-07

months rent for q grave. The middle class
that vast majority between the large pauper
element and the comparatively few aristocrsts-
rent graves for year, with the privilege OF re-
afiuent circumstances generally begin with
three wears, and those able to stretch the point
beyond that period Of time usually prefer Q
niche in the walls, which affords greater secur-
ity and may be retained long as money and
the remembrance of the family hold out
FOLLOWING PROCESSION.
As we dismounted from our horses outside
the groun Dis and left them in charge Of Cholo
boys who are always proving about the
premises waiting for similar jobs-a long
funeral procession was just winding through
the gates, and we followed reverently in the
wake. The coffin was first carried into the
chapel and placed upon big black dais, while
prayers were said and incense burned Then
the procession was reformed, with the cadaver
borne in the midst, led by two black-gowned
priests Every few feet in the distance Of per-
haps 600 yards between the chapel and the
waiting niche in the wall the pail
bearers put the coffin on the ground and
priests in a dismal mass; after which water
was literally sprinkled from . tin bucket upon
the coffin and incidentally upon those who car
ried it. We are told tibet the stops thus made
between the church and the grave depend upon
the affiuence of the late lamented. each stop
No women followed this favored corpse, nor
are they ever seen at South American inter
ments. When the place Of sepulchre was
reached, after more prayers, responses and
sprinkling from the tin bucket the coffin was
slid into its aperture, the mouth filed up with
loose stones and over the outermost layer thick
coating of mortar was daubed, into which was
set a marble tablet.
A GOOD DAY FOR FUNERALS.
The day of our visit must have been . good
one for funerals, for during the hour we spent
there no less than five of them came and went.
The second coffin was plain, implanted box,
carried on the shoulders Of half a dozen mer,
and we observed that this necessitated the
services Of only one priest, no stops between
the chapel and the wall and but scsnty sprink-
ling from the watering pot. Then followed IN
quick succession three interments of the COM
monest sort. the bodies having been brought
uncoffined from the city to be hurried into the
ground as quickly as possible. The portion
where these poor are buried is Q Golgotha that
battles description. It's entire surface is strewn
with bones, scraps of broken collins, bits Of grave
clothes, braids Of hair, &C., which have been
turned up by the spades of grave diggers or
dropped by those who bear evicted corpses to the
graves were yawning for their occupants, and
in the pile of earth thrown up beside each one
were skulls and limbs and bones galore. On
top of one heap noticed human trunk, head
less and limbless, and on another leg with
withered flesh clinging to it, from which the
foot had been cut by the spade. Directly in
the path lay something so CHASTITY that the gem
tlemeE of the party quickly stepped between it
and US, but too late to save our eyes from Q
never-to-be-forgotten sight-that of woman's
head, cut off at the neck, with long hair stream
ing all around it, and the white cotton bandage
that had bound up the poor jaws still in its
place, hardly soiled by contact with the earth.
We waited until one of the uncoffined poor
had been laid away. The corpse Chat Of
woman, wrapped in its meager blanket was
lowered by means of raw-hide ropes; and then
the pallbearers proceeded to shovel on top the
heap of bones, stones, flesh and gravel that had
been turned out to make room in the old, old
grave for a new occupant. The most active Of
the shovelers caught the headless and limbless
trunk above mentioned upon his spade and
hurled it in with a resounding whack that made
ones blood run cold, and another rolled in the
head with his bare foot. There is no necessity
for this Wholesale mixing of the bones of the
populace, for miles Of waste land stretch away
on every side. FANNIE B. WARD.