The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-02-08
rented graves and pitched into it to await
the annual cremation time There are

rented graves and pitched into it to await,
the annual cremation time. There are
GREAT PORT HOLES IN THE WALLS,
and broad stairway leads down to the
bottom. through these open spaces the
passer-by may have the unrestricted view
OF bones, shrouds, skulls, dismembered
limbs and headless trunks, in such an aw
ful tumble, as, 1t Is to be hoped, would be
dlffcult to ind anywhere else on the earth.
Some OF the skeletons show considerable
flesh yet clinging to them, and there are
long bralds of hair and glossy tresses that
doubtless loving hands not long ago
caressed. The wonder grows that the air
is not so poisoned by decomposition as TO
XIII the inhabitants of all the surrounding
section; but, though rendered sick to faint
ness by the fearful sight, truth compels me
to admit that but little odor comes from the
charnel house. This is partly due to the
lime that has been freely used, and also, no
DOUBT to the absence of the blue-bottle fly,
ana the fact thai putrefaction is almost i'm
possible in this pure mountain atmosphere,
where carcasses of man or beast, though
lelt uncovered in the sun, dry up and mum
mlfy rather than decompose.
TO THE LEFT OF THIS DREADFUL TEMPLE
is large open space devoted to the poorest
not pay even three months rent for
grave. The middle class--that vast major
lty between the large pauper element and
the comparatively few aristocratS-rent
graves for year, with the privilege OF re
newing the lease if so disposed. Those IN
more atfiuent circumstances generally be-
gin with three years; and those able to
stretch the point beyond that period of
| time usually prefer niche in the walls,
which affords greater security and may be
retained as long as money and the remem-
brance of the family hold out.
AS we diSmounted from our horses out
side the grounds and left them in charge of
! Cholo boys who are always proving about
the premises waiting for similar iobs-a
long funeral procession was just winding
| through the gates, and we followed rever
emily in the wake. The coffin was first
carried into the chapel and placed upon a
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 perhaps
800 yards between the chapel and the wait
ing niche in the wall, the pall-bearerS put
the collin on the ground and chanted re-
sponSeS to the utteranceS of the priests in a
dismal mass; after which water was hber-
ally sprinkled from tin bucket upon the
coffin. and incidentally upon those who car
ried it. We are told that the stops thus
made between the church and the grave
depended upon the affluence of the late
lamented, each stop costing d stated sum
for prayers and responses No women fol-
lowed this favored corpse nor are they
ever seen in South American lnterments
When the place of sepulchre was reached
after more prayers, responses and sprlnk-
ling from the tin bucket, the coffin was slid
into its aperture, the mouth flied up with
loose stones, and over the outermost layer
q thick coating Of mortar was daubed, into
which was set marble tablet.
The day of our visit must have been {
good one for funerals; for during the hour
we spent there no less than five of then
came and went.
THE SECOND COFFIN
was plain, implanted box carried on tht
shoulders of half dozen men; and we OBJ
served that this necessitated the service o
only one priest, no stops between the chape
and the wall, and but seanty sprinklinl
from the watering-pot Then followed il
quick succession three interments of TIL
commonest sort, the bodies having beer
brought uncoffined from the city. to be hur
ried into the ground as quickly as possible
The portion where these poor are buried i
, Golgotha that battles description. Its en-
tire surface is strewn with bones, scrap
of broken collins, bits of grave clothes
braids of hair, ETC., which have been turne
up by the spades of grave diggers, o
; dropped by those who bear evicted corpse
, to the charnel house AS mauy as dozel
new made graves were yawning for thei
occupants, and in the pile of earth throw
. up beside each one were skulls ana limb
; and bones galore. On top of one heap
, noticed human trunk, -headless and limb
; less, and on another a leg with withere
flesh clinging to it from which the foot ha
been cut by spade. Directly in the pat
: lay
, SOMETHING so CHASTITY
e that the gentlemen of the party quickl
e stepped between it and US, but too late t
e save our eyes from a neger-to- be forgotte
e sight-that of Woman's head cut off at To
neck, with long hair streaming all aroun
it, and the white cotton bandage that ha
. bound up the poor jaws still in its place
S hardly soiled by contact with the earth.
e We waited until one of the uncoffine
d poor had been laid away. The corpse 9TH;
c of woman) wrapped in its meagre blanke
e was lowered by means of raw hide ropes
d and then the pall-bearers proceeded
d shovel on top the heap of bones, stone:
b flesh and gravel that had been turned OF
e to make room in the old, old grave for
d new occupant. The most active of tt
= shovelers caught the headless and limble:
q trunk above mentioned upon his spade an
20 hurled it in with a resounding whack Thu
n made ones blood run cold, and anotht
e rolled in the head with his bare foot. Thel
Is is no necessity for this wholesale mixing
II the bones of the populace, for miles of was
!. land stretch away on every SIDE.
FANNIE B. WARD.