Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-11-04
The Grave Of an Uncle.

arrayed in mourning, with fitting places
for the corpse and its bearers for friends
and all those who chose to do honor to the
dead. Every facility was to be given for
daily visits to the grave. and all was to
De at as cheap Il rate as for the present
cemeteries. But the Parisians would not
near OF It. 1t was removing their cherished
dead too far from home. After a lapse of
years the authorities came back to the
scheme. but the popular resistance was as
strong as ever. And so the project had
finally to be abandoned, and Paris which
mas now grown out far beyond the limits
OF all its cemeteries, continues to hold even
its dead children within its own BOSOM
Among the Monuments.
The great portal of Pere Lachaise is in a
semicircle of massive masonry, funereally
decorated with stone incense pans opening
upward and dying torches reversed down.
ward. Passing through the gates a long
avenue leads up the hill. lined with tombs
o punt IrreguLariy, ike small mortuary chap
els. On either side a maze of avenues and
alleys winds off in every direction filled
with the same kind of monuments many
costly. many humble and few graceful or
pleasing TO the eye. There is no room for
lawns or garden-like spaces. The monu-
ments and gravestones are Of every con-
ceVapie form, according to the taste or
the .ne wealth OF the friends of the Departed
no" Greek portal, now a Gothic arch
now a little more than a fiat upright sur.
race on which to engrave an inscription
ana again a broken column rallied round
with room to plant some flower or WILLOW
frequently the tomb Is a square vault rois
ed above the ground. Through a grated
doorway you can see a sort of altar within
on Which bouquets of artificial flowers and
emblems religious or simply Sentimental
are placed. The graves are constantly Wis
lted by mourning ones, but they do NOT
seek to make them smart and newish look
ing. To the Partisan Imagination rbo+
would seem like trif1ng
Eiverywhere you meet with great names
with which the world has ring Nony
me 70 visit and grow sentimental over the
Ih',usoieunl OF HeloiSe and Abelard II is
a pretty Gothic canopy above the stat,as
OF the two lovers, lying side bv side IN
81. ~ matters not that the lovers were
nor buried here, that the tomb itsaIp uas
taken a century ago from Ire nr,s,noi ms
IL Aoelarus monastery and slowed for
a. tany years In a Paris museum. whence
The was SAM eransPlanted hither only in 1N7
IL 10 ne set up here lead tender HEATS ~
'lSIt IL ana sigh over the harshness ~ 70 ~
NJ iar from Heloise and Abelard the
tombs They have made their waH s,. .aeir
III france ever since this Cemetery was
opened. in the first years OF this nin.,ta at
century Rachel. the actress, and Roths-
chiId, the banker, have their names amon1
the rest. Clear across the cemeterv on ths
hill there is a little inclosed spa 20 for III
faithful of Mahomet, with a tiny noo.oue
in the midst Here lie the Queen Of Dude
ind their grave. In another part are the
victims of the great fire Of the Opera
Comique in 1881, and elsewhere the mem
bers of the commune who were shot in 1S71
The common grave of the latter is a place
of socialist and anarchist pilgrimage once
year, with great display of red flags and
much speechmaking.
On the top of the eminence at the end
of the central avenue. the great bare re-
ceiving chapel rises only four walls like
larger tomb, and a stone altar within
Near by and almost as large and conspicu-
Gus is the immense monument of Theirs,
who. however, was but a little man. He
was the first president of the present re-
public but il was his family that has used
his own riches in raising this memorial
Along one of the avenues on the brow of the
hill several of the first Napoleon travest
marshals and generals have long since
ceased from war and the glory OF arms.
All in all the impression Is somber. Moth
ing is picturesque to the eye, the moss
creeps over the weatherbeaten stones, and
the mind, overcome with the fragiliry of
mans mortal state, is moreover wearied
with the numberless winding ways border
ed by these tiny houses of the dead. Still 1t
is n favorite promenade for the Parisians
of Sunday afternoon, II is visited by all
foreigners, and in November-in the days
of the dead-lilies and roses and head
flowers OF elaborate make succeed in throw
ing an artificial bloom and splendor ever
all. STERLING HEILIG.