The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-09
A SOUTH AMERICAN CEMETERY.
Where Mourners Are Hired, Graves Rented
and Cofy1ns Borrowed.

!
and Coins Borrowed.
Arrived at the gates of Asuncion'
"recoleta" you find women squattint
! on the ground outside. each with a few
dulces, fruits and flowers to sell for thu
consolation of visitors. But trade cal
not be brisk, for there are never any
visitors, except an occasional foreigner
+ the followers of funeral professions
and on the annual recurrence of All
Souls day. Entering, you find bare
unkempt inclosure-which strikes yor
as being exceedingly small for Sc
old and large a city, until yor
remember the grewsome custom Of
piling corpse upon corps, of borrowed
collins and rented graves for periods Of
from three months to three years, &C
cording to the means or affections Of
the mourners, and the semi-annual
burning of the evicted bones. Although
the living are so profuse in their use OF
flowers, there are few for the dead in
this neglected Gods Acre-only the
faded wreathes of the more recently
bereaved. And there are no trees but
the useful orange, whose fruit the ma
tives do not hesitate to eat, although
its abnormal lusciousness speaks of the
decay in which the roots were nour.
ished.
The burial Enclosure is crowded with
wooden crosses painted black and
mural tom bs-some of the latter elab-
crate specimens of the Italian stucco
workers art: others with some architec-
tural merit, butthe rity pretty good
representations of sch bake ovens.
On the tonbs of the ell-to-do the lacl,
of flowers is compensated by ugly
wreaths of black. and white beads
strung on wires after the French fash
ion, which give the mourning relatives
little trouble, not being perishable.
They have but to place bead wreath
upon the grave of the dear departed
and wash their hands of the decorative
business for a whole year-until both
fashion and religion demand their at
tention to the spot on All Souls day.
The simple burial places of the poor
show the most care-perhaps because
in every case the poor cadaver beneath
entity turned out into the general
pile of its former friends and
neighbors. Nearly all the black,
wooden crosses have placed il front
of them two common tin lanterns, each
surmounted by little tin cross, with
candles burning inside, and scraps of
white linen beautifully embroidered
at the ends or finished with deep fall
of nanduti lace are draped around the
arms of the cross.
An old church connected with the
recoleta is at one side of it, and on the
other. strange to say, is an Italian
beer garden, where the sorrows of the
stricken may be literally drowned.
In IL are fruit and flower stands, be-
sides the usual booths devoted to beer,
and the contrast between this cheer
full and well-pa tronized garden of Bac-
chus and the adjoining neglected and
forsaken "Field of Saints Campo
Santol, is something startling. A re-
cent American traveller said of
it: ''The beer garden is
very nice place, but 1 do not
recollect ever before having seen the
quick and the dead under such circum-
stances in such juxtaposition. Instead
of reminding one that in the midst of
life we are in death. it suggests that in
the midst of death one may be very
much alive"
The richer classes decorate their
family vaults with splendid wreaths
and numerous candles, and stand in
rows before them, murmuring prayers;
but you can not help noticing that
most Of them are not too much engaged
to watch the strangers every move
ment with insatia BILE curiosity. Here
and there one sees poor woman kneel-
ing upon some newly-made grave, her
face literally bowed to the dust, which,
in true Biblical fashion, she has thrown
over herself, uttering meanwhile
the most heartrending shrieks and
sobs, which seem likely to end in a fit.
Naturally your sympathies are aroused
and you yearn to go and mingle your
tears with hers: when you are amazed
to see her suddenly brace up, cease her
cries, shake the dirt from her head,
leisurely pick out another grave and
fall upon it in the same manner, with
her face in the dust, beginning anew
the sobs and tears more violently than
before; and then you understand that
she is professional mourner, hired to
weep by the hour at stated sum, and
paid SO much per sob. There are real
mourners, too, whose grief is undoubt-
edly genuine, in whose sad eyes one
reads that death is always a tragedy,
as grim and inscrutable in palace as in
howell.
Let fancy picture to you the extraor-
binary scene. The crowds of barefoot
ed, black-gowned women. themumbling
priests and hustling sightseers, the
wild, pathetic music, mingled with the
shrieks of hired mourners, the fragrant
heaps of flowers, the odd shapes of the
the quaint old church lin
which all this time corpse was lying),
palms and bananas peering over the
walls, blue hills in the distance,
= wide vista of rolling, wood
ed. peaceful landscape, dotted
with the red-tiled roofs of cot
tage homes and the yellow glow of |
fruit-laden orange groves-all bathed |
IN golden sunshine, permeated by hui
man affection, sorrow and helpless |
ness, though rudely expressed, and
dominated by the stern, Interchangeable |
fact that the common tragedy is as in
,cruta BILE as universal. and that what |
aver method one NAV take to assua0e |
MS personal sorrow and show his faith |
'ul love for the departed the mystery
remains as unsolved to-day as when the
first man died.-Fannie B. Ward, in |
NJ zoo o., Trib,-po