Hawaii holomua = Progress. [volume] (Honolulu) 1893-1895, 1894-08-21
The Cafe MorgIs of Paris

q cafe unless some one told you.
for it is aIl closed up with black
shutters. save the entrance.
As you go IN, a maa dressed in
the regular coiin-bearer's cos
tune pushes aside the leavy
black drapery, Ike that used
when there is death in the
house, and you are ushered into
the cafe" II you do not drop
dead with fright You win see
common black wooden collins
placed about the rooms. with.
chairs alongside; these are the
tables. The walls are all con-
cealed behind black, silver-trim-
med drapings. some of which are
ornamented with skulls and cross
bones and other suggestions of
death. No matter which way
you look, a skull viii stare you
In the face. grinning at your
nervousness.
The moment you are seated
at one of the collins cofin-bearer
comes and takes your order. If
it be a block. he means in a
dreadful way. "Une microbe de
cholera" But you must not be
afraid or faint, as he only brings
you very small glass of beer
and again informs you that it is
cholera microbe. As soon as
you have finished your "boek"
AMI paid your fifty confines, he
hands you ticket aud you are
led to steep, dimly-lighted stone
stairway. that smells like a vault
and, after stumbling down about
thirty feet underground. you
come into gruesome chamber
more horrid than the one above.
Two forms. all in black, with
black hoods over their heads and
two holes for their eyes. greet
you with loud walls and tell you
that you are about to die. They
lead y,u across the damp, dark
hole to some collins and seat You
upon one of them, so that you
are directly in front of black
hole in the stone wall. As you
sit there wondering what S going
to happen next. and feel shiyers
run up your back, you hear the
moaning Of wheezy organ issu-
ing from somewhere in the mys
terious room, and this, with the
waiting of the black forms and
the sight OF skulls, bones, coffins,
and funeral. trappings. is sure to
make your hair stand on an end
and implant desire to rush from
the hole. But suddenly soft
light appears in the black hole,
revealing corpse of a woman in
a coffin with winding sheet
around it, and You are Mortified
to see it decompose before your
very eyes. the hair disappearing
the flesh growing whittier, the
eyes sinking H. The flesh grows
putrid and horrid and the bones
begin to protrude And lol the
shroud gradually disappears and
a skeleton lies in the box where
the corpse had been Then a
wall from somewhere announces
that the skeleton will come to
life. Gradually it disappears
under the putrid flesh, which |
keeps getting more life-like-the |
eyes taking the place of the black
holes, a mouth covering, the
grinning teeth, and long hair |
growing on the head; the shroud |
appears again, and if you are not |
dead with a stroke of apoplexy, |
you see before you a woman, and
alive too, for she smiles at you
and shows her white teeth, and /
finally steps out Of the horrid
box Then the walters wall some
more and tell you that you are
Tree to go. and they each hold
put a brown skull, into which
7ou drop few sous through the
hole whence issues the spinal
,ord. They bless you and hope
hat you will die soon. and you
limb the steep stairs while the
nournful organ walls funeral
march.
How delicious the fresh air
Gems when you reach the street
gain and make haste to leave
he place as far behind as poss-
biel IL ali seems like a horrid
nightmare. and you almost doubt
rhat you have seen And this is |