The Newtown bee., 1895-08-16
CURIOUS SPOT IN ROME.

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 Every tourist visits it, for there is some thing about it that is so weird and fasci hating and strange. This is the home of Capuchin monks. On the ground floor, below the Church of the Capuchins, are four chambers, and in these the visitor witnesses such sight as it may be truly said can be seen nowhere else in the world. For 300 years it has been the custom, as the monks have died, to bury them in the earth in the floors of these chambers, which has been brought from Jerusalem and is, therefore, regarded as sacred soil. When the soft portions of the body have become absorbed, the skele- ton has been exhumed, and ulna, femur, seapula, rib and skull, in fantastic com- binations, have been used as grim dec oratons for the walls. Perhaps there are l,200 square feet of space thus de- voted to this display of old bones. Here is pile of skulls, nothing but skulls, ar- ranged in pyramidal shape, just as you have often seen cannon-balls piled in an arsenal yard. Festoons of old bones go across the ceilings and take the place of lace curtains at the windows. I suppose all this was done to keep the monks so- Der, to have fresh memorial ever be- fore them of the uncertainty of the hu- man state and the common sad end that awaits us all; but, as you look at these dry old bones, the feeling is anything but gloomy that excites you, it is rather ludicrous in the extreme. Just imagine a hundred skulls all at once turning toward you ghastly grin! You won- der what the poor fellows find in their dilapidated, disjointed state to provoke a grin. Perhaps it is that they have an- ticipated you in crossing the dark river, and that you have the journey through the valley of shadows yet before you. aWell.o said MT Reynaud in philso- phizing mood, though, I imagine, he PHILoSoPHIzED IN THE SAME STRAIN for every company of tourists-that's IS l what they paid him for, sI wonder what l these brethren will do at the resurrec- ton day, when Gabriel blows his trum- pet, how they will find in this tangled
 mass the bones which belong to each o1 | them, in other words, ,how they will gather themselves together" Ah, Monsieur Key l maud, they will have no need then fol these dry old bones long, long before l that these bones will have crumbled anl
 resolved themselves into dust. They l will then be like exploded percussion
 caps, a last years almanac or pair Q worn-out shoes. There will be no use il the glorious hereafter for these poo tenements of clay; for what was soWl ! in corruption is to be raised in incorrup Il tion, and what was sown a natural bod, ,l is to be raised spiritual body with pow CTS and faculties increasing and expand , ing forevermore.
 Il I shall give you only glance into tn \ Vatican, for that Is about all we had , The papal residence has 11,000 room: { and confess that while in it's interio s lthe thought came over me several timel
 what if should lose track of the guid :, and get lost in here. The suggestio < was not very inspiring, and I breathe somewhat more freely when can
 again into the open air. In fact, th
 Vatican is prison; 1t is Wonderf,
 gallery of statuary and painting the finest in the world it is hbr'