The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-20

These holy ground
E So Dickens wrote of a cemetery of England. lie
foIld have added some verses more horrible had he
sisited Porto Rico. The cemeteries here are Nefl-
table lodging houses. The graves are not owned III
Zee simple and the corpse which has not frendS 10
paw it's rent is taken out and thrown on the bone
heap l don't know whether Uncle Sam or the cities
of Porto Rico get the revenues from the cemeteries
but there is undoubtedly large revenue coming IN
steadily from rented graves. There are dlnefeht
classes of graves some dug the ground some in
mason work Of pgeonholes above the ground others
tnder the chapel, but all are rented for SO much
ear.
r. IN THE SAN JUAN CEMETERY.
r visited the San Juan cemetery this morning. 1t
/ Is RIGHT under the hill upon which MORO castle
lands on the edge Of the sea. 1t is peacefui spot
1 : quiet that you would not imagine that you were
sose to the city Of San Juan. The grass grows
srcen rs it always does in welllied graYeyards' ana
The waves of the Atlantic make music as they dash
themselves against the rocks.
The cemetery consists of a wall of pigeonholes
faced with marble which around an inclosure,
LIS tonbstones. of chapel and of many mounds OF
raves The pigeonholes in four tiers, rising one
Dove another and ranged in regular order about the
IieId of the dead within. Each pigeonhole has IN
opening about two feet square and is six feet deep
It is lust large enough to hold coffin. The box con-
taining the deceased is showed in and the opening
Theoretically sealed Then the name of the occupant
ID the time that he took possession is carved on the
Outside record is aso kept in the cemetery books,
End this is properly credited from time to time The
fpigeonholes where the rich are put away.
nj THE GRAVES OF THE POOR.
The graves of the poor and moderately well-to-do
ARE In the ground. The poor buried simply and
little money is spent on collins. This is the only
Iblace I have ever been where you rent coffin
IBor n day They have them here with sliding bot
lroms which the pallbearers can pull out while the
basket rests the grave and drop the dear de-
parted into his last resting place.
q Most of the collins are made of pine covered with
black cloth and cheap concentrations. Such cof-
ns if you buy them outright will cost you all the
1ay from So TO $50 In many they are carried
N the shoulders of men to the cemetery.
1t is only the rich who have hearses. The aver
ege funeral procession is not large Women do not
0ow the remains to the grave and often there is no
re beside the undertakers and grave diggers.
When I entered the San Juan cemetery today
s3tced that the open graves singularly narrow
Rad I wondered how n good sized coffin could be
lueezed into them. While waited l saw four men
Yingng a box. They laid it down beside one of the
! fpcn graves and then took out something wrapped
In lons, sheet and dropped it into the grave They
threw in quicllme and then filled the grave with
Holds. The cOfnn was taken DiCk 10 lEe CITY
AS 1 went through the graveyard 1 noticed the
rev holes which had just been dug. They were
r.aIy carved out of bones. Here the spade in going
t3wn had cioven skull, there it had broken a thigh
Eld en- the other side had cut its way through Ribs
fnd arms. The wallis of each grave. in fact were
med with protruding bones like the roots sticking
ST or the sides of hole dug in the woods. There
ere bones on the bottom where the dead to
st. AS looked I realized that in this two three
Tres had been buried the dead of 800 years. San
Yuan dates back to the sixteenth century. and for
generations the dead have been moving in and out
3f these holes, every and then, leaving bone
cad.
A GRANARY OF HUMAN BONES.
While in the cemetery I asked one of the sections
where the skeletons of the ousted dead thrown
lie pointed to a rude stone hut in of the
graveyard The hut fifteen feet square and
swelve feet high. Its door closed with great
ock and at first did not how to enter it. By
rong to the back however, and holding to tn(
rough plaster [ found that l could climb up 'anf
ook in. 1 saw mass of human bones. The pit De
| Aw me was more than half filed with them theI
l3,astIy Hme-ke whiteness shining under the rays
II the tropical sun. On skull was a little haH
md several arms and thighs decorated witt
what seemed to be petg+ied flesh. There. nj
stencil: probably lime had been thrown upon TIL
rass How deep the pit is do not know. 1t ma!
nave a subtclTanean outlet to the sea, as have tn
To,yers of Silence" where the Skeletons after the
nave been cleaned by the yultures, thrown b.
lie parseeS at Bombay.
HORRIBLE MEMORIES.
have many horrible things in the way C
-aking care of the dead. Some of them u
,efore l think of my wanderings through tn
cemetery here. One is in a beautiful grove near
eii!ple in SIAM The bodies Of two dead humans II
tpon the ground. They are being mangled and tor
DIV dogs, while the old woman who has charge
CHATTING by a fire nearby, cooking her morning mea
nd u laughing child plays innocently about her I
lew Of the terrible scene.
Another memory from the banks of til
;anccs l am floating down the river among tn
thousands OF Benares, who are bathing away the
3us in The holy stream On the banks are piles
cunning wood and upon them lie the bodies of wome
md men who thus being consumed 1t is col,
: md the air from the river in tire early mornn
8nis tie bones of the bathers 1t ehiIls also tt