Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-19

of tb. Ganges. I am floating down the
river among the thousands of Benares. who
are bathing away their sins In the holy
stream. On the banks piles of burning
wood and upon them lie the bodies of Wo-
men and men who are thus being consumed.
1t is cold. and the raw air from the river
in the early morning chills the bones of the
bathers. 1t chills also the mourners about
the human fires. I see which a IA
Their is probably lying. A cold blast comes
up from the Ganges and his sons lift up
their gowns and their bare legs by
the frying fat of their now departed parent.
Cemetery Lizards-The Ghouls of San
Juan.
I saw thing this morning which will
take place among such memories. I refer
to the lizards of San Juan. Lizards are,
you know. carniverous. They like vegeta-
hes: but it is said they will eat meat as
well. The soil of the cemetery is sandy,
and in looking down upon it today l
that it was honeycombed with holes like
snakeholes. Out of these holes crawled
great lizards. They ran this way and that.
They crawled up on the mounds and looked
at me 1t was hard to keep from stepping
upon them. There were lizards large and
small, lizards at rest and lizards in action.
| lizards everywhere Some of them. l
| thought looked at me grecdily out of their
beady ewes. as though they wished that [
were dead and We're sizing me up for
meal. They are probably the ghouIs of
| san Juan.
A Curious Funeral Custom.
| One of the odd funeral customs here is
| the rejoicing over the death of little chill
| dren- When baby dies it is laid out in
! state upon a table. A fine white cloth is
placed under it and it's little body fully
dressed is covered with flowers. Then all
the friends are invited in and there is mu-
| SIC dancing and feastng. That is to show
| their rejoicing that the little has
| capped all the troubles of this life and gone
\ to heaven.
| Free Art School at San Juan, has painted
such a wake. 1t shows the inside Of
| cabin, where the little lies upon
| table, and the family and all it's friends are
Carousing. hog has been roasted whole
! upon spit and all are drinking.
Religion in Porto Rico.
| Speaking of funerals makes one think Of
churches. The religion of Porto Rico is
the Catholic religion of the sixteenth CEN
fury. 1t is largely confined to the rich, the
priests having not the hold upon the poor
that they have in other Catholic countries
This is especially of the male element
of the population, many of whom have
nothing to do with the church. excepting
at three times in their lives-when they are
| born, when they are married and when
! they are buried.
The women are more religious, and those
OF the Detter classes OF the cities are de-
voted to their church as we are. In the
cathedral here I saw thirty Porto Rican
girls making their first communion. They
were dressed in white with long white wells
hanging down their backs. They ranged in
ages from ten to thirteen. and looked very
pretty and innocent as they stood before
the altar.
Some of the churches here are very fine
In the villages they are by far the largest
of the buildings and in the smaller places
they outshine everything else. One of the
| most beautiful is in the city Of Guyana,
on the south side of the island. There are
| several large churches in Ponce, and some
very old ones at Arecibo and Aguadila
| The only protestant church on the island
at the time of our occupation of 1t was at
| Ponce. 1t is a little cottage-like structure
! belonging to the Church of England.
| Uncle Sam and the Churches.
! The church property is quite valuable.
and by our treaty with Spain understand
! that all of the Catholic churches of Porto
| Rico belong to Uncle Sam II he cares to
| take them. About sixty years ago the gov
| eminent of Porto Rico made an agreement
with the church to pay the salaries of the
| priests. with the understanding that 1t
| was to have possession of the churches.
| The government was, believe, to collect
the church taxes and to pay all the bills.
| Under this arrangement a regular priestly
salary list was formed, the fathers receiv-
| ing from $50 upward for their services.
| These salaries were cut off by the war, and
many of the priests went back to Spain.
The arrangement all told was a bad one
! for Porto Rico The collections for church
| funds which the government received
| amounted to $4,000 a year, but the priests
| chosen were not among the best the Is
land being a sort of dumping ground for
! the poorest of the Spanish clergy.
A Good Field for Missions.
| The Catholics Of our country are study
| ing the situation. Father Sherman and
Archbishop Chapelle have been here and
| have organized movement to bring the
] people back to the true church
The Protestants are also beginning their