The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-14

a skull-evidently that Of a half grown
youth, one side gone, cut smoothly off by
a sabre or machete stroke. Later we
walked down the weedy road to the Cam
Pc Santo at the edge of the village. 1t is
A TINY GODS ACRE.
with walls Of plastered stone and a larger
and later annex fenced with split palm
trunks set upright in the red earth. A
row of black vultures, perched above the
arched gateway, gazed at us with spe-
-culatfve eyes, but did not stir-having
proba bly, made too many hearty meals on
the human species not to regard them
with favor. The gate to this poor little
Field of Saints was tied with bit of
rope, and its red SOIL without blade of
grass or green thing growing, has been
rounded up into regular mounds. 1t was
swept as clean as all the rest Of the viii
lage-barring an occasional scattered rib
or marrow bone. There are a few rather
pretentiouS graves, each surmounted by
a glass-faced box containing the hideous
wreaths of black and white beads which
find such favor in the eyes of mourning
Spanish-Americans. Other graves were
marked by black-painted wooden crosses;
but the great majority had only two
sticks, tied together cruciform fashion,
laid on top or struck in the earth at the
head. Vagrant breeZeS and passing foot
steps soon disarrange this symbol Of the
Christians hope, which some stricken
heart has placed above its beloved dead;
and though the emblem means, PERSONAL
ly, little to me, l have hundreds Of times
stopped to replace it, and tie the cross
piece more securely. The Alcaldi, or viii
lage mayor who accompanied US to the
cemetery pointed out two rough boxes.
one long, the other shorter-which stand
on end inside the gateway, and remarked
that in them more than six thousand of
l. R,io oicr11 ho6 hoe
brought to their eternal rest within three
years. Out among the weeds of an I'M
fenced field, a few rods away stood
heavy, two-wheeled ox-cart, huge tongue
high in air-the village hearse, in which
the six thousand had taken their last
short journey. Across one corner of the
cemetery second wall is placed, enclos-
ing triangular space, which is filled to
the brim
WITH HUMAN BONES,
partially burned but by no means reduced
to dust. In front of this was the most
CHASTITY sight of ala fresh lot of mis-
cellaneous bones, skulls, coffin-boards,
shrouds shoes ct cetera, lately evicted
from rented graves, and made ready for
the semi-annual burning. Many of the
skulls had hair clinging to them. One,
I noticed was thin and gray, as Of an
old man; another was almost chestnut
the trunk of a body still wrapped in
half decayed blanket, lay mass of shin
ing jet-black hair, loosened from the head
to which 1t had belonged. but yet confined
in coil by rusty pins. To us 1t seems
strange, indeed, that our Spanish-Ameri-
can neighbors attach so little sacredness
to the earthly tenemant' after the soul
has left 1t. AS may readily be imagined,
DR.. Hubbell and his assistants found
dreadful conditions in Catalina. The re-
manning handful of population has suf-
fered SO many woes, and are so utterly
destitute that they are like one stunned
by series of blows, with neither hope nor
ambition for the future. It was the chill
dren especially whom the Red Cross came
to rescure, and many helpless waits were
found without q living relative. In sew
eral cases two or three little children were
huddled together in an abandoned build
Ing, subsisting on wild tomatoes, or what
ever scraps they could pick up, like prowl-
ing dogs. There were young girls, abso-
lutely without protection, and almost
without clothes, sleeping on the ground
at night and unable to wash their few
filthy rags, having nothing else to put
on One woman past thirty years of age,
crippled with rheumatism so that she
could not walk, but got about In q half