The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-08

opians made Of carved ebony, and the
magnificent coffin, which rested on a plat
form beneath, was covered with flowers
on the front sat coachman all in
black, and on the back was "A footman in
the same somber livery Every one Of the
coaches following the hearse was drawn
by black horses and driven by coachmen in
mourning. The mourners We're dressed in
black, all wearing tall hats and black gloves
1t was. indeed, very parade of grief.
FUNERAL ADVERTISEMENTS
An important part of the advertising in
the Argentine newspapers relates to fun
erals. The family always inserts a state
ment of "a death and an invitation to its
frieads to be present at the funeral They
announce the masses, which are given from
year 10 year on the anniversaries Of the
funeral thereafter. and all friends OF the
deceased and his family are supposed to at
tend such masses or to leave their cards at
the door. Here is a sample funeral notice:
Nicholas Imera Cara, @. K. p. u Died
June - 1872"
The family invites the persons of their
friendship to attend the masses, which, for
the eternal rest of his soul. will be cele-
brated i'm the Church of San Miguel
Wednesday. the 22d of June 1895, from to
- a. m. The family will assist at the mass
At 10 o'clock.
In response to this notice all the friends
and relatives of that family were expected
to attend this mass There were servants
~ the church to receive their cards as they
went in, and those who could not 90 in per-
son sent cards. As soon as the family got
back from the mass they probably looked
over the cards, and the person who had
IL.
doubtedy received the resentment Of the
family. Every Argentine watches the news
papers that he may keep track of the
masses said for his dead friends and the
deceased friends of his friends that still
live. The Argentines respect funerals.
Every one takes his hat off and stands rev.
erently still as the hearse passes, and it is
etiquette to bare your head when passing
a house that has crepe on the door.
CITIES OF THE DEAD.
There are fine cemeteries in all OF the
Argentine cities. Buenos Ayres has go
acres of them, not a large area as COM
pared with some of our cemeteries, but big
enough when it is considered how South
American cemeteries are built. The South
American cities OF the dead are genuine
cities, in which the deceased are as closely
packed and crowded as the living in a New
York fiat. The cemeteries have their paved
streets, their narrow courts and even their
tenement houses or vaults, where the poor
er dead are laid away to rest for so much
per year for a season. 1 saw such ceme-
teries in Peru, Chile and Bolivia and /
have found them also in the Argentine. I
have as yet however seen no cemetery so
crowded as the Recoleta, the fashionable
graveyard Of Buenos Ayres. 1T covers thir-
u - I On nna
inhabitants. There are enough corpses in
it to cover the ground two deep without
crowding and there is high stone wall
about it strong enough 1 hope to keep their
ghosts in. Inside this wall there is a CEN
trail street or avenue, paved with marble,
cutting the city in halves. AS you walk up
this you find at the center a place where
eight other streets branch off at angles.
All of these streets are paved with marble
or mosaics, and they are cut by smaller
streets dividing the cemetery into a great
number of blocks.
In looking over this beautiful city of the
dead you notice that the houses resemble
those of a city of the living They are of
costly and mean; the palaces of the rich
all sizes and conditions, small and big
costly and imean; the palaces of the rich
and the tenements of the poor. Each house
is vault, and each contains from one to
hundreds of inmates. Some of the houses
are in blocks, marble structures from eight
to fifteen feet high and eight to ten feet
wide, each the property of one family.
Some stand alone with only a crack be-
tween their walls and those of the vaults
next door. All have but one room that can
be seen, and this room is in all cases the
same shape, although furnished in different
degrees of magnifcence and taste. 1t might
be called the chapel of the dead.
It is four feet square or more and five feet
high, being entered by a door at the level
OF the street. In the back of it there is a
marble slab or table set into the wall, and
upon this sometimes rests coffin. The
slab is covered with a lambrequin of fine
lace, and in its center stands a crucifx with
the dying Christ upon it, or perhaps a
waxen image of Mary the Mother of God.
Upon some such affairs are silver candle
sticks and above many of them lamps burn
incense from one years end to the other
On the marble floor there are flowers. some
times real, in the shape of growing plants.
sometimes bouquets placed there fresh for
the day, and at others artificial flowers and
immortelles made to last for years. The
doors of the houses are often plate glass
All have locks and not few padlocks.
~''iS nav AeNNC NNA AtiilSs anu the most are
covered with gratings of iron curiousIy
wrought.
But where are the inhabitants of these
houses? God knows. 1 can only show you
where their decayed bodies are. Come with
me to the cemetery. Through the grating
in the floor of that vault which has been
opened to admit a corpse you can see steps
which lead below. Here the proprietor and
his family sleep in the basement Their
beds are those collins resting on the shelves.
which have been fastened one above an
other in that brick wall keeping them in
death, as in life, together while their
friends still living make their offerings. and
their prayers above. don't know but that
this is better than our way. These people
lie here and dry up within their vaults. We
are planted in the earth to give the worms
a feast.
WHAT BUENOS AYRES EATS.
Speaking about feasting reminds me that
the Argentines eat more meat to the person
than any other people of the world Out
side the cities the people live on mutton and
beef, and there are tens of thousands of
square miles upon which the people would
be glad to trade a pound of meat for a pound
OF bread any day. In Buenos Ayres the an
nual consumption is pa pounds of meat per