Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-10
CUSTOMS OF BURIAL
WIDE DIFFERENCES EVEN IN THE
SAME COUNTRY.
Grewsome Cemetery Of the capuchin
Monks in Cellar in
Rome.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New YORK tribune.
Men differ as much dead as alive. AS
various as the languages of the living are
the methods of burying the dead. The
very abodes of death differ among different
people, and one may find striking con-
trasts between cemeteries of even the same
countries
Not far from this city there Is Mo-
ravian cemetery, in which the men are
buried on one side of central walk and
the women on the other. Only fiat flag
stones mark the graves. In New Orleans
cemetery bodies are buried beneath mounds
above the ground because the water in the
soil is so near the surface
In London until recently sections were ac-
customed to bury one coffin above another
in a grave, and then heap on more earth
to make the tiers still higher. In Paris,
even at the present time. the poor are
buried in trenches. and crosses are placed
at their heads to mark their resting places.
At the end of five years, however, unless
money Is forthcoming from relatives, the
cross is torn up, five more feet of earth
are added and another set of graves begun
in higher stratum.
Test of Death.
In Frankfort the body of the dead is re-
moved as soon as life is extinct to ''leichen
hansen or death houses. where 1t rests
pear. Such death house consists of a
warder's room. with five death chambers
on each hand. A ring on the finger of each
body is connected with bell. and should
one rouse from trance that had been
mistaken for dead he could summon the
warder. Since Frankfort has had death
houses several young girls have been res
cued from being buried alive. Munich has
q similar system.
In Russia many Of the peasantry still
m haf Aood In rnft md f,,cf
as their princes and noblemen were accus-
toned to do centuries ago. In Constan-
dnople. as in other Turkish cities, bodies
are placed In the ground as soon as the
last spark Of life has fed. The Mussulman
believes that as long as the body Is I'M
buried the spirit is In torment. and that 1t
Is a crime akin to murder to modest a
grave. Accordingly the cemeteries around
many oriental cities far exceed in extent
the abodes of the living.
One of the cemeteries of Damascus Is
believed to contain many members of Ma
hornets family. Like the other graveyards
OF the city, 1t Is near city gate. Like
the rest, 1t Is of great area. The mounds
are made of brick and mortar, and the
headstones denote the sex of the graves
occupant. If woman. there Is carved
palm leaf; II man, turban Those who
were rich or distinguished rest in stone
vaults, rooted like mosques.
Moaning Women.
Women throng the Moslem cemetery on
Friday. the Mahometan Sabbath. and
scream and PROSTATE themselves over
the graves of loved ones till many fall
exhausted on the ground The graves are
kept scrupulously clean and left wholly
unguarded. There is no fear of medical
students in the land of Islam.
But the graveyards Of Damacus and
those of New York afford a less striking
contrast than exists between two ceme-
teries in Italy. In Genoa the good Catho-
lies ornament the monuments to their dead
with elaborate groups of statuary They
seek to make the abodes of the dead even
more beautiful than the habitations of the
living In Rome on the contrary, there
Is Catholic order which believes that
death should be portrayed as grim and
grewsome as possible 1t not only digs
up the bodies of its members after time.
but stands their skeletons in inches.
decorates walls and ceilings with their
bones.
Visitors to Genoa always find the guides
anxious to lead them to the Campo Santo,
or sacred field. After climbing part way
an amphitheater, guide will point to
what appears an art gallery in the form
of long peristyle with central dome
The main corridor is lined with statuary
and every figure represents a sorrow.
The Genoese monument maker leaves
nothing to the imagination. simple slab
or shaft of stone is not enough. One
monument for example, depicts whole
q
father. The wife stands by the bed, gaz-
ing at the face of the dead. and leaning
as If about to swoon on the arm of de-
voted daughter. The aged mother sits
near with her eyes raised to heaven as in
prayer. A son Is consoling younger SIS
ter. One is holding the sepulchral candle;
the other a cruciix.
Widows in Marble.
On the other side of the corridor. above a
double tomb, sit a husband and wife in
marble, clasped II In a farewell en-
brace Not far down the corridor widow
ed mother stands on the steps Of vault
holding up her little one to kiss its dead
papa. The door of an adjacent vault is
partly open. Within lies husband, and
without his wife knocking. and waiting
through the long years for the voice that Is
silent
But the guides have seen the Campo
Santo so often and repeated Its stories so
many times that they seem to have forgot
ten it's solemn side. They point out that
there are many more widows mourning IN
marble than widowers and with the gravity
0f ha vi ait