The silver messenger., 1908-12-15
STRANGE CEMETERY.
When Lease Expires Bones Are
Thrown Outside of Enclosure.
Aneisnt Ground in Cuba where
Bodies Are Placed an KTehes an
the WaIl Se@lsd by ExQuaa-
ate Marble Tablets.


Behind the leper hospital in the San
/ LsEaro district of the city of Havana
there lies an old cemetery. Few of
the many visitors to that city know
that there is such place; still fewer
ever pass beneath its vine-covered por-
tai Thousands visit the Colon ceme.
terry, with its massive gateway and its
beautiful monuments; not one in a
thousand sees that city of the dead
which was established by Bishop Juan
De Espada in 1905, For 25 years it has
stood unused for burial purposes.
In old Roman days, in the time of the
funeral pyre, it was customary to
gather the ashes of the incinerated
dead and place them in funeral urns.
These were sealed and deposited in
inches in the walls of special buildings
or Enclosures, to which was applied the
name of columbaria, for the reason
that their appearance suggested q
dovecote. The general idea of the CO.
lumbaria has been preserved and,
though unusual, is far from unique.
The more modern system dispenses
with the burning and deposits the cof-
fined body in inches only differing from
those of the Roman days essentially
in their size. This is the system of
the Espada cemetery in Havana, says
the New York Post.
The opening of a strongly-locked and
heavily-barred iron gateway gives pas
sage into q high walled inc,osure of
IN,
Neither monument nor standing tomb
stone breaks it's fiat and grassy area.
A grass-grown pathway leads straight
across the plat to the mortuary chapel
upon its northern side. All around are
the walls, four to five yards in height,
showing four tiers of round-topped
inches, some open and some closed and
sealed. Midway the western wall
gateway opens upon a second inclo-
sure of similar area to the first, though
of different arrangement. A brick
paved wa.kway crosses 1t from east to
west, bisecting series of interior walls
which extend through its greater
length. II my memory serves me, there
are six of these structures, alternately
open and arching the pathway. Here,
too, the surrounding walls and the in
terror structures show the four rows
of inches. A little counting and a rough
calculation gave the total number in
both Enclosures at about 10000.
The ground Immediately around the
chapel, in the outer yard, is largely oc-
cupied by the horizontal slabs which
mark the resting place of those whose
rank, wealth or influence has secured
for them a special interment. Here lies
the body of bishop, and there lies one
whose coroneted coat of arms, carved
in relief on the marble, indicates
strain of royal blood. Many of the
stones are broken, all are weather
stained, bordered with untrimmed
grass and weeds. For the graves of
many who lie here there is no
one to care. OF Spanish birth, their
friends and kindred have returned to
their homes across the sea.
Many of the wall inches stand empty
by reason of an established custom,
prevalent Ia .hase countries, of rent
ing burial spaces for time only. At
are removed to large uncovered re-
ceptacle along the southern wall,
where they constitute a CHASTITY heap,
seen only from the top of the wall.
The vacated space may then be filled
by surviving tenants or by one whose
payment insures repose so long as the
place continues as burial ground. In
some OF these now vacant inches beds
of dried grass and discarded clothing
indicate their use by the living There
is no doubt that many of them were oc-
cupied as sleeping places during the
days of the RECOMMENDATION under Wey-
Ter.
Marble tablets, often exquisitely
carved, seal the openings of the inches,
taking the place of the now more gem
orally used mausoleums. monuments
and headstones. Here and there some
wreath or other floral memento, at
tached to the tablet, shows that even |
for quarter of century of sleep in |
this unused burial ground some dead |
are lovingly and actively remembered.
Here and there an English name APP
pears, but they are very few.
In one of the walls of the western
section a niche is shown in which once
lay the body of a man who, in his life,
bad grievously offended a group of
students in the University of Havana.
After his burial some of these students
their bitterness by the
foolish prank of desecrating the tab
let which sealed the tomb of their en-
emy. They were caught and sentenced
10 death. A tablet on the face of a
building near La Punta, In Havana,
states that they were there executed.
shot by the bullets of Spanish SOL
diery. To-day one of the special sights
OF Havana is the beautiful students
monument in the Colon cemetery, and
the anniversary OF their death is pub
lie holiday.
Mustard Pickle.
Two quarts onions, two quarts