The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-04-24


Also. one of her oversboes had stuck in the
mud on the downward journey and in the Shiny
darkness not even Cinderella's prince would
have ventu=ed to find the missing footgear. She
was worried too by the marble "signboards," as
she called them, which appeared at every turn.
with the inscription, SIN pace"
"And do they allow carriages in this place p
she exclaimed, while looking at one Of these
slabs. Her question seemed irrelevant until
she explained that she thought 'in pace" was u
warning against trotting or galloping horses, an
injunction such as one often sees posted on
rickety wooden bridges. The young preacher.
who was really a. thoroughly nice chap. came
out of his trance long enough to explain that
sin pace" was a mortuary inscription.
80 this is cemetery !" shifted the good lady
In response. I'D like to know what you brought
me here for anyway What's the use of visit
ing the graves of people you don't know any
thing about and trying to read these dull old in
scriptions? Now can see the sense of visiting
the tomb of friend or relative, but this-Pooh!
There were so many nice clean things to be seen
around Rome, she added. but worrying one
self with this kind of sight seeing was making
toll of what ought to be pleasure as the man
said when they were galloping the horses to his
wife's funeral
| But it was a wonderfully impressive and pic
turesque place, even if the maiden lady from the
| West did fail to appreciate its charm. We were
| not the only party in the Caemiterium Ostrianum
| that day, and from the depths of the black
| mouthed tunnels often came the hollow, ghostly
whispers of persons, who though quarter of a
mile distant, seemed to have their invisible lips
| pressed against our ears. The only lights were
pine torches and a wax candle serving to make
| the darkness visible, land their yellow, smoky
| flicker, as they moved to and fro, occasionally
| gave US glimpses of other tourists, or black
| robed students. who had doubtless come hither
| to mediate on death. Far down dim passage.
in the back of an apse of a little chapel, stood
candles burningin the symbolic three straight
| lines of threes and two lines of skies, as they
have burned for centuries. 1t was not cheer
| full spot, though the skulls which lay scattered
with the broken skeletons on the little stone
shelves cut in the walls were all grinning with
| CHASTITY mirth. / never saw such teeth. l see
| them yet. It was fitting abode for spectres,
and don't think any of us were surprised-not
even the maiden aunt-when we suddenly OBJ
served gliding toward us from the depths of an
| inky passage a tall, black-robed, patriarchal
| figure, above whose head cleaned radiant
| circle of pure white light, which made the most
| striking contrast with our yellow torches.
| Doubtless one Of the martyred Christian martyrs
with his halo, we thought-but it turned out to
| be a German archeologist. clothed in long
macintosh, studying the moral inscriptions
with the aid of an acetylene bicycle lamp.
But one does not have to be an archeologist to
be interested in some of these curious old cpl
taphs, which do not always speak well of the
dead, "and which are infinitely more frank than
| those we are accustomed to see modern
| tombstones
One inscription informed us that the deceased
| "died poor because during his lifetime he had
| been very dissolute."
| Another man who wrote his own epitaph,
says: II lived honestly and am now receiving
my reward !" and modest woman has engraved
upon her tomb: IF perfect woman ever ex-
| listed am that one.r She adds that her hus
band did not love her, but that her children
thought that she was very nice. So after all life
| was the same two thousand years ago as today.
pagan, for there are many pagan tombs in
| the catacombs, informs us that neither Cerberus
nor Charon exist except in the poets dreams,
| and that the dead are merely bones and ashes.
Probably she had been reading Edward Fitz-
gerald's translation of the Rubaiyat
Another philosopher says II lived as liked,
and how don't care"
A still more philosophic gentleman, who ex
pired on the 2lst of March. A. D. '37, declares /:
"Once was not; now / am not. l know moth
ing about it, and it doesn't concern me-" He
did not put his words in quotation marks, but
strongly suspect him of having cribbed them
| from the Greek.
Another poor fellow, who crossed the river
about the same epoch, declares II have been
pious and holy, l lived as long as 1 could, but
was glad to die. 1 have always been faithful to
my friends but they have not been true to me.
had small fortune but large mind"
What throbbing life. what intensely human
interest there is in these old stones that look
| cold and dead It seems incredible that the
words were written of people who passed into
the great unknown twenty centuries ago, for
| we today are living over again their joys and
sorrows, line for line, identical.
| The catacombs are distributed in considerable
numbers-about sixty in all-in every direction
outside the walls of the city. 1t is very doubt
full that any exist within the precincts of modern
Rome, circumstance easily accounted for by
the strict observance of the enactment of the
| Twelve Tables, which forbade intramural inter-
ment, and by the secrecy which the early
Christians were compelled to observe, in resort
ing when alive, and conveying the remains of
their dead brethren to these places of retire
ment and repose. They consist of an immense
network of subterranean passages or galleries,
generally intersecting each other at right angles.
| though sometimes tortuous. These galleries
vary in width and height; in general they are
eight feet high by three to five feet wide; the
roof is either horizontal or slightly vaulted, and
seldom requires any other support than Its sides,
in the tufa of which are excavated the graves,
| forming tiers one above the other. The average
number of graves in each tier is about five, each
eight feet in length. When undisturbed they
are found closed with marble slabs or tiles on
which Christian emblems are often found cut or
painted.
Very exaggerated notions have been enter
| tanned as to the horizontal extent of the cata-
combs, even to supposing them to reach as far
as Tivoli on one side and to Osta on the other.
From the most accurate surveys made in recent
years it is now certain that most of them form
insulated systems of excavations, seldom COM
municating with each other, and consequently
of inconsiderable lateral extent, though enor-
nous in their sum total. An attempt has
Gently been made to calculate the number of
bodies deposited In these early cemeteries.
figuring from the number of graves which exist
within given area in those already explored.
Padre march,, who paid more attention to Chris
tian archaeology than any modern author, sup
posed that each cemetery contains one hundred
thousand graves, and it would follow that up to
the end of the 9th century, after which the
Christians enjoyed unrestricted liberty of wor-
ship and of interment for their dead the num-
Der deposited in the catacombs would amount to
six millions. SEABROOK.
A DISPATCH from Salisbury, Md, dated April
10Th, says "the outlook for heavy strawberry
crop is assured by the prevailing weather in
Wicomico county. The recent frosts and cold
spell did not affect the plants, as the blooms
were not far enough advanced. Strawberry
buyers are here from Boston and New York
and are making very heavy purchases of the
growing crnns for fntnra daIiuaru Tho .,ro-