The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1909-02-26
A FAMOUS CEMETERY
Pere Lachaise Is One of the
Landmarks of Paris.
IT HAS A STORMY HISTORY
This PICTURESQUE Burial Place Aa.
Served as a battle-ground as we'll as
q Craveyard-ts Monuments, Lover.
and Oisccnsolate Widows.

Pere Lachaise is the largest an,
quite the most interesting Of the Paris
cemeteries and named after the Jesuil
confessor of Louis XIV, whose cuuI.
TRY seat occupied the site Of the present
chapel until the ground was made a
cemetery in 1904. 1t cover 10 acres
of ground, is picturesque, but quite III.
lovely. Hare wrote about the tombs
that weight vas their thief peculiar
1ty and that all the looked
as if each family had tried to pile as
much marble as possible on to theil
deceased relatives.'
Pere Lachaise has q stormy history.
In 1914 the Russians fought the French
there and gave them a beating. Dur
ing the the Nersaillais anG
Communards fought several pitched
battles among the tombstones and die
considerable damage. But II is not
SO much with the history of the GENE
terry as with the people buried in i,
that we have to deal. A volume might
be filled with the mere list Of all the
celebrated men and women buried H.
1t, for, as Victor Hugo wrote, being
buried in Pere Lachaise Is like having
mahogany ~furniture-a sign OF ele
gance.''
In Pere Lachaise the monument
which attracts most visitors il that OF
Abelard and Heloise, the two most IA.
nous lovers in the world. The mOnu.
ment was first erected 637 years after
their death and brought to Pere La
chaise in 1917 from the museum where
1t had been during the revolution. An.
other ia lover, Alfred de Musset,
lies buried not far from the two will.
lows over the graves OF HeloiSe and
Abelard. David. the painter; Rachel,
the actress: Ralzac, Scribe, Michelet
and many other well known folk lie
near at hand. Admiral Sir Sydney
Smith, Lord Seymour and other well
known Englishmen are to he found in
other portions Of the cemetery, while
literature is represented not only by
great authors, but by Lesurques, the
victim of Dubosc In the famous legal
Lyons Mail imbrogliO.
AS"A II % ~ AN
than In it's t~ombstones. Chatting one
day with one OF the old soldiers who
are the keepers OF this grim park,
learned some curious facts about it.
1--WE never have a dull moment" the
man said. You may think that our
time here is monotonons, but you are
quite wrong If YOU dc SO. To begin
with. there are the burglars. The
cemetery is overrUn with them. There
are three kinds OF burglars. There
| are the coEnolsseurs who often get
away with valuable prizes. for you
will be surprised at the works Of art
of small size which people put In their
chapels. The window Is broken. a
stick slipped through the hole, and all
sorts Of things worth having are tished
out; then the bronze stealers, who
take away as much as they can carry
In their special pockets and make from
Is to 20 francs a day at the game until
we catch them.
"a little while ago q bust weighing
forty pounds was taken out OF the
cemetery over one OF the walls. But
the most curious form Of robbery Is,
perhaps, that Of the pearl wreaths.
Women are the principal offenders.
They select the new ones which are
not weather stained, fiatten them With
their backs against the tombstone.
slip them under their dresses, and
when they have got away with them
1--WE have no right to search even sus-
picious looking customers sch them
to dealers, to whom they tell the well
worn story Of a poor work woman who
has need of food.
"You would hardly believe 1t, but
Pere Lachaise," said the keeper, lis a
favorite meeting place for lovers. We
get lovers Of all ages, n perhaps
more s~choolhoys and schoolgirls than
anything else. But the three most
curious things we see here In the GENE
terry are the forlorn widows, the letter
boxes and the cafe" 1.-THE cafe" !
asked. Yes. There are hundreds OF
people In Paris who refuse to believe
that their dead dc not enjoy after
death the good things they used to like
when they were alive. Mothers bring
apples and sweets and leave them Oh
the tombstcnes Of their children. Peo-
pie bring wine and glasses, and there
Is one old gentleman who leaves a
potato salad on his sons tombstone
regularly every Sunday. OF course
the children soon find out these things.
and we have never been able to con-
vince the people who bring them OF
the absurdity Of doing SO. 1t is a very
harmless superstition, after all
ZANE the letter boxesr / asked.
Lovers letter boxes" said the guard
ian. There are dozens OF them IN
all parts OF Pere Lac haise. Sometimes
they are holes In the trunks OF trees;
sometimes they are little hollows IN
der stones.
1.-The inconsolab bic widow is q IRE
quent visitor. She Is q pretty woman,
aud black suits her. She kneels down
by a tombstone, rarely the same one,
and when a likely looking mourner OK