The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-04-23

ing 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 a
modest woman has engraved upon her
tomb, ''If a perfect woman ever ex-
isted, [ am that one.' She adds that
her husband 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
to-day.
A pagan, for there are many pagan
tombs in the catacombs, informs us
that neither CeEberus nor Charon ex-
ist except in the poets dreams, and
that the dead are merely bones and
ashes. Probably he had 'een reading
Edward Fitzgerald's translation Of
the Rubaiyat.
Another philosopher says, 'I lived
as I liked, and now I don't care.''
A still more philosophic gentleman,
who expired on the 21st Of March, A.
D. 81, declares, "Once T was not
now I am not. I know nothing about
it, and it doesn't concern me-" He
did not put his words in quotation
marks, but I strongly suspect him Of
having cribbed them from the Greek.
Another poor fellow, who crossed
the river about the same epoch, de-
clares, II have been pious and holy,
I lived as long as I could, but was
glad to die. I have always been faith
full to my friends, but they have not
been true to me. had a small fortune
but large mind.''
What throbbing life, what intense
ly human interest there is in these old
stones that look so cold and dead. It
seems incredible that the words were
written Of people who passed into
the great unknown twenty centuries
ago, for we, to-day, 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. It is very doubtful
that any exist within the precincts Of
modern Rome, a circumstance easily
accounted for by the strict observ-
ance of the Enactment Of the Twelve
Tables; which forbade intramural in
terment, and by the secrecy which
the early Christians were compelled
to observe, in resorting when alive,
and conveying the remains OF their
dead brethren to these places Of re-
tirement and repose. They consist OF
an immense net work Of subterranean
passages or galleries, generally inter-
secting 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 sup
port than it's sides, in the turf 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 II
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 entertained as to the horizontal
extent of the catacombs, even to sup
posing them to reach as far as Tlvol
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 con-
sequently Of inconsiderable lateral
extent, though enormous in their sum
total. An attempt has recently been
MAJ. to calculate the number OF
bodies deposited in these early ceme-
teries, figuring from the number OF
graves which exist within given
area in those already explored. Padre
March,, who paid more attention to
Christian archaeology than any mod
ern author, supposed that each Gem
eterv contains one hundred thousand
graves, and it would follow that up
to the end Of the 9Th century, after
which the Christians enjoyed unre-
stricted liberty Of worship and OF IN
terment for their dead, the number