Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1915-07-30


ploits of German army spies
III in all parts of Europe, but
surely the strangest of all is
that they have concealed themselves
in the Catacombs of Rome in order
to spy on the operations of the Ital-
ian army. says writer in the New
York American.
Where the earliest Christians con-
structed these wonderful secret hid
ing places in the rock to escape the
bloodthirsty tyranny of the Roman
omperors, these efficient moderns have
concealed themselves for the purposes
of war. Where the earliest Christians
sought refuge to conduct their sacred
services in safety, the modern mill
tarists have made a stronghold for
the most subtle and deadly objects
of the gospel of war.
The Catacombs furnish an almost
impregnable hiding place, for there
are about sixty of them in all, with
uncounted entrances. and the winding
passages within them are perhaps
two hundred miles in length. Their
exact length has never been measured,
but as they wind about one under the
other until there are often five or six
of them in depth, it will be easily un-
derstood that they may have at least
the ancient city walls and are exca-
waited in a kind of rock called Tufa,
which, though soft, holds its form
when excavated.
Endless Maze of Galleries.
The Catacombs now consist of an
endless maze of galleries. This was
not the original condition, but the re-
suit of the gradual evolution through
centuries, during which one genera
ton after another added to their COM
plications. During the FIRST and sec
ond centuries some of the Roman
Christians built small catacombs for
the burial of themselves, their fam
lily and friends. These usually con-
sisted Of square chamber, in which
a single gallery ran around the sides,
about eight feet high by three feet
wide, in whose sides were cut recesses
called "loculi," one above the other,
to receive the bodies.
Persons of distinction were buried
in special chambers, or cubicula,
which opened out of these galleries,
and for these burials carved sar-
cophagi we're often used, placed in
arched inches or "arcosolia." These
recesses it appears, have been used
as hiding places for the food, fuel and
papers of the German spies.
Usually some early Christian mar
tyr was buried in such chambers and
his tomb served as an altar at which
religious services were afterward cele-
brated.
AS the number of Roman Christians
increased in early times and conse-
quently the. number of burials, the
originally small catacombs were hon.
eycombed with galleries and extern
sions. When one story of them was
no longer sufficient. stairways were
made, and another system of galleries
excavated beneath. This was fol-
lowed, II necessary, by third, fourth,
fifth or even sixth story of galleries.
| The catacomb of St. Calixtus occu-
pied leading position, and here the
bishops of Rome of the third century
were buried in special crypt. 1t
is said that this catacomb concealed
the principal headquarters of the Ger
man spy organization.
During this ancient period passages
were gradually cut to connect the
neighboring catacombs, thus joining
the whole of them together into an
endless labyrinth, through which no
body but an experienced person, such
as one of the monks or church OIL
Gals, put in charge of these places
was likely to find his way. Indeed
there are gruesome stories OF curl.
GUS Americans in modern times who
have tried to explore these catacombs
alone and have lost themselves and
starved to death. A trained track
| err" however, with proper lights and
some method of marking his track
would have no great difficulty in find
ing his way out again after trip to
the deeper recesses.
History Of the catacombs.
The catacombs reached their high
est development in the middle Of the