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Show BUEIAL OF THE DEAD OLD GRAVEYARDS A MENACE TO CITIE3. Rapid Growth of Centers of Population Popula-tion Makes the Desecration of These Resting Places of the Dead Unavoidable London's Crowded Cemeteries. Almost every page of tho records ot 1-ondon and Paris contains examples of tho desecration of abandoned Eravoyards, and there Is hardly n, city In tho Old World that has not disturbed disturb-ed at least ono of thoso resting places of their whilom Inhabitants, if our towns ot rapid growth, tho cemetery of to-day becomes tho heart of a metropolis to-morrow; the demolition demoli-tion of graveyards in Now York and Boston lms been a froquont occurrence occur-rence until It falls to attract attention. at-tention. When tho Colon cemetery of Havana Ha-vana becamo overcrowded, tho Cubans Cu-bans found It necessary to clear It of skulls, and promiscuously shoveled them Into a common bonoyard. It presented pre-sented an aspect so ghastly that Gen. Wood concluded to cover tho pit nnd re-open It only for tho next overflow of skoletons, expected in nbout five years. In certain cemeteries of London, Lon-don, corpses nro burled in standing postures becnuso no room Is left to Iny them down. Bodies of tho poor generally aro packed over each other in tiers, and tho trench is kept open until filled. In tho poverty corner of Calvary comctory this has been tho customary treatment of tho remains of paupers. Nowtown, whero Calvary Is situated, harbors eighty corpses to every living Inhabitant. Tho convenient conveni-ent villages of Corona, Elinhurst and Woodsldc, onco parts of Nowtown, which now nro annoxed to Now York, and conBtltuto tho geographical center of tho enlarged city, might increase In population if It wero not for tho proximity of vast and dreary charncl fields. A law relating to public health provided pro-vided forty years ago that no grave bo dug or opened south ot Eighty-sixth Eighty-sixth street, and that no cemetery be opened in any part of the city and county of New York. This law should be enforced and applied not to Greater Great-er New York alone, but to tho territory terri-tory within a radius of 100 miles around every papulous town. Peoplo who Insist on their Inanimate bodies remaining Inviolate should have them carried to a distance whero they can neither incouvonlcnco nor lnjuro the living, who nood tho room, and nro natural heirs of tho departed. Famous Ir.termural comoterlcs, llko Mount Auburn (Boston), areenwood (New York), nnd Laurel Hill (Philadelphia), could bo transformed into admlrablo parks. Monuments of architectural beauty might remain undisturbed. Others might bo replaced by troes with suitable) tablets to mark tho spot of thoso upon whoso dust they grow. Tho Turks, loth to dlsecrato the gravo of a Mussulman, hnvo adopted a similar custom, and thereby havo mado the cemeteries of Constantinople Constan-tinople attractive to strangers. Louis Windmuller in Municipal Affairs. |