THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
125 
nation Harland’s Notes on Cemeteries at Port Said, 
Egypt. 
After leaving the outskirts of Port Said, there 
were no signs of human habitation except a few 
scattered hovels dotting the waste on our left. Right 
in the desert arose the walls of the cemeteries — the 
Christian, devoted to the interment of French Rom- 
an Catholics and Egyptian Copts, and the Moslem 
where lie “the faithful” of whatever nationality. We 
looked in the first, seeing nothing very different 
from the tall crosses and headstones such as we had 
beheld in dozens of other foreign burial grounds. — 
We alighted at the gate of the Moslem cemetery and 
entered the enclosure. Arid sand for many feet 
downwards is the substance through which the graves 
are sunk. 
Within a few days after the mound is heaped 
above the sleeper below, the meeting winds of sea 
and desert, tear it down and whirl the sand to the 
four quarters of the enclosure. Hence as soon as 
may be, a box of the shape and size of the grave is 
fitted over it. When the relatives can afford it, a 
structure of similar form in cement takes the place 
of the wooden case. Upon box and cement are 
written the names of the deceased, and texts from 
the Koran. 
Above many of the wide tombs arise coop-like 
constructions, with trellised sides and tops, within 
which stand pots of dwarf palms, cacti, geraniums, 
and once in a great while of sickly vines, pathetic 
to behold in a region where the rain does not fall 
for months together, and water is sold to the poor 
by the jar or skinful. 
There are no regular walks or avenues, and 
wherever the graves were not protected by boxes, 
the sand bore the imprint of many feet. Leading 
the way to the outermost row of graves, the guide 
pointed to a line of freshly heaped mounds, to the 
headboards of which were tied shabby branches of 
palm leaves, palm branches and artificial flowers, 
“if you had been here this morning,” he explained 
in execrable French enlivened by insupportable 
English, “you would have seen two thousand 
women — perhaps more, maybe less, here crying, 
and telling how good her husband was, or her child 
was so sweet; or how she mourned her father, or 
her sister, or her brother, and did break her heart 
for her mother, died so long ago. They come so 
every Friday and cry just the same and ever so hard, 
pointing to the newer mounds. These are those who 
were buried of late, and the ladies keep the mounds 
high until the boards are placed around them — so 
they be not blown away by the sea wind. 
Friday is the Moslem Sabbath, and this pious 
pilgrimage is a duty to be performed upon the holy 
day. Hearing the tale we looked with different eyes 
upon the sandy heaps raised by pitying hands; the 
already withering memorials lashed to the main 
headboards, had meaning and poetry, the woman’s 
heart is the same, the world around. 
At the end of the row of new monnds was an 
open grave, “when is this to be filled?” I asked 
knowing that burying in this tropical country follows 
with awful rapidity upon death, and supposing that 
the pit was dug purposely for somebody. The 
dragoman shrugged his shoulders. Ah ! who can 
know ? it may be tomorrow, it may be next week. 
But there is always one ready. Somebody must 
come to fill it some day. That also was an old story, 
known wherever men and women live and die. 
Heaven forbid that we, or any of our blood should 
ever die at Port Said . — Christian Herald. 
Death Rates of Great Cities. 
Statistics are 
given below 
compiled for 
the first 
half of last year 
by Secretary 
Carter, of the Mary- 
land Board of Health, showing the mortality 
in vari- 
OLis cities of this country and Europe having a popu- 
lation of more than 100,000. 
Death rate 
Population. Deaths. per 1000. 
London 
5,^49.104 
55,895 
19. II 
Paris 
2,424,705 
28,675 
23.61 
New York 
1,801,739 
23,856 
26.47 
Berlin 
17,181 
20. 58 
Chicago 
13,590 
18.95 
Vienna 
1,435,931 
18,005 
25.07 
Philadelphia 
12,249 
21.95 
Brooklyn 
10,682 
21.84 
St. Louis 
4,802 
18.47 
Brussels 
488,188 
4,359 
17.86 
Boston 
487,397 
5,816 
23.88 
Baltimore 
455,427 
4,806 
21 . 10 
Dublin 
349,594 
4,735 
27.05 
San Francisco 
330,000 
3,006 
18.21 
Cincinnati 
305,000 
3.000 
19.67 
Cleveland 
2,538 
18. 19 
Buffalo 
2,361 
16.28 
Pittsburg 
2,923 
3,598 
22 .^2 
New Orleans 
28.72 
Edinburg 
2,572 
19.22 
Milwaukee 
2,000 
16.00 
Louisville 
1,630 
14.80 
Minneapolis 
i,cx)4 
9.60 
St. Paul 
155,000 
745 
9.61 
Christiana, Nor’y. . . 
156,500 
1,385 
17-75 
Denver, Col 
8? I 
1 1 .61 
Rochester, N. Y. . . . 
144,834 
1,291 
17.87 
Reims, France.... 
1,503 
28.62 
In cities where the cemeteries do not provide 
awnings or tents for the protection of mourners at 
funerals it is becoming the custom for undertakers 
to provide them says the Simnyside. 
* * * 
A unique monument has been erected in a ceme- 
tery near Boston in memory of the Spaulding fam- 
ily, the famous bell ringers. It consists' of a broken 
bell of polished granite, about three feet in height 
on a square base. The bell is modelled after the 
large brass bell formerly used by the elder Spauld- 
ing and bears the family name in raised letters. 
