I Have Seen Delicate Ladies, Attired In Parisian
Furbelows, Lift Their Dainty Skirts, Attempt The Crossing - And Sink
In A Mass Of Corruption, Full Of Maggots.
In my description of Buenos Ayres I must not omit to mention the
large square, black, open hearses so often seen rapidly drawn through
the streets, the driver seeming to travel as quickly as he can.
In
the centre of the coach is the coffin, made of white wood and covered
with black material, fastened on with brass nails. Around this
gruesome object sit the relatives and friends of the departed one on
their journey to the chacarita, or cemetery, some six miles out
from the centre of the city. Cemeteries in Spanish America are
divided into three enclosures. There is the "cemetery of heaven,"
"the cemetery of purgatory," and "the cemetery of hell." The location
of the soul in the future is thus seen to be dependent on its
location by the priests here. The dead are buried on the day of their
death, when possible, or, if not, then early on the following
morning; but never, I believe, on feast days. Those periods are set
apart for pleasure, and on important saint days banners and flags of
all nations are hung across the streets, or adorn the roofs of the
flat-topped houses, where the washing is at other times dried.
After attending mass in the early morning on these days, the people
give themselves up to revelry and sin at home, or crowd the street-
cars running to the parks and suburbs. Many with departed relatives
(and who has none?) go to the chacarita, and for a few pesos
bargain with the black-robed priest waiting there, to deliver their
precious dead out of Purgatory. If he sings the prayer the cost is
double, but supposed to be also doubly efficacious. Mothers do not
always inspire filial respect in their offspring, for one young man
declared that he "wanted to get his mother out of Purgatory before he
went in."
A Buenos Ayres missionary writes "There are two large cemeteries
here. From early morn until late at night the people crowd into them,
and I am told there were 100,000 at one time in one of them. November
1 is a special day for releasing thousands of souls out of Purgatory.
We printed thousands of tracts and the workers started out to
distribute them. By ten o'clock six of them were in jail, having been
given into custody by a 'holy father.' They were detained until six
in the evening without food, and then were released through the
efforts of a Methodist minister."
The catechisn reads: "Attend mass all Sundays and Feast days. Confess
at least once a year, or oftener, if there is any fear of death. Take
Sacrament at Easter time. Pay a tenth of first-fruits to God's
Church." The fourth commandment is condensed into the words:
"Sanctify the Feast days." From this it will be seen that there is
great need for mission work. Of course Romanism in this and other
cities is losing its old grip upon the people, and because of this
the priest is putting forth superhuman effort to retain what he has.
La Voz de la Iglesia ("The Voice of the Church"), the organ of the
Bishop of Buenos Ayres, has lately published some of the strongest
articles we have ever read. A late article concludes: "One thing
only, one thing: OBEY; OBEY BLINDLY. Comply with her (the Church's)
commands with faithful loyalty. If we do this, it is impossible for
Protestantism to invade the flowery camp of the Church, Holy,
Catholic, Apostolic and Roman."
Articles such as this, however, and the circulation of a tract by one
of the leading church presses, are not calculated to help forward a
losing cause. The tract referred to is entitled, "Letter of Jesus
about the Drops of Blood which He shed whilst He went to Calvary."
"You know that the soldiers numbered 150, twenty-five of whom
conducted me bound. I received fifty blows on the head and 108 on the
breast. I was pulled by the hair 23 times, and 30 persons spat in my
face. Those who struck me on the upper part of the body were 6,666,
and 100 Jews struck me on the head. I sighed 125 times. The wounds on
the head numbered 20; from the crown of thorns, 72; points of thorns
on the forehead, 100. The wounds on the body were 100. There came out
of my body 28,430 drops of blood." This letter, the tract states, was
found in the Holy Sepulchre and is preserved by his holiness the
Pope. Intelligent, thinking men can only smile at such an utter
absurdity.
An "Echoes from Argentina" extract reads: "Not many months ago,
Argentina was blessed by the Pope. Note what has happened since: - The
Archbishop, who was the bearer of the blessing and brought it from
Rome, has since died very suddenly; we have had a terrible visitation
of heat suffocation, hundreds being attacked and very many dying; we
have had the bubonic pest in our midst; a bloody provincial
revolution in Entre Rios; and now at the time of writing there is an
outbreak of a serious cattle disease, and England has closed her
ports against Argentine live stock. Of course, we do not say that
these calamities are the result of the Pope's blessing, but we
would that Catholics would open their eyes and see that it is a fact
that whereas Protestant countries, anathematized by the Pope,
prosper, Catholic countries which have been blessed by him are in a
lamentable condition."
BUENOS AYRES AT THE PRESENT TIME.
Perhaps no city of the world has grown and progressed more during
this last decade than the city of Buenos Ayres. To-day passengers
land in the centre of the city and step on "the most expensive system
of artificial docks in all America, representing an expenditure of
seventy million dollars."
To this city there is a large emigration.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 7 of 83
Words from 6135 to 7149
of 83353
