The Daily Alaska Empire

Caruso's Tomb Sealed To End Tale of "Cult"

NAPLES, Italy, March 18.--Caruso of the golden voice, who died here in 1921, may at last sleep in peace.
His glass tomb has been sealed up by indignant heirs as a result of widespread rumors that a cult has arisen to honor his memory through worshipping rites that included periodical changing of the funeral clothes on his embalmed body.
Caruso's body, embalmed by Neapolitan morticians with a secret method which they claim to have inherited from the ancient Egyptians, lie in a little chapel in the cemetery of the Madonna del Piano here. The chapel was built by his widow.
Mrs. Caruso decided upon the embalming so their daughter Gloria might see her famous father, when she grew up, as he was at the height of his fame.
Mrs. Caruso also ordered a glass coffin, with one side removable, and hundreds of tourists have seen the body with full face as in life.
But the embalming process cannot preserve the clothes, so Caruso's shroud must be changed at certain intervals. This has usually been done with one of the professors of the Scientific Institute of Naples directing.
And thus arose the rumor of the Caruso cult, a rumor which had it that 48 members composing the cult met at the tomb at certain intervals and observed a ritual which included reclothing the body.
Caruso's heirs determined to end this bizarre state of affairs, so stonemasons have walled up the sarcophagus, and visits of tourists will be supervised.