Howard Times

Curious Scenes During the Pilgrimage to
the Graveyards.

Paris, it is said, thinks once a year of those
whom she has lost. The truth is she thinks
very much oftener of them, for their touching
devotion to the memory of the dead is one of
the finest sides of the French character.

The day after All Saints' is the "day of the
dead"--the jour des morts.

Then Parisians visit the great cemeteries
-Pere Lachaise, Montmartre, Montparnasse,
Passy, Vaugirard and Saint-Ouen. It is a curi-
ous sight to see the crowds sweeping like a
torrent along the boulevards of Bellevue and
Menilmontant between the two rows of booths
piled up with emblems of grief and piety.

About half the number are simple sightseers
— badauds, who are attracted by any crowd,
and who can be readily recognized by their in-
different and gaping air and empty hands.

The others, in mourning habits, carry in
their hands wreaths of everlasting flowers,
sprigs of box wood and yew, bouquets, medals:
lions under glass, with a weeping willow and
some artless inscription a ma mere, a notre
pere, etc.

The cemeteries themselves present an un-
accustomed spectacle. The entrances are
guarded by mounted gardes de Paris in full
uniform; policeman are stationed to regulate
the circulation in the interior, and around the
cemetery hawkers of all sorts spread out their
wares in tempting array-immortelles for the
dead, cakes and petit bleu-cheap wine-for
the living.

The exterior boulevards are too small for
the crowd of mourners, and the inns and
wineshops too small for the custom.

Side by side with the sellers of souvenirs
eterna you find the camelot, who offers his
collection of 300 jokes for 1 cent; the open air
lotteries with their grating and rattling wheels
and an asthmatic "hurdy gurdy" playing the
eternal "Boulanger March." This is the first
act of the tragi-comedy

Each proceeds to the tomb that interests him
or her. The old wreaths are removed, and
the glass covered medallion of the most ap-
prove design is hung up in their stead.-St.
Louis Globe-Democrat.