tant of which are Pere la Chaise and Montparnasse. The ground of
all of these belongs to the city. You can purchase a lot to be held for
ever, or you can buy a temporary concession, the price varying with the
length of time for which the ground is to be held. Five years is the
shortest period for which a lot can be accorded, as experts declare that
the body is not wholly absorbed into the surrounding earth before that
time.

What shall Paris do with her dead? is now becoming a very serious
question. It is against the law to bury bodies within her limits, yet
fourteen out of her twenty cemeteries are within her bounds, and the
vast city, spreading out on either side, soon catches up with those
established on her exterior territories.

It has been proposed to construct a new and immense cemetery at a
distance of some twenty or thirty miles from the city, to which the
funeral corteges could be transferred by rail. But the strong sentiment
of the French for the dead has as yet prevented the realization of this
very sensible and really necessary project. As a rule, the French are
very fond of visiting the graves of their departed relatives, and on the
great anniversary for such visits, "Le Jour des Morts," it is calculated
that over half a million persons are present in the different cemeteries
during the day. On such occasions not only are wreaths of natural
flowers, of beads and of immortelles deposited on the tombs, but often
the visiting-cards of the persons who have come to pay due respect to
the dead. The tomb of Rachel, for instance, has been specially honored
in that way, some of the visitors even turning up the corner of the card
to show that they had called in person. The question suggests itself,
_What if the visit should be returned?_ Edgar A. Poe might have found in
this idea material for one of his weird and wondrous tales. We all know
what happened when Don Juan in merry fashion begged that the statue of
his former victim would come to take supper with him.

The French authorities have indeed purchased a vast tract of ground at
Mery-sur-Oise, distant from Paris about one hour by rail, with intent to
found there a vast central necropolis, but the prejudices or
indifference of the Parisian populace have as yet prevented the
realization of this project. Something must be done, however, and that
speedily. Were cremation an established fact, that would settle the
whole matter, but the French, who always seem to g