Those that are mowed down by the grim rider of the white horse cannot be buried there, owing to the excessive moisture of the ground which surrounds the city and the proximity of the water to the surface. It is impossible to dig two feet under ground without coming to water. At all times the dead have been disposed of in a very careless manner in New Orleans. It is related that during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1853, when New Orleans had a population of 150,000 inhabitants, those that had died of the dread disease were thrown into trenches not over 18 inches or two feet deep, and covered with very little earth; so little, indeed, that the first rain that came along washed it away. In a graveyard situated in the central part of the city, were buried in this manner 400 bodies, recent victims of yellow fever, and contaminating the air with poisonous exhalations. The mayor of the city was asked to remove the dangerous condition of the burial-ground. He replied, “That’s not my business!” And the commissioner of streets, who was next approached, answered in a like spirit. The state of affairs grew worse and worse; and at last, even the negroes refused to act as grave-diggers. At present, they have a system of entombment in the Crescent City. These tombs are in the municipal cemeteries, 35 of which are within the city limits, giving them the appearance of a collection of bakers’ ovens. The tombs are almost universally made of brick, and whitewashed. They vary in size from 3 × 6 feet to 10 × 10 feet or 10 × 20 feet; there is a post in the centre, which is surrounded by shelves, on which the body—that is, the coffin—is deposited. There the dead rests for about a year, when it becomes necessary to use the tomb for another corpse; then the remains of the preceding occupant of the vault are rudely taken from the casket and dashed head over heels into a pit, where they are left to breed disease. What wonder, exclaims Kate Field, that yellow fever runs riot in New Orleans, when the air reeks with the festering corruption of 35 plague spots, exposed for six months of the year to a tropical sun! Think how the death-rate of New Orleans might be reduced by abolition of earth-burials! What better field for missionary work than our own “Sunny South”? The unhealthfulness of these vaults is apparent to all, but, owing to prejudice, no other disposition of the dead has been adopted. But sooner or later the inhabitants of New Orleans must have recourse to cremation, and burn their dead, as they were forced to do once during a cholera epidemic, when 135 corpses were consigned to the devouring element.