CATHOLIC CEMETERIES
Of these there are two. The larger ranges between Robertson and Claiborne, and extends from St. Louis to Canal streets, occupying four full squares. The square on St. Louis street is principally appropriated to natives of France and their descendants. There is a great deal of refined sentiment and delicate fancy in some of their memorials of the departed. Tombs are often embellished with fresh flowers, that look as if they received daily attentions. This is a custom not peculiar to the French, but seems to be the natural language of that refined affection, which cherishes the memory and the virtues of the dead, among the dearest and most sacred treasures of the heart. The smaller of these grounds lies on Basin and St. Louis streets. It presents, like the other, many tasteful monuments, that show us where repose the honored and the wealthy of the land. These necessarily attract the notice of strangers—but there is one among them less conspicuous than the rest, the eloquence of whose simple and touching memorial has rarely been surpassed. It is in the side wall, near the northwest corner of the cemetery, surrounded by many more of a similar construction. There is no display—only a simple record, that tells it is occupied by a female fifteen years of age. Beneath this is quite a plain stone, with the inscription "Ma pauvre fille!" What an affecting history in those three brief words! It was undoubtedly placed there by an affectionate mother, deploring the untimely death of a beloved daughter. It contains more pathos, and speaks to the heart with more effect, than volumes of labored eulogy, or frantic grief. The proud mausoleum, and the turgid epitaph, sink into insignificance beside this humble burst of maternal love—"My poor child!"
Illustrative of the false pride with which the Creole population still, unfortunately, regard the practice of duelling, nearly opposite is the following inscription:—
"Victime de l'honneur.
Aet. 24."