Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1854-01-06
THE nANEAN MONUMENT.

The Sentinel takes the Madison Journal to task
for opposing the proposition Of erecting marble
shaft 70 the memory of the boy-marter, Emanuel
Dannan. We shall have to be put under the same
ban with the Journal. 1t strikes us waste of the
bounties of earth and Of charity when there are
many destitute and suffering all over the land so
70 appropriate the offerings of sympathy, love, and
veneration.
The motive acttating those who are actively eff
ecting this proposition is most laudable and praise
worthy. It shows a just appreciation of the true
and the noble, a warm sympathy for suffering, and
holy veneration for virtue which will endure to
the last extremity 1t is one of the bright marks
on the way-side, showing the greatprogress of hui
mainly Time was when monuments were only
raised to commemorate tyrants and murderers-
those who had, more than all others, cnslaved and
slain myriads of their felIow-bcings. Now it is
proposed erecting them to commemorate greater
and holier IDEAS And it rejoices the soul of the
lphilanthropst TO see SO striking an indication of
right feeling and sentiment.
But is there still no higher step which may be
taken Marble shafts, raised for whatever pur-
no destitution and suffering. Neither do they in
struct in the ways of providing for the duties and
necessities Of life. Might not then, the funds raj
sed the tribute of worship of all that is good be
devoted to better purpose, and still serve as a
commemoraton of deeds of vrtuous heroism?
This is no new thought. We remember, long
ago, in our early youth, when worldly gear and
ourselves sad strangers each other, of walk
ing in graveyard and gazing the costly monu-
mentS erected by the wealthy in memory of the de-
parted, and thinking some of the same thoughts
herein Swallowed forth. Beside the grave of a
poor destitute husband, who died of disease caught
in the most arduous toll in the dircst lncemency
of weather, done TO procure for his wife and babies
the pressing necessities of life to keep off actual
starvation, and whose long, lingering ckncss had
broken the constitution and heart and desparcd
the soul of the living, patient, suffering wife and
mothcr-who was thereby left entirely destitute
and ineapacitated TO provide subsistence for her
self and family-was the grave of the dashine
young wife of the rich merchant, who had died
from disease caught at n New Years ball, by thin
cloth slippers, bare arms and shoulders, and Other
obedience to the behests of fashion, rushing to
cold draught and drinking wines and spced lem
onadcs to assuagc heat and thirst and by gorgine
at midnight of the smoking, bounteous, indigcsti
bic ball supper. The one had no stone to mark
its head, and the other had monument over i
costing thousand dollars The wife of the one
had become an invalid and town paupcr, and
the children were bound ont by the oversecrs o
the poor. The husband of the other had married
again. raised children by his new wife, built costly
mansion, lived cXtravagantly, was cutting a largo
dash in the world, and had entirely forgotten tho
departed. And we thus gazed the thought
again and again presented itself, " Is it right thu:
to waste money and labor, when so much greater
good could be done by it 3"
The thought may have been wrong, but We
could not help it. SO we may be wrong now, but
we cannot help it. We honor and revere the mo
tive of the active agents in this affair." but it seems
to us that the results of their labors might be bet
ter applied.-D.