The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-07-23
Churchyard CuriOsities.

Mr.. Farley, in his Epitaphiana,"
gives us the following, which he found
recorded Gin memoriam" of an avaric-
ious man:
"At rest beneath this churchyard stone
Lies stngy Jenny Wyatt;
He died one morning Just at ten, and
Saved dinner by it,"
We can not help the inquiry as to how
the survivors can have permitted such an
inscription to appear on their relatives
or friends monument.
Perhaps in some cases the feeling which
was so strong in former time, that there
ought to be stone at the head of the
sleeping dust, may in many instances
have been combined with keen sense of
justice, which induces these critics to tell
the truth about the departed.
The literary skill was sometimes sorely
tried, and in an emergency creative
genius had to do her utmost to tide over
the difficulty. Hence from Biddeford
churchyard
"The wedding-day appointed was,
And wedding clothes provided;
But ere that day did come, alas!
He sickened and he-die did"
There is something tenderly and touch
ingly simple and beautiful about the next
quotation from the book, even slight
indication of what sometimes has been
called genius:
Life Is an inn upon market-day;
Some short-pursed pilgrims breakfast and away;
Some do to dinner stay, and get full fed
And others after supper steal to bed.
Large are the bills who linger out the day;
The shortest stayers have the least to pay"
There is commendable ability dis
played in the terse biography which we
sometimes find in the epitaph.
The life of q man, as to outer circum-
stances, has often been written on his
tombstone.
The following is not bad on country
sexton:
"Here lies old Hare, worn out with care,
Who whilom tolled the bell
Could dig grave, or set stave,
And say Amen full well.
For sacred songs he'd Sternhold's tongue,
And Hopkins exc also
With cough and hem he stood by them +.
As far as lungs would go.
Many feast for worms he drest,
Himself then wanting bread
But, 10 he's gone, with skin and bone,
To starve EN- now he's dead.
Here take his spade, and use his trade,
Since he is out of breath;
Cover the bones of him who once
Wrought journey-work for Death"
The next which we append could
scarcely be expected to be composed out
of Ireland. 1t is, accordingly, to be
found on tombstone in that country:
"Here lies the body of John Mound,
| Lost at sea and never found"
The next, from cemetery at Cincin-
natl, must have been blunder of the
letter-cutter, case of transposition
which was thought not to matter, since
the reader would put it straight:
Who came TO this city and died
For The benefit Of his health"
Miss Long was beautiful young lady,
but so short that she was called the
"Pocket Venus" The epitaph con-
cluded, abiding to her when alive:
"Though LoNG, yet short;
Though short yet pretty LONG"
Patrick O'Brien was one day strolling
with a friend through graveyard, when
his eye was arrested by an epitaph which
shocked his sense of propriety and verac-
ity. 1t ran thus:
"weep not for me, my children dear;
am not dead but sleeping here"
"Well," said Paddy If was dead, !
would be honest enough to own it,"
We cannot refuse need of admiration
to the clever epitaph on crier of peri
wrinkles, from Chichester Cathedral.
There is vein of genuine humor in it
humor which is even allied to tenderness:
'Perwinks! periwinkles |" was ever her cry;
| She labored to live. poor and honest to die
At the last day again how her old eyes will twinkle
For no more will she cry, 'Periwinks periwinkle'
Ye rich, to vrtuous want regard pray give;
Ye poor by her example learn TO live.
| Died Jan. 1, 1856. Aged H."