The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-04-05
HOLLYWOOD MONUMENT,
RICHMOND. VA.
BY FRANK E. ANDERSON.

BY FRANK E. ANDERSON.
Upon the summit of a frowning
Virginian hill in the lovely GENE.
terry Of Richmond-that pantheon
of departed greatness-there towers
grimly to the sky colossal heap of
rugged stone which to the South
ern heart brings a feeling akin to
tears; for on it are the simple
words, simple yet how eloquent,
ITO the Confederate Dead" A
cenotaph to the ashes of a peoples
hopes, this stately gray pile of un-
hewn granite is in the shape
of pyramid, facing all four
quarters of the compass as the
deathless fame of the dead whom it
commentaries confronts the nations
of the earth-and clambering vines,
the ivy, the Virginia creeper, the
fragrant English honeysuekle, clasp
it in their arms as our hearts, the
stainless names of the heroes now
no more. In the Spring, the grass
mats the soil about it, as though q
very mussulman it spread its green
carpet for angels feet to tread in
prayer and the white daisies blend
with the violets, and those quaint
humpty dumpties OF the floral
world, the saffron hued snapdragons,
to make the spot one of peculiar
loyeliness. A short distance to
South, the James-historic stream
of song and story-sweeps on to-
ward the sea, but psuses as it passes
to chant a diapason mass for those,
sthe dead but living east, north
and west, the Southern Mecca Lost
Cause hems it in; and crowded at
its feet, lying in their last, long
sleep, their generals in their midst,
the Confederate warriors, wrapped
in their winding-sheets Of earth, are
slumbering in that bivouac which
only the reyeille of the resurrection
morn shall break. No monumental
marble marks each soldiers head
(for as yet the Union mothers but
the Northern dead, step-mothers
her Southern sons(, yet On a simple
slab of locust wood there is a num-
bered strip Of zinc, and but too OF.
ten on the muster-rolls which keep
their names, it answers to the single
word 'Unknown"-unknown to men,
but known to God and Fame. Fit
ting surroundings, these, to this
memorial raised by gracious South.
ern women's hands to mark the
spot where the sons of the South
are buried.
A word in particular as to this
monument. 1t is ninety feet high
and covers forty-f7e feet of ground,
built of quarry faced stone in
irregular blocks, and at cost of
fifteen thousand dollars. Under
the supervision of the talented
architect, Charles II. Dimmock, the
cornerstone was laid, December
Sd, 1868, and finished by the su.
perimposition of the cap-stone,
November 9th, 1869. It's inscrip-
tions are not very good. On the
northern face is, aMemoria in
Aeterna," a motto Of which it has
been wittily said, at will, we fear,
be Latin belonging to lost Ian
guage as well as to a lost eause;;"
on the east, "To the Confederate
Dead" an inscription faultless and
Greek in its pure simplicity; on
the south, ':Numini ct patriae
asto," the punning maxim of the
house of Aston; and on the west,
Erected by the Ladies of the Hol.
lywood Memorial Association, A.
D., 1862" another most sensible
legend Of love and tenderness.
In all other respects what more
appropriate memorial could we
have? Its weather beaten gray