The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-24
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
"A to Monuments,

To the Editor of the Indianapolis JOuTDsa:
1t is a dreary but suggestive plati5ude that
it is as natural to die as to be born; and when
the inevitable comes, to saint or sinner, Ba-
con tells us that "'Nunc dimittis' becomes
the sweetest canticle when a man hath OBJ
tanned worthy ends and expectations" Hor-
ace took comfort in the self-laudation that
through his odes he had completed memo
rial of himself, more lasting than brass, and
loftier than the regal structures of the pyra-
lnids, which neither the wasting shower, nor
the powerless north wind, nor the countless
series of years and the fight of ages shall be
able to destroy" This monumental consola-
ton may have sulficed for Horace, who wrote
the beautiful odes dedicated to Melpomene,
bat the comfort to be derived from having
first brought down Eolic verse to italian
measures" could not entirely obliterate
the fact, even to Horace that it is incon-
yenient to be dead, to say the least.
There is something lacking in the state of
civilization which permits the downright
disregard and almost malicious violation of
the wishes of our dead friends,
which is calculated to make heathen-
ism loom up in stately grandeur in
comparison. Among the many benefits sup
posed to be derived from shutting off of
the rlayey tenement it is urged that death
openeth the good fame and extinguisheth
envy" and, as an offset rendereth the help
less victim a prey to the funeral sermon,
which, thanks be to praise" Is evanescent,
and to the more enduring and frequently
atrocious monumental inscriptions which are
exposed to the gaze of Sunday-strollers in
cemeteries. While "storied urn and ami
mated BUST back to the living cannot call
the feeting breath, "honors voice" of
living friends could do much toward
k...z- L..
rating reform in tombstones. What mother
of little children, Flooding along the dutiful
years bound by the VOW until death do us
part" would have the strength to endure if
she dared to entertain the thought that this
obligation would cease the moment she be-
came detenseless impersonality, and that
her children will grow up to read on slab
erected to her memory by loving husband,
in haste to find her successor, that she is
chiefly remembered as melinda, consort of
John Smith" instead of the plain wife of
John Smith," And what comfort could she
anticipate in the thought that should
she outlive the perennial and perpetual John
she would then be published to the world as
"Malinda, relict of John Smith" Or how
could she write it on her heart? According to
the Emersonian suggestion that every day
is the best day." and 1.-THE worse things are,
the better they are" 'blessed be nothing"
and other equally cheering and cheerful
gloomings" supposed to be necessary to keep
one in bounds, if she could so forecast
the years and see with the eye spiritual that
she would become No. 1 of a trio upon
whose tombstone it is duly set forth
that she was considered in the light after
death, of being "a gem on earth, a star in
heaven" and exactly two feet away asmilar
msshapen shaft would declare that No. 2
was another gem on earth, another star in
heaven" with emple space left for the exist
ing No. 3, and so on, as long as the everlast-
ing John should be able to entoe con
sort" or ''relict'' into becoming the sharer
of his domestic distresses. Verify, the young
lady who gave as a reason for wanting to get
married that she did $50 want to have Mrs.
put on her tombstone" was seeking i'll she
knew not Of
Much might be said of the hideousness of
design Of the average monument and OF the
horrible caricatures of the perishable sleep
ers beneath, but the subject would become
too prolific for anything short of two vol
:. umes 12mo. A little fYe-year-old boy was
once overheard to say to acompanion in Crown
Hill, after gazing intently at an unusually
misshapen urn on a dsproportionate monu-
ment 80 look at that funny sugar bowl with
dishrag on it."
The various methods of advertising grief
by means of inscriptions have partially dis
placed the overdone custom of wearing
mourning in grotesqueness. Whenever a
woman advertises to the world that This
monument is erected to the memory OF a
loving husband by an afectionate and grief
stricken wife" or similar declaration, be
assured that boot-jack amenities and shat
tered notices of God bless our home"
formed possible past of the domestic feleci-
ties, and let all men seeking to join the cara
van of Benedicts beware of the vdders."
When dutiful son, in burst of filial grief,
announces, after the demise of his paternal
ancestor, that this shaft was set upon
its pedestal by an affectionate son,
or words to that effect to the ex-
clusion of the. other children. in the
monumental advertisement, it is barely pos
sible that your own son, Mr. Chuffey" has
his eye on the pecuniary remains, or the life
insurance policy of the lamented parent.
Dickens, who never failed to detect the
shams and abuses of social customs holds up
to scorn and ridcule the monumental adver-
Using frauds in the case of Mr.. Thomas
Sapsea. who seized the occasion of his wifes
death to blazon to the world his grief and
distraction as embodied in the following in
jcription:
TO MELINDA,