Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-08
POEMS OUT OF PLACE.
Unique Epitaphs Collected From the
Country's Cemeteries.
THEY WERE ALL WELL .MEANT,
But In These Modern Times Excite Leyity
Rather Than Sadness.
VERSES THAT TELL OF TRAGEDIE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH !

WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH
|, In one of the finest cemeteries in the coun-
try division is set apart for those persons
who persist in carrying out their own ideas
In the arrangement and decoration OF the
graves of their kindred. When a man pur-
chases lot and begins to tell how he would
like to have it beautifed, he is shown the
homemade corner;' if he be person OF
ordinary intelligence, the utter lack OF
harmony resulting from so many conflicting
notions makes him willing to leave all de-
tails to the directors judgment.
A similar plan in regard to the inscrip-
tions on tombstones might be adopted with
beneficial results; at least visit to almost
any graveyard is enough to convince one
that the epitaph business Of, the country
might with great propriety be placed in the
charge of competent poet. The lines
quoted below were collected from all parts
of the United States during trips made in
recent years in the interest of science; and
while few of them are as absurd as those
manufactured ones that are floating around
In the newspapers. they are more interesting
because they are genuine and certainly
ridiculoussenough.
First in the list may be given one to be
found in this city:
Erected by voluntary subscriptions.
To the memory of those who we're killed
by the explosion at Allegheny Arsenal.
Sept II, 1862
Tread softly. This is consecrated dust.
Forty-five pure patriotic victims lie here,
A sacrifice to Freedom and Civil Liberty. A
horrid memento of a most wicked Rebellion.
Patriots These are Patriots graves. Friends
OF humble honest toll, these were your Peers.
Fervent affection kindled these hearts.
Honest industry employed these hands.
Widows and orphans tears have watered
this ground. Female beauty and manhood's
yigor commingle here. Unidentified by man
known by Him, who is the resurrection and
the Life. To be walked, known and loved
again, when the morning cometh."
An epitaph in an old churchyard at Alex
andria. Va, has excited much comment, as
no name is given in connection with it:
To the memory Of .
female stranger
whose mortal suferlEgs terminated
on the 18th day Of October 1916.
This stone is placed here by her disconsolate
Husband,
in whose arms she sighed out her
latest breath: and who under God,
did his utmost, even, ito soothe the cold
dead ear of death"
How loved how valued once avails thee not;
To whom related or by whom begot;
heap of dust alone remains OF thee;
With acute commercial instinct the cem-
etery authorities have published and placed
on sale small pamphlet in which they re-
late the particulars Of the interment, but re-
veal nothinga as to the identity of the parties
concerned.
In a cemetery at Amsterdam, O., is the
following inscription:
My wife dear has gone away
To live with God in endless day,
While am left alone to weep
And together my children keep.
In strong contrast with the mourntul tone
of the above, is the joyous alliterative jingle
of the next:
The worm may waste
The withering clay.
When flesh and spirit
Sever, my soul Shall sec
Eternal day, and dwell
With God forever.
In Ripley, o., a woman was heard to fall to
the floor, and some one Fastening to her SIDE
found that life had departed. Her sudden
death was thus recorded:
In health she dropped and died SO soon
Gone before we could reach the room;
She liveth now to die no more,
With Christ, who took from death its power.
The most unfeeling in the list is one from
Little Rock, Ark:
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
While this may be true in the abstract,
vet q man who places it on his wife's head
stone has an air of congratulating himself
upon his good luck in securing q wife at all,
even if she did die early; his satisfaction at
having been more fortunate than some of
his acquaintances is mani est.
An old man in Dover, KY, ended his e1-
istence by poison. The following may be
seen on his tombstone, but it is not known
whether he elaborated it for himself prior
to his demise, or whether some friend thus
attempted to express the decedent's prob
able opinion of his condition:
John Schubert. husband of Hedwig Gehrt"-
Again Pve lost the battlel
am a slave once more!
OF that destructive Tempter,
OF which was beforel
Farewell, my dearest chlldrenl
NV wife and All, Goodby!
My hopes are lost! cannot winl
My trust in God: Pm doomed to diei
In the midst of the Sunfsh Hills, in Pike
county, O., miles from any town, and in q
country whose poverty of soil and rough
ness Of surface is unequaled in the Ohio
Valley, an old log church stands on the
summit of one of the highest peaks, and is
in plain sight many miles in every direc.
ton. Possibly their elevated situation has
given its members ideas correspondingly
elevated, for they seem to be quite philo-
sophlcal in their testimonials. For example:
Life is span, a fleeting hour,
How soon the vapor flies,
Man is a tender transient flower
That even in blooming dies.
The next indicates less resignation:
Alas how changed that lovely flower
Which bloomed and cheere
My last fair heeting COM
forts of an hour,
How soon were called to part.
Another. which may be seen, sometimes in
modified form, in various portions of the
uninn contains some in form ation not new