The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-09-22
A RECOLLECTION or GRUEsOME
II HONOR.


"Thines are so badly mixed poli,i-
cally," says HENRY u. BROWN of New
Haven, ,chsirman of the Connect cut
| Prohibition committee, .'"thst amsre-
minded ola bereayed husband who had
buried four wives in widely different To-
oalities. He .teceme inspired with the
happy thought TO have them all disin-
tered and laid 10 rest in the same burial
lot, and to erect TO their memories
single shaft, on which their names
would appear He proceeded to 90 so,
but In. making the changes the bodies
became iuextricably mixed and changed,
so that which couldn't be distinguished
from t'other. SO, instead OF four several
and Individual Inscriptions he concluded
to group the whole business in one com
prehensiye epitaph which read touch
ingiy as follows:A
Strsngerl pause and drop tesri
Ny Sarah Ann lies bn ried herei
kixod up in some perplexing manner.
With Maria. Jane and likewise Hannah"
Mr. BRowN herein quotes a well nigh
forgotten humorist whose nom de plume
was 81 Max Adeler." He was the au-
thor Of one Of the most delightful
"funny" books that was ever written,
though we suppose the book is almost
unknown nowadays, although it is not
an ancient work, for ADELER was con-
temporaneous, we believe, with the ia
nous "Dsnbury News Man." Mr..
BAILEY, IL little, earlier I han Mr.. BUR-
DErrE, the "Burlington Hawkeye Man."
and M. QUAD, as he appeared as the
"Detroit, Free Press Man." "Out OF the
Hurry -Burly'" Is a classic in humor
and its publication ought, as well, to be
recalled because IL contained the very first
work Of Mr.. A. b. Frost, now famous as
an illustrator, the pictures in the book
being from drawings on wood all in the
peculiarly happy vein that has given
FROST his renown.
II we remembe rightly, the name of
the bereaved husband that Mr.. BROWN
quotes was SPARKS. Mr.. SPARKS did not,
according to the tale, bury the bones of
his four wives under one monument, but
q t.. III .
unfortunately mixed, he divided them up
as accurately as possible into four parts,
allowing one "set" 10 grave and put
ting a suitable stone at each head. Now,
accor ding TO the veracious chronicier Of
the gruesome episode. widower SPARKS
was peculiarly conscientious man as ev-
idenced by the fact that he could not
bring himself to place on the stones the
name OF her whose bones, to the best OF
his judgment, lay beneath. He knew
that there was a real doubt as to the
"sets" there reposing, being composed
as they were originally in the
flesh ana before removal. And
so he was at pains tn have inscribed
epitaphs that should make the situation
clear and permit of no deception. One OF
them ran something like that quoted by
Chairman BROWN as illustrative of the
political situation. Others ran, IS nearly
as we can recall, something as follows:
"Secred to the memory OF Ellen, to say
nothing OF Sarah, Jane and Hannah
Sparks.
''Here lies Hannah Sparks, and PROB
ably portions OF Sarah, Maria and Jane
Sparks"
The writer of tho "Hurly- Burlyr
book had leaning toward humor in the
form OF obituary poetry. In the same
work is found the familiar "epitsph":
"Tbe death angel s-uote Alexander McClus
And gave him protracted repose
BE wore-a pink shirt and n Number o shoe,
And had pink wsrt on his nose"
----s--
THE organization OF q Wage Esrners'