The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-25
WARNING ON A TOMBSTONE.
Strange Monument Set by Kansas
Woman Over Her Husbands Grave

Strange Monument Set by a Kansas
Woman Over Her Husbands Grave.
Out in Oak Hill cemetery, the fash
icnable burying ground of this city, a
marble shaft towers far above its
neighbors. 1t is colossal in size, white
as the driven snow, delicate in proper
tlCns, exquisite in design, airy and
graceful as a spire Of the Cathedral
of Milan when viewed from far away,
says the Kansas City Times. It is
the observed Of all those who visit the
beautiful cemetery and who tread it's
f1oWer-lined and shadowy avenues, and
they linger at the granite base to ad-
mire. the delicate carving and ponder
upon the strange and suggestive in
scriptiOn chiseled upon it's polished
surface:
cat last it biteth like a serpent and
stingeth like an adder. "-Proverbs
xiii, o.
This unusual and unique monument
marks the grave Of once prominent
citizen. He was prominent in business,
prominent in politics, prominent in So
clal affairs. He was the personifcation
OF business integrity, a leader in public
enterprises, the exemplar of the young
men of the community.
BY and by, even as some insidious
disease takes possession of the human
body, an appetite for strong dring took
possession Of this business man, this
political leader, this social lion. this
| model for young men. 1t came about
like this: First, the glad New Years
happy greeting; then the convivial cup
at the campfire and the club; then the
! public reception and the cordial enter
| tainment of the city's honored guest.
His history is simply the old, old story.
He fell from his lofty pedestal, from his
| high estate, from heaven to hell.
PrCSperity political standing social
| influence, everything was swept into
| the great vortex wherein sooner or
later is engulfed all that has been rr
is Of him who looketh upon the wine
| when it is red. He died and was buried.
| The people, a great multitude, stood
uncovered by the side of his open grave
! and listened, reverently, to the words
| of the preacher, who recounted the
many good things the man, now dead,
! had said and done when living, though
! some marveled much at his neglect to
| "adOrn a tale and point a moral" And
| long lines Of civic societies, with their
| plumes modelling in the breeze and their
/ rich regalia a picture of beauty threw
over the rich casket "the broad mantle
| OF charity" and cast into the open
| grave the emblems of Immortality
! The man had lived and was dead and
! buried, and the great world, forget
! ting his faults and frailties, remem-
| bered only his excellences. But the
wfdowi She remembered-even If she
| did not remember the virtues of her
| husband-the cursed cause Of ruin
| And one day, by her orders, the i'm
| posing monument above his grave was
erected, and around 1T, from apex to
! granite base, the sculptor had chiseled
! from the inanimate marble q snake of
many coils, whose forked tongue, ever
protruding, and stony eyes, never clos
ing, are a constant warning to all who
look upon it and read the strange
device upon the polished surface Of
the granite base, that Eat last it biteth
like serpant and stingeth like an ad-
| der"