Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-09-05
A Misdirected Sentiment.

makes a considerate, but much needed,
protest against the prevalent custom OF
spending money in costly monuments TO
mark the final resting place Of the dead.
Life is nothing without sentiment, but
sentiment should be enlightened and
directed by rational considerations, and
we contend that this way of honoring the
departed does not commend itself to the
most enlightened judgment. Granting
that it is desirable, from the individuals
own point of view, that his memory
should not be forgotten, it is possible in
any real way to save from oblivion the
Of the vast majority of men ?
President Eliot of Harvard has expressed
the opinion that only about one person
in ten million is destined to achieve last
ing fame; oblivion more Or less complete
will be the sure portion of the rest. The
memory Of an ordinary person will not out
live the lives Of those who knew him
personally. Only a limited circle of these,
made up OF his nearest relatives and
closest friends, will really cherish his
memory, and they will do it for love, and
without the aid of an imposing shaft.
When this circle shall have passed away,
the memory Of his personality will also
have perished utterly. His name may be
preserved, but it will be but name.
And what is in a mere name? am
speaking, remember, of the ordinary, un-
distinguished person. His grandchildren
will remember him, but to his great
grandchildren he will be utterly unknown,
and if one is forgotten by his own des
cendants, how vain to think that he will
be remembered by Others. How many
Of us know the names of our great grand
parents, or have ever seen their last
resting places? What does the slab in
memory of somebody elses forgotten
great grandfather signify to us? The
ssmple fact OF the matter is that the at
tempt to perpetuate ones memory to
future generations by means of monu-
ment over his remains is most utterly
futile. Erecting monuments to attract
the attention Of posterity is so much vain
whistling to the wind.
However sad it is to think that one
day we shall be utterly forgotten, it
would be demanding too much of pos
terity to expect anything else. The
stagnation of China is warning against
the undue demands of ancestors to be
remembered by posterity. The duty which
one owes to an ancestor of a century ago
is infnitesimal as compared with his pre-
sent duty to the life of the race and to
humanity. We belong to the race far
more Immediately and completely than
we do to our Individual ancestors. In
the future life of the race, the only thing
about us that can live. or that ought to
live, is the consequences of our actions.
The imprint of our lives upon the life
of the race will always abide. though
even our names shall be utterly forgotten.
Our place in the life of the race will be
that of the small fragments of stone that
90 to fill the interior crevices of a wall,
out of sight and out of mind. Comfort
enough there should be in the reflection
that a thoughtful posterity will recognize
in general way their connection with
the past and their Indebtedness to those
who lived before them.
The attempt to perpetuate the memory
of one departed will be justifabe and
will be effective if it take the form of
some active service rendered to the COM
munity in his name. a memorial church,
or school, or professorship, or library, OF
drinking fountain, or even humble way
side seat overlooking some beautiful
scene, will keep ones memory green and
fragrant far beyond what can be done to
that end through a monument in ceme-
terry costing hundreds of dollars. Except
for the institutions which perpetuate their
names, Stephen Girard and Johns Hop
kins would have been utterly forgotten
in two generations after their deaths.
Who knows or honors the name of the
young man over whose body in Forest
Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, stands a monu-
mental pile costing thirty thousand dol
lars?
The assertion has been hazarded that
more money has been expended upon
monuments in our cemeteries than upon
the entire educational system of our coun-
try. 1t is possibly the fact. What a
futile waste of hard-earned money. What
an impoverishment this means of the life
of the community. Why could not this
money have been given for the support
of Christian missions, or to our schools
that the teachers might be paid the
salaries they ought to receive, OR to the
equipment of hospital wards? Why
should poor families who have barely
enough for the necessaries of life, under
the tyranny of misguided sentiment,
deny themselves those necessaries, or in
volve themselves in debt, in order to erect
monuments of stone to tueir dead Such
monuments are futile as memorials. A
simple slab or marker would serve as
well to indicate for century or so the
exact resting place of the departed. After
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