The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-10-17
MAN WHO COLLECTS EplrApHs.


John e. McDougald, treasurer of the
city and county of San Francisco, could
give Huchleberry Finn points on grave
yards and all that appertains thereto.
Above ali else, he could tell him precisely
the best hours for black cat lamentations
He knows all about graveyards in day
light or dark, his lore having been accu-
muiated through three decades and year
before he was selected by the people OF
its moneys. In all, fantastic. grewsome
and pathetic, he hiss accumulated enough
material to make a book. One of the most
interesting parts of this alI-sorts of col
lections is TIE bundle OF epitaphs.
These things have not been gathered
because OF an Uncanny fad on the part
OF Mr.. McDougald; on the contrary. they
represent the diversion of a business
which brought him in contact with the
bereavement of people. He had a marble
yards. 80 per cent of its work having to
do with graveyards but as Mr.. McDou-
gald has a sense OF humor as well as &
sympathetic heart, ne gathered the things
which reflect the absurdities of grief. For
instance. he could not help remembering
and repeating this rhyme which he found
in San Francisco cemetery. albeit he
was sorry for the victim:
Here l lie, ana no wonder l am dead.
For one of Winnings car wheels passed
over my head.
There is scarcely a graveyard of any
consequence in the state which Mr.. Nc
Dougald has not visited; he has never
small burial places. because those who
lay away their dead friends and foes in
these places are not bound by conven-
tons or examples. and so are quite free
to cypress their frank and sometimes I'M
complimentary opinions as well as their
lamentations on the rude headstones. Mr..
McDougald says one need not visit many
graceyards in this young state before
reaching the conclusion that the epitaph
habit came west with the pioneers; the
choice old couplets are not all in the
Puritan cemeteries.
Because Mr. McDougald is at home and
among friends, he has substituted names
for the real ones, where they appear
in California epitaphs. In fact, the en-
tire collection is undesignated. except in
the mmind of Mr.. McDougald To him,
one epitaph recalls a lonely grave in
a mining district; another brings up
picture of a poor stone in the tangle-
wood of a dilapidated churchyard; while
still another recalls a grave, grass
grown and securely copied with enduring
granite.
me-honored epitaphs cut in some of
the OLD eastern headstones, have been
copied in California, surely because of
their supposed fitness. Then, too, there
are few in Mr. McDougaids collection
that would never fit outside of New En-
gland. given in the far-away days to an
exact statement of facts. Here is one:
William Strytters.
Buried 18th of May. 1za4. aged 81 years
Who had by his first wife Is children,
By his second wife II; was own father
To 45. grandfather to Sc, great grand
father
To 90 in all 154 children
He never chewed nor smoked, but lived
And died like other folks.
Another that tells of good New Hamp
shire woman, who. if she We're alive to-
day, might be the president of a wo-
mans club, reads:
In memory of
Mrs. Hannah Bracket
widow of Josiah Bracket,
who died
April 24th, 1906, the list year of her age.
A Pious, Cheerful, Rational Christian,
Mind.
Much of her time was employed in Lit
erary Pursuits.
and her requirements were manifold.
With that Female Diffidence which made
Her conversation pleasing to
Men OF Science.
There have been men in California with
scolding wives. for a bedeviled husband
in California has copied the following:
This little spot is the joy of my life,
It raises my flowers and covers my wife.
There might be more consolation in the
following, for the next husband who felt
obliged to express his sentiments on his
wifes tombstone:
Here lies my wife, here let her lie;
She's now at rest, and so am l.