The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-01-22
THE FUNNIEST GRAVEYARD
IN THE WHOLE OF EUROPE is
TO BE FOUND in GENOA.
Monuments in the Campo SantO
Which Are mdescribably Ridicu-
lous. Marble Halls in Which
Widows and WidOWerS Reign,


said a returned tourist, that my
most cheerful moments in Europe
were spent Nothing l had ever read
prepared me for this dumfounding
cemetery. All books of travel men
ton it, but in much the same re-
served and guarded fashion of Bae-
deker, who says cautiously that the
arrangement of the cemetery is in
| teresting, and it contains several fine
monuments The Campo Santo is
situated in a beautiful spot and is
most attractive in its arrangement.
1t is surrounded by hills covered to
the top with luXuriant verdure.
These hills enclose a level space,
like a floor, and in this lies the Cam
pc Santo. Upon entering one be-
holds the space surrounded on four
sides by vast galleries of marble,
rooted and walled on the inner side,
but on the side toward the open
court left unwalled and supported by
long rows of fine marble columns.
On one side this colOnaded gallery
| is broken by a magnificent marble
stairway, which swells upward into
marble terrace on which stands a
round white marble chapel modelled
after the Pantheon. The Genoese
understand building, and they par
ticularly understand the construction
of imposing and magnificent flights
of stairs. This glance of the eye over
the cemetery is eminently satisfac-
tory and | turned into the first gal
Iery | came to with heightened eX-
pectations. was walking along,
perfectly innocent of the blow about
to fall, when | suddenly came upon
widow.
This widow was life size and per-
fectly natural. 1t was mural
tomb, the remains being slowed away
somewhere in the marble wall OF the
gallery. Up above the Padre Eter-
no, as the Italians call the Almighty,
was looking out of the clouds to well
come the approaching soul. Among
the marble clouds a company of mar
BILE angels awaited their new made
brother. Below the dead man lay
on this bier, and still farther down
below on the floor in front of the
tomb, quite detached from the rest
of the sculpture, stood the widow.
She had on a tight fitting basque
with a turnover collar and ruftied
cuffs. a very nice lace shawl, which
must have cost quite a sum of mon
ev. and she was carefully holding her
skirt up in front so that you could
see what a fine lace petticoat she
wore
This was a fair sample of the
mortuary sculpture of the Genoa
Campo Santo. There you see the rel
latives of the departed grouped
labout the tomb in perfect statue
portraits.
mot only the features are repro
Educed with minute fidelity, the
double chins, the stumpy forms, the
Ilamentable fat, but the clothes are
copied with the same dreadful per-
lection. The snoe laces and the but
tonholes. the cravats and the ruff1es
are all immortalized in purest Car
rara marble exactly as they were.
photographs of 10, 20 and 20
wears ago are bad enough, with their
ghosts of dead fashions, even when
lthev portray our friends. When one
sees the same thing in marble the
sight is truly dreadful. Hats of the
vintage of 'S3, cravats TO 10, bas-
oues that run back to So; 1t is
wonderful sight. Sometimes the Wo-
men have on Paris gowns with long
trains and high-heeled shoes, and the
trimming and the patterns of the
laces are worked out so carefully
that one feels a conviction that the
sculptor received instructions 10
make it clear just how expensive
they were.
Widows and WidOwers.
.sThe widow reigns in these great
marble halls. She is the prevailing
figure. Sometimes she is kneeling,
i1ffe-siZe. suuarely on top of her hus-
hands coffin. But usually she stands
lon the floor in front, in all her best
CLOTHES. Sometimes she weeps, but
again she is suspiciOusly cheerful.
The widower is also there; in frock
fcoat sack coat, dress coat, with billy
cock hat under his arm; with every
detail of clothes and features worked
out with such torturing fidelity that
one involuntarily looks to see it he
has not cigar in his hand. | be-
Iieve the .Genoese are capable of even
that. Little stumpy widowers there
are, little fat men, so pathetically'
brutalIy homely that one wonders
: why they should desire to perpetuate
their forms in marble. One Of them
is kneeling, displaying the ample
soles of a very fine pair of perfectly
new shoes. He says in the lnscrlp-
lion on the tomb that he is praying
for the peace of his wife. But how
can the poor lady be at peace with
thing like that on her tombstone?
Portrait sculpture is carried to
its last extremity in the Genoa Gene
terv. In one case deformity of the
face. a repulsive hairy growth on the
mans cheek, is worked out in all its
details. And as if that were not
enough the mans photograph is set
into the marble under glass, as if to
show that the sculptor had copied it
faithfully. This addition OF the pho