The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1910-10-08

I mluSlCI dUUSy. OuCOusSuliOL
| al as he may be in thousan,
! things, the American is the most con
ventional of mortals in his attitude to
ward the historic show places of Eu
rope. There is but one proper way t.
view a monument, one proper opinion
to express in regard to it. This is de
termined by tradition and, in the cas'
of the abbey the Washington Irving
tradition is the one that must be re
garded. A hundred years ago Irving
established a residence within the
wall of the old minister and pro
ceeded to write some very charming
albeit little ford, prose regarding
its architecture and its memorials
His expressed feeling toward it was
one of reverence and awe and melan
choly, of admiration and respect Now
this was both correct and natural In
lrving's time, but that was before the
day when visitors crowded the aisles
like cattle at the herding, when the
walls were placarded with instructions
and warnings, even as the motor
buses that pass the door are placard-
ed with advertisements, and before
youthful yergers lined up the curious
in companies and collected a sixpence
apiece for personally conducting them
through the royal chapels. The at
mosphere today, indeed, is not conduc-
i've to meditation and reverential &C.
stasy; the abbey is as much a show
place as the Albert Memorial or Earl's
Court, and the sad sight referred to
above is that of the hurried, busting
tourists of the twentieth century try
ing to adapt themselves to the tradi-
tional pose of reverence and awe Gre
ated by Irving-trying and not sue
ceeding.
Women in the Minister.
The suggestion that Florence Night
ingale be accorded the highest honor
known to an Englishman, that of
burial in the abbey, caused me to res
urrect from the scrap pile an old
guide to the building, written in tone
that Irving himself would have ap-
proved. l wanted to find what women
have heretofore been granted this
or that of tablet or mon
ument in this national place of sepul-
ture, and the reasons therefor l dis
covered that their name was legion,
but that the honor given them, except
in two or three cases was for no spe-
cfal merit of their own. Their bodies
rested there or the monument was
raised to them because they were the
wives or daughters of this dignitary
Dr. that, one taking the room for no
more valid reason than that she was
he spouse of an estimable gentleman
who was for a time organist of the /
church. Two exceptions there were,
ndeed-the one, Jenny Lind, the 9TH
er Sarah Siddons. But their tablets !
Ire of small comparative size and
7alue, while to this or that lady of the
'ourt has been erected an imposing
md colossal monument. One all Wis
tors to the abbey will remember be-
'ause of the hideous skeleton that
orms part of its composition, erected,
IS it happens, to the lady as we'll as !
he lord Of the same name as the he
ole Santa Filoment, who has just
passed away
Was an Age Of StiIted Periods.
The epitaphs quoted in the guide
ook have a distinctive flavor, as if
hey were some special brand manu-
actured for the abbey. The old kings
4 the splendid old tombs need no in
cription, and have none, but as the
architectural merit of the tombs de-
reases SO does the verbal decoration
1crease, and with the monstrous
culpture of the eighteenth century
ONES the ford and overweight pc
ods Of the epitaph writer's. You can