The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-10-06

- NE of the saddest things in life.
IL perhaps, is the sight of an
American tourist in West
w minister abbey. Unconvention-
al as he may be in thousand
things, the American is the most con-
yentional of mortals in his attitude to-
ward the historic show places of Eu-
rope. There is but one proper way to
view a monument, one proper opinion
to express in regard to it. This is de-
termined by tradition and, in the case
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 a little ford, prose regarding
its architecture and its memorials.
His expressed feeling toward 1t was
one of reverence and awe and melan-
choly. of admiration and respect. Now.
this was both correct and natural In
frving'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 vergers lined up the curious
In companies and collected q 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 Earls
Court, and the sad sight referred to
above is that of the hurried, bustling
tourists of the twentieth century try
ing to adapt themselves to the tradi-
tional pose of reverence and awe ere
ated by Irving-trying and not sue
ceeding.
Women In the Minister.
The suggestion that Florence Night
lngale 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 APP
proved. i wanted to find what women
have heretofore been granted this
distinction. OF that of a tablet or mon
ument in this national place of sepul-
ture, and the reasons therefor. / dis
covered that their name was legion.
but that the honor given them, except
In two or three cases was for no spe-
cia1 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
or that, one taking the room for no
more valid reason than that she was
the spouse of an estimable gentleman
who was for time organist of the
church. Two exceptions there were.
lndeed-the one, Jenny Lind, the 9TH
er Sarah Siddons. But their tablets
are of small comparative size and
value, while to this or that lady of the
court has been erected an imposing
and colossal monument. One all Wis
ltors to the abbey will remember be-
cause of the hideous skeleton that
forms part of its composition, erected,
as 1t happens, to the lady as well as
the lord of the same name as the he
roic Santa Filoment, who has just
passed away.
Was an Age of StiIted Periods.
The epitaphs quoteds in the guide
book have a distinctive flavor. as IL
they were some special brand manu-
featured for the abbey. The old kings
in the splendid old tombs need no IN
scription. and have none, but as the
architectural merit of the tombs de-
creases so does the verbal decoration
increase, and with the monstrous
sculpture of the eighteenth century
comes the ford and overweight Pc
Zoos OF the epitaph writer's. You @"
>~~~~-~~~~
Their Judgments.
A West philadelphia man and MS
wife were quarreling a bit the other
evening, the excuse being that the
husband had been out rather late the
night before One thing led to an
other, and the wife found fault Win
her husbands judgment.
You think everything you do is all
right and that you can't make a mis-
take. You think / haven't any judg-
ment at all and that l always oughl
to ask you what you think aDou'
things. Your judgment isn't iufai