Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-03-07

WASHINGTON, March 4.-Cen-
| sorship is now being carried 10 the
very grave. The latest thing IN CEN
sors, according to a seriors mlnded
trade journal which keeps up with
tombstone news, is a censor or cpl
taphs. This official has been poln
ed in an unnamed English village
and entrusted with the job OF seeing
that graveyard solemnity IS not Vio-
lated by fiippant quips and eplgrams
on the tombstones.
English Wears for a NUMBER Oh
years have supervised to some extent
tombstone sentiments. 1t may seem
strange that now, when epitaphs are
no longer INDUCED in by poets or
poetasters, there should be any
great need for a special guardian
of tombstone dignity. But the IAN
| gers, it seems, are in the epltaphs
! which have been penetrated IN the
| past. Graved on old, moss-groWn
tottering stones, the verses of a CEN
fury or two ago oftentimes express
sentiments regarding death and the
dead are flippant, irreverent, n IN
short, unsuited for public perusal IN
this highly regulated age.
Our attitude toward tombstones
undoubtedly has changed. 1t ls not
80 much that we think more solemn
ly Of death; but rather thai we think
less of it. The c~hurchyard is sell
dom the graveyard any longer. Few
people think of visiting the ceme-
| teries outside the city when they set
| out for a Sunday afternoon stroll.
Decidedly, the dead are not so much
| with us as they were a few centurle
| or ever a few generations, back.
Tombstones Topics of Talk
Then, tombstones were a live top
| lie. A man expected to have an cpl
| taph written about him, and If there
was any fear in his mind that his
relatives would not make a good job
of il. he wrote the label for his stone
himself or hired a professional TO
write one.
Ben Jonson, Milton, and Pope
wrote epitaphs, Shakespeare wrote
his own epitaph in a four-woro
verse of warning to any who might
wish to disturb his bones. To dasf
off a witty epitaph for a friend oil
enemy was a parlor trick with whlcf
kings and courtiers whiled away q
dull afternoon.
Thus when Charles III casually
asked Rochester to write his cpl
taph. the courtier thought a minute
and produced the following now IA
NOUS lines:
Here lies our mutton-eating king
Whose word no man relied on;
Who never said a foolish thing,
And never did a wise one.
The king took no offense, but sc
his brains to work and composed
second stanza: -.
IL death could speak, the king woule
say,
In Justice to his crown,
His acts they were the ministers,
His words they were his own.
Even IL a man was inadvertently
misplaced. he had to have a tomb
stone and an epitaph, as is show
by the following in an Enshsf
churchyard:
Underneath this sod lies John Rount
Who was lost in the sea and never
was found.
Rhyme or Free Verse
Epitaphs were correct style an
everybody had them. Those lndlvld
uals whose outstanding deeds AM
characteristics could not be squeez
ed into rnynleu COuplelS WclO Sioi
iously immortalized in free verse
Lady o'Looney's epitaph is a goot
example,:
Here lies the body Of
Lady O'Looney,
Great niece of Burke. commonly
Called the sublime.
She was
Bland, passionate, and deeply
religious;
Also painted in water-colors.
And sent several pictures TO the
Exhibition.
She was first cousin to Lady Jones
And of such is the kingdom of
heaven.
But those days r gone. Poet
no longer specialize in epitaphs
Henpecked husbands, get even b,
some other meaps than by writing
sarcastic verses to go on tombstones
The epitaph. which started off wei
in this country in the graveyards o
Massachusetts, lis practically de
funet.
Still, the possibilities of epitapl
reform, even in this country. shoult
not be overlooked. Like England
we have ample material which
should be Of interest to censors ii
our old New England churchyards