President Murphy, of the Chicago National League Club, told at a baseball
dinner a remarkable echo story.
"There was a man," he began, "who had a country home in the Catskills. He
was showing a visitor over his grounds one day, and coming to a hilly
place, he said:
"'There's a remarkable echo here. If you stand under that rock and shout,
the echo answers four distinct times, with an interval of several minutes
between each answer.'
"But the visitor was not at all impressed. He said, with a laugh:
"'You ought to hear the echo at my place in Sunapee. Before getting into
bed at night I stick my head out of the window and shout, "Time to get up,
William!" and the echo wakes me at seven o'clock sharp the next
morning.'"--_Detroit Free Press._
Alas, it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out
half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the
fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to
see that the leaves which remain are few in
number.--=Longfellow.=
The Graves of Our Presidents.
While a Very Few Are Marked by Monuments Erected at the Expense of the
Nation, Others, Almost Forgotten, Are in a State of Shameful Neglect.
_An original article written for_ THE SCRAP BOOK.
The ingratitude of republics is proverbial, and perhaps no better proof of
this fact need be adduced than the manner in which they neglect the graves
of illustrious persons who have reflected honor on the national life. We
may as well take this criticism directly home to ourselves. In the United
States there is nothing to correspond with England's Westminster Abbey,
and how many American schoolboys are there who are able to name the
burial-places of so many as a dozen of our Presidents, famous statesmen,
generals, admirals, and men of letters?
Nearly all the resting-places of our Presidents have been purchased by
private means, and in several cases the monuments that mark them have been
erected with funds obtained by popular subscription.
Unfortunately, however, many of these spots that should be held in
veneration by the citizens of the republic have, from time to time, been
suffered to remain in a state of neglect that reflects little credit on
the national spirit--and this, too, notwithstanding the proposition to
raise the salary of the President of the United States to one hundred
thousand dollars per annum and to pension retired Presidents at
twenty-five thousand dollars.
George Washington's tomb is situated at some little distance from the
mansion at Mount Vernon. Surrounded by sweet briar, trailing arbutus, and
other flowers, it is the Mecca of Americans as well as the revered
visiting-place of thousands of Europeans. The tomb is of brick, according
to Washington's desire. The front is plain, with a wide gateway arching
over double iron gates, above which is the inscription upon a plain white
marble slab:
Within This Enclosure
Rest the Remains of
GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON.
The sarcophagi containing the bodies of George and Martha Washington are
in the anteroom, behind which is the vault where the bodies of about
thirty members of the family repose. On a tablet over the door are the
words: "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in Me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live."
On the sarcophagus of Mrs. Washington is the inscription: "Martha, Consort
of Washington; died 22nd of May, 1802; aged 71 years."
That of Washington is ornamented with the United States coat-of-arms upon
a draped flag, and bears the all-sufficient word: