Another zinc monument, imitating the forms of stone in what the monument marketers called “white bronze.” It was a cheap alternative to a stone monument of the same size, but it has actually lasted better than many stone monuments of the same age, looking almost as fresh now as it did when it was installed, probably in 1890 or shortly after.
This is one of the metal monuments in the Union Dale Cemetery, and Father Pitt would like to know more about them. They imitate the forms of stone in metal; are they cast replacements for original stone monuments? —An update: According to a Smithsonian article, these are made of zinc, or “white bronze” as the marketers called it, which was popular as a cheap alternative to stone or bronze for a while at the end of the nineteenth century.
Thomas H. Cargo, a Civil War veteran, has a stanza from a favorite hymn—“Christ Will Gather In His Own,” by Nikolaus L. von Zinzendorf, translated by Catherine Winkworth—as his epitaph. The words may have been written from memory, since they differ slightly from the published version:
Had He asked us, well we know
We should cry, “O spare this blow!”
Yes, with streaming tears should pray,
“Lord, we love him, let him stay.”
The last two lines are not from the hymn, but are a couplet that, in various versions, often appears on tombstones.
The three young sons remembered on this side have as their epitaph a poem that appears on many children’s tombstones; it was probably once composed by some known poet, but Father Pitt has been unable to find it anywhere except as an epitaph. The exact words often vary slightly.
An unusual sort of mausoleum in Pittsburgh, though the usual sort in New Orleans: the crypts are accessed directly from the outside. Dr. Bratt and two very young sons are buried here; curiously, there seems to be room for their mother, but no inscription indicates that she is here.
A good example of the popular draped obelisk, this one very sensibly including a carved cord to keep the carved drapery in place.
An ordinary stone, but with an interesting German epitaph. Unfortunately the last two lines are buried in the ground, and Father Pitt was unwilling to dig for them.
Ja du hast jetzt überstanden
Manche schwere harte Stunden,
Manchen Tag und manche Nacht
Hast du in Schmerzen zugebracht.Standhaft hast du sie ertragen
Deine Schmerzen, deine Plagen…
Old Pa Pitt’s German is sketchy at best, but this is how he translates it:
Yes, now thou hast withstood
many heavy, hard hours;
many a day and many a night
hast thou spent in pain.Steadfast hast thou borne it,
thy pain, thy plague…
This appears to be one of those circulating funerary poems of the nineteenth century that were like Facebook memes today: they keep showing up on monuments in slightly different wording, and nobody knows where they came from.
