Such is the case with James
E. Valentine, a locomotive engineer killed in a collision many years
ago. The Valentine monument in Hollywood Cemetery is almost as well
known as the monuments erected in memory of the great, the reason for
this being embodied in the following verse adorning the stone:
Until the brakes are turned on Time,
Life's throttle valve shut down,
He wakes to pilot in the crew
That wear the martyr's crown.
On schedule time on upper grade
Along the homeward section,
He lands his train at God's roundhouse
The morn of resurrection.
His time all full, no wages docked;
His name on God's pay roll.
And transportation through to Heaven,
A free pass for his soul.
In the burial ground of old St. John's Church--the building in which
Patrick Henry delivered his "Give me Liberty or give me Death"
oration--are a number of old gravestones bearing strange inscriptions
which appeal to the imagination, and also, alas! elicit sad thoughts
concerning those who wrote the old-time gravestone doggerel.
The custodian of the church is glad to indicate the interesting stones,
but is much more taken up with his own gift of oratory, as displayed
when, on getting visitors inside the church, he takes his place on the
spot where Patrick Henry stood, and delivers the famous oration.
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