Ramble
Quest - Reading Epitaphs In West Terrace Cemetery.
One day I set out to find the bad parts of Adelaide. This is a bizarre impulse I sometimes have that compells me to search out the bad parts of a town. I've found this to be all to easy to do in places like New York, Chicago, Moscow, and London, but despite the fact that the YHA is right next door to a brothel, it is not so easy to find the rundown parts of a nice town like Adelaide. I follow the signs of increased graffitti and broken down cars, but just when it seems like it's finally going to get bad the neighborhood would start to improve again.
I pop out into West Terrace Cemetery and decide to end my search there. This old cemetery is in appalling condition, with broken down graves, smashed headstones, broken beer bottles and giant ant colonies. I like it! A dilapedated old cemetery is a fine substitute for a slum.
Violet Georgina, next to Adelaide Jane, "fell asleep" on May 16, 1896: "Pure as the Lillies Above her that Grow/Was the innocent heart of the fair one below./She waited the bridegroom and trusted his Love./And now with the ransomed She has joined him above." Jane Lewis, 1886: "Patience and love marked her daily life./Peace and Virtue shone from her eyes./Sin was a stranger in her pure breast/For the Saviour She loved was her constant guest." Couldn't read who this one was for: "While I draw this fleeting breath/When my eyes shall close in death/When I rise to worlds unkown/And behold thee on they throne/Rock of Ages cleft for me/Let me hide myself in thee." Henry Coumbe, who was drowned while bathing in Santa Ana, California 1881: "Not dead, but sleeping, waiting Resurrection morn." Willaim Burrows, who was "accidentally drowned" in the Torrence Lake. Wonder why they paid extra to put the word "accidentally" in there? Another mystery, it seems like almost the entire Stock family died "as result of accident". And poor Leonard James: "Suddenly just in a moment the Lord of Life did come." So it is with all of us, including someone described as a "colonist of 50 years." They just don't make grave writing like they used to.