the other angel

Recently, i posted essays on Lake View Cemetery (a, b). It is a place that can be photographed repeatedly. It is the Who was Who in Cleveland; beyond that, it has had some serious landscaping. One can, rightfully, consider it a sculpture garden.
I have seen people outside the area (Cleve., O.), and outside the country interested in one particular piece: the Haserot bronze angel, created by Herman Matzen, and called by some, 'the Angel of Death Victorious' [i have not yet discovered the source]. Some just call it the 'seated angel', or the 'crying angel'. There is also a Haserot stone woman in the cemetery by Joseph Carabelli. This verdigris vision is right below the Hanna mausoleum. Hanna was the man who bought, and stole the 1896 presidential election for McKinley from Bryan. That mausoleum is marked by a worn rubber mat on the sidewalk leading to it.

The other angel that is popular was sculpted by James Earle Fraser. Fraser did many American historical statues (Franklin, Patton, Lincoln). The buffalo and Indian head nickel was his design. John Milton Hay died in 1905 as the Secretary of State. He had married a daughter of the railroad, and steel mill, magnate, and bridge architect, Amasa Stone of Cleveland. In 1916 Fraser carved a monument of soft, fossil bearing, limestone.

Hay created the 'Open Door Policy' in China. The beginnings of American imperialism, was seriously begun in the administrations of McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. US troops joined in the quelling of the Boxer Rebellion in China. The US fought Spain for their remaining overseas empire. The Caribbean was becoming an American lake. Hay wrote to Theo. Roosevelt that the Spanish war was "a splendid little war".
It is an odd, martial angel with a stele quoting James iii. 18, “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” The stone is not strong enough to withstand the rain, and snow of Cleveland, and is being washed away. The original, sword shaft has been replaced by concrete cement, and is noticeably different in shade, and texture. The pedestal is of granite and is mostly covered by blue spruce, which greatly adds scenic ornament.

It is a naked, almost, burly Saint Michael. The wings are there, but not prominent when viewed directly. He is helmeted, and is gazing downwards with arms crossed, expressionless. He is more of a gladiatorial guard than Christian angel.

graveyard bat

adult male large brown bat held by adult small male human
So, instead of hunting hare, we have bat. Bats can get quite upset, and bark in irritation and distress, as did this one. A metroparks naturalist conducted a lesson in Cleveland bats at Lake View cemetery, last night. Nets in the woods caught the flyers. Tri-color (eastern pipistrelle), and large (not really very) brown bats were held captive for a few minutes.

The tri-color was a juvenile, just recently an aviatrix [this was confirmed by an examination of bones in wing], she was captured with her mother. Bats need maternal guidance, for a time. Bats may live long lives, but have a high mortality rate in the initial year. A she-bat generally gives birth to twin pups, one male and one female.

The wing examination, amongst other things, delineates the bones in the hand. The wing membrane is thin, and is easily punctured; but fast healing. Most bats are small and light. They suffer from parasites, and scars from mites are visible in the wing.

A new scourge is the white nose fungus (geomyces destructans), which is killing the bats in eastern north America. In 2004 near Albany, New York it was first seen, and its spreading. It attacks them in hibernation, and has wiped out colonies. The fungus has a similarity to athlete's foot.

US bats are insectivores. Some species gobble moths, some snack beetles, others gnats, mosquitoes and so on. Sonar location focuses the meal in flight. During the presentation, lightning bugs were visible. Kids asked whether bats eat them, the answer, in part, was have you ever tasted a firefly? they are chemically composed to taste terribly.

In Europe, there has been an organised bat night for some years now. It educates the public. Bats are having trouble. Bats fulfill a helpful rôle in nature, to the benefit of man. Folklore, superstition, and bad press has not done them well.

15th European Bat Night will take place on 27-28 August 2011.

not of graveyard rabbits

Now this here--blogosphere has many circles. We all are attracted to certain themes. I do not want to write on just one topic, and this reduces readership. Sure, i would like to be a ‘professional’ writer. I have not received a penny, yet. In the sixth grade, i sent a question to the newspaper. They carried a column in the funny pages. I received a set of encyclopedia, which really helped me the next six years. But, if you know a lot, the less people care. You can hold two concepts in your mind, and people will approve of the one, and disapprove of the other.

Frank Stanton wrote editorials for the Atlanta Constitution. His daddy went to fight for the confederacy. Stanton was also a lyricist. Some poems he wrote in dialect, others were sentimental with regular spelling. He had been included in anthologies. The one poem, The Graveyard Rabbit begins:

In the white moonlight, where the willow waves, He halfway gallops among the graves— A tiny ghost in the gloom and gleam, Content to dwell where the dead men dream

and then, i think, he goes off into unfamiliar superstition and southern? folklore. Well anyway, someone started a circle of web journals called, Graveyard Rabbits. They are solely devoted to gravestones, cemeteries, and genealogical stuff.

Well, a while back, public television had a cemetery programme. About five graveyards were featured, one very near me, Lake View (x,y,z) which sits on the boundary of Cleveland, Ohio. Really, it is a fascinating, and a beautiful place. To-morrow, they are scheduled a bat night. Some years ago in Poland and France there originated this ecological conservancy programme concerning these flying mice. It has spread elsewhere. This is not some creep show. This is serious education about stewardship of nature.

A lot of graveyards go to ruin quickly. Some are so rule bound they follow factory conformity. So there may not be that many interesting ones.
I took this foto of some gravestones in front of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Trappist, Kentucky in the late morning of August 1st, 2011. There were some 90° days, followed by nightly rains, followed by morning mists and fog. Nine in the morning, visibility was near zero, within an hour it had mostly burned away. In this little patch, not pictured, there is a large stone with a listing [on both sides] of unmarked graves. The first thirteen, look to be, irish nuns. A few names later is Zachariah Riney, Lincoln's first teacher.

The critter that seemed to be fond of the stones was the mockingbird. It would make hop flights from one stone to the next. If i had a faster focusing camera, with a good telephoto lens, i could have snapped several; at least one with a tasty insect in his beak.

Trappist, Kentucky sits in Nelson County, the county seat is Bardstown. Only Baltimore was older than Bardstown as an english speaking diocese in the Americas. It just never grew. They moved the seat to Louisville, and the cathedral became a basilica. Kentucky has 120 counties. Nelson, Marion, and Washington sit together as ‘Kentucky’s Holy Land’, they together are less than 75,000 people; but the only catholic majority counties in a state absolutely full of baptists.

Trappist, Kentucky

Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Trappist, Kentucky

In 1848 forty-three monks arrived in central Kentucky from the Abbey of Melleray, France; forty-four had left, one was lost at sea. Some trappist monks had been in the area from 1805-09. To-day, there are forty-five monks.

They arrived on 21 December 1848. They state themselves: the next day they prayed seven times, and every day they pray seven times, unto the end.

Perhaps, the best known resident was the spiritual writer, Thomas Merton†1968, Father Louie. The success of his auto-biography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), was a Godsend to the monastery, in both financial support, and increase in numbers to more than 300. Merton was also a poet, and an artist. He wrote on inter-faith dialogue, social and racial justice, and peace issues. Not every one was happy with this, including the government. To-day, there are few monks there who wish to discuss Merton, “he’s just another monk”.

Merton had a difficult relationship with the new abbot, Dom Fox (1948-68). Merton had just made his final vows.
Grave of Fr. Louis Merton (center), his abbot (left) R.D. James Fox; people brought chairs while praying/meditating; to the left is the outside wall of the church.