THE MONUMENTAL NEWS. 
62 & 
r' 
PETRIFIED PISH MONUMENT. 
At Fischbach, Wurtemburg, Bavaria. 
Petrified Fish Monument. 
One of. the most remarkable monu- 
ments in the world is that erected by 
a Veterans’ Association in Germany, 
not to a whaling captain or a North 
Pole explorer, but to his Imperial and 
Royal Majesty the late Wilhelm I. 
The monument in its natural state 
was found very appropriately in 
Fischbach, Wurtemberg, and is the 
petrified remains of a giant fish of 
some sort or other, which swam 
about in that neighborhood when that 
part of Europe was a huge sea. It is 
about three and a half meters, or say 
S^D SCULPTURES AT ATLANTIC 
FREAK MONUMENTS 
AND SCULPTURES 
nearly ten feet, long. The monument 
was erected, as the inscription in Ger- 
man and Volapuk testify to those who 
can read those languages, in com- 
memoration of the hundredth anni- 
versary of the old monarch. 
Prie Dieu in a Cemetery. 
Travelers in ultra Catholic Europe 
and notably in the Tirol are wont to 
remark the votive statuary on the 
roadsides there. Latterly, at Bridge- 
town, a clysmian little settlement a 
few miles beyond Cincinnati, a Prie 
Dieu of much the same sort has been 
put up in the cemetery. Devotees, 
passing up or down the road, are 
wont to dismount and make devotions 
much as those do on the long pil- 
grim routes of the Continent. 
Sculptures in the Shifting Sands. 
Atlantic City has become the hap- 
py hunting ground of the sand sculp- 
tor. The vulgar populace there find 
nothing so fascinating as to hang 
over the Boardwalk, milady chewing 
a wad of gum, her husband smoking 
his stogie, and watching the sand 
artist. Sometimes he’ll select one of 
those standing near and depict him 
from life. It takes time, of course; 
one must wet the sand to stick — but 
at Atlantic City time is no matter. 
And what pictures they do make — 
those sand artists! 
“Some of ’em is all right, and some 
of ’em ain’t,” says the beach patrol, 
as he orders the immediate over- 
throw of many. But others — well, 
they’re works of art. For these lat- 
ter one needs a license. And then 
one ropes off an area of beach. Some- 
times they’re only children, these 
artists. One, a lad of nine, modeled 
a picture of two baseball players. 
“Safe! is its title, and it shows the 
baseball player just coming to base, 
with his rival close behind and about 
to catch him. The work is done by 
hand, with just now and then a sharp- 
pointed stick to get in the details. 
Sometimes after its all done the figure 
will be painted, but that rather spoils 
it. Of course there are actual works 
of art. For these there are large 
boxes, in which the sand is carefully 
packed. Then it is dampened, and 
then worked. It’s a matter of hours, 
often, this latter. “The Seasons,” 
after the old Greek tapestry effects, 
is a prime favorite. It is in white 
sand on a black board back-ground, 
and, not content with that, the sand, 
too, is painted black. The Lion of 
Lucerne is also often shown. 
A PRIE DIEU NEAR CINCINNATI. 
Copy of a European Roadside Shrine. 
Cemetery Sentry-Box as Monurnent. 
During the time, some hundred 
years ago, when body snatching was 
very common in the English ceme- 
teries it became necessary to keep a 
sentry on duty at night. Some kind' 
of shelter was required to protect the 
sentry from the weather, and, as or- 
dinary wooden sentry boxes would 
look out of place among the tombs, 
the shelters were often constructed 
of stone, or of wood painted to repre- 
sent stone, and sometimes even 
served as monuments. The central 
piece in this illustration still stands 
in Wanstead, Essex. 
SENTRY BOX MONUMENT IN AN 
OLD CEMETERY. 
