MUGGY JIM,
A MACKEREL FIFER,
LATE OF THE NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT;
TAKEN SICK
OF INDIGESTION,
HE COMMENCED TO
THROW UP FORTIFICATIONS,
AND DIED OF STRATEGY.
..........
Hic Jacet.
1..5-4.
| 0 | .... | 4 | .... | 1 | .... | 2 | .... | 8, |
| 0 | .... | 4 | .... | 1 | .... | 2 | .... | 0; |
| 0 | .... | 2 | .... | 80 | .... | 8, | ||
| 0 | .... | 2 | .... | 45 | .... | 4. |
It needs no Champollion's hieroglyphical skill to read the beautiful little verse of the fifer's epitaph, though that verse had to be inscribed figuratively, in order to get it all upon the narrow monument. In all its praise of that quiet sleep in which there are no anticipations to be disappointed, no gluttony to make sick, and no Confederacies to guard against,—the verse will be plain to all as reading:
"HERE LIES
ONE FIFER:
Nought for one to wait,
Nought for one to sigh-for;
Nought too weighty ate,
Nought to fortify-for."