20: Comic Epitaphs

For this one, you just gotta read this bit, from just before the main text:

The following collection of gravestone inscriptions is hardly a serious historical one. Most of the items are genuine, but many are suspect, and a few are frankly contrived. In some cases genuine inscriptions have been somewhat altered; and the place names are not reliable. Scholars are there warned not to find fault; but all men--and also any women who choose--are invited to read further for a little ghoulish amusement.

So, not only is this book partially fraudulent, but women might, might, read it as well as men. Probably cause they're mentally frail or something, so says the 50s when this was published.

Oh fine, here's two examples of "comic epitaphs" from inside:

FIRST A COUGH CARRIED ME OFF, THEN A COFFIN CARRIED ME IN.

SHE LIVED WITH HER HUSBAND FIFTY YEARS AND DIED IN THE CONFIDENT HOPE OF A BETTER LIFE.

Yeah, comic indeed.