The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-24 00:00:00

DEATH OF A FAMOUS FOOTBALL
PLAYER. .

The news was received in Nottingham on Saturday
of the death, in Florida, of Mr. A. W. Cursham, the
famous football-player. Mr. Cursham frequently
took part in international matches, and was at one
time perhaps the best forward player in England. He
was for some years captain of the Notts Football
Club, and on leaving Nottingham last summer to
settle iri Florida was presented by members of the club
and other friends with a handsome testimonial. Mr.
Cursham died on Christmas Eve of malarial fever. He
leaves a widow and one child. The Notts team during
their match on Saturday with Blackburn Olympic) wore
mourning armlets on their iersevs.

R 1

MR. OSCAR WILDE AND FUNERAL
AND MOURNING CUSTOMS.

Mr. Oscar Wilde, writing on this subject, says:
"The present style of burying and sorrowing for the
dead seems to me to make grief grotesque, and to
turn mourning to as mockery. Any reform you can
bring about in these taistoms would be of value quite
inestimable. The present ostentation and extrasa-
gance of burial rites seems to me tee harmonise but ill
with the real feeling of those at whose doors the
Angel of Death has knocked. The ceremony by
which we part from those whom vfly have loved
should not merely be noble in its meaning, but simple
in its sincerity. The funeral of Opkrelia does not
seem to me 'a maimed rite' when one thinks
of the flowers strewn in her grave.. I regret
exceedingly that I cannot hear the actual
suggestions on the matter which will be
made at your meeting. I have always been
of opinion that. the coffin should be privately
conveyed at night time to the churchyard chapel, and
that there the mourners should next day meet. By
these means the public procession through the streets
would be avoided, and the publicity of funerals is
surely the real cause of their expense. As regards
dress, I consider that white and violet should
be recognised as mourning, and not black merely,
particularly in the case of children. The habit of
bringing flowers to the grave is now almost universal,
and is a custom beautiful in its symbolism; but I
cannot help thinking that the elaborate and expen-
sive designs made by the florist are often far less
lovely than a few flowers held loose in the hand. There
are many other points on which I should have liked
to listen, and one point on which I had hoped to
have had the privilege of speaking—l mean the expres-
sion of sorrow in art. The urns, pyramids, and sham
sarcophagi (ugly legacies from the 18th century to us)
are meaningless as long as we do not burn or embalm
our dead. If we are to have funeral memorials
at all, far better models are to be found in the beau-
tiful crosses of Ireland—such as the cross at Moiaas-
terboice—or in the delicate bas-reliefs in the Greek
tombs. Above all such art, if we are to have it,
should concern itself more with the living than the
dead—should be rather a noble symbol for the
guiding of life than an idle panegyric on those who
are gone. If a man needs an elaborate tombstone in
order to remain in ,the memory of his country it is
clear that his living at all was an act of superfluity.
Neat's grave is a hillock of green grass with a plain
headstone, and is to me the holiest place in Rome.
There is in Westminster Abbey a periwigged admiral
in a night-gown hurried off to heaven by two howling
cherubs, which is one of the best examples I know of
ostentatious obscurity.'