The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-07-27
pzNCrLrNas By LAMp-L1aHT.


The Last Of Earth.
a Paris correspondent of the Boston Trav-
eler has the following:
Never envy any man ! All have their bur.
dens. and be that tempereth the wind to the
shorn lamb hath endowed habit with the pow.
er Of alleviating the heaviest load. The other
day there was splendid funeral in this street,
few doors below the home in which live.
All the hideous pagentry which increased the
horrors of Death was assembled. The crowd
was numerous. The luxurious mansion of the
great banker was one great funeral chamber
The banker is worth million of dollars. -
His average income is hundred and twenty
thousand dollars He is the head of joint
stock banking company which enables him to
dispose of ten millions of dollars at his pleas
ure. He is one Of the lions of Change
Don't you envy him Oh. no don't envy
him he has his SORROWS, as well as anybody |;
for twas snly six months ago the undertaken
laid his third son, then Nineteen in the grave
-the other day his second son was carried
away by the same sombre tradesman to the
graveyard, though the boy was but one-and.
twenty-his eldest daughter is hunchback, and
is 10 declining health-his second daughter is
bedridden with consumption, and will surprise
the doctors if she ontlives the winter-the
banker himself is blind from over labor--he
has been known to pass twenty days without
once undressing and sleeping in bed; all his
repose being few hours Of feverish slumber
snatcbed from corroding cares-a respite pass
ed on sofa l. Oh ! don't envy the rich bank.
er, though his Golfers overflow with gold, for it
avais little to him and though, as grant ye
the resonant chimes of com tossed about as
90 much trash in his cash Office sound music
ally to the ear. and the oft-heard passing bel
and doctors tread common in that house as
the resonance of gold, destroy all the effect
except the painful contrast between the emp
tiness of human vanity and ambitionl So en-
Wy no mani s.o5 -
The Folly Of Funeral Fashion.
The New York Sunday Atlas discourses a
follows upon the arbitrary law of fashion whic
requires people to go into mourning ii
other words to attire their bodies in blac
clothes - on the occasion of the death of
relative Il,
Let eveay man or woman who mourns th
death of a friend or relative, make q Dol
strike towards demolishing the foolish, expen
i've, and uncouth system of going into mourn
ing. Let the bereaved refuse to array then
selves in sables,l and say, with Hamlet,
But ! have that sOittin that passsth show
Genuine grief is not made up in grapes 9
broadcloths. although fashionable sorrow couI
not be. delineated without the aid of thos
fabrics. 1t is unrighteous to allow Fashio
TO play the tyrant in the graveyard. f,
the sake of trade, let that monarch rule an
revel in the saloon, the opera house, the dra,
ing room and aristocratic street but wht
the tomb is in question, let Fashion be 8
aside. The custom of going into nourniI
distresses many poor family beyond calcul
. H ton. If they do not wear black they a
heartless the world says, and do not respe
the brother, or the sister, or the mother W
5ss has suddenly departed to life eternal. Asi
broken heart were not as often found unt
lightcolored vestments as under Grape.
serving grief is no grief at all We deapise,
almost scoff at it. We have no objection
s it, however, where people can as well aifort
III as not. But we most decidedly oppose i
the poor are compelled, by the fat of pui
opinion, to be enslaved and further impo,
ished by it. In matters affecting life and
.aa gaieties, we have nothing to say against Fa
e. ion but when it inteferes with DEATH pc
into the coffin, prescribes sumptuary rules
- the funeral cortege, and the style of mot
ers costume, it usurps position and du
for which it has neither claim nor fitness