Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-09-07

A COUNTRY FUNERAL.-f there could be
any choice in the place of ones dying it would
surely be in the country. Ia the city one drops
out of the life boat, the great sea Of humanity
closes over him, and that is the end. \ few
hearts appreciate the loss and find time to feel
sad; but 10 others the excitement and hurry Of
every day life fill up the void death made, and
sorrow is monopolized by necessity.
But in the country everything is SO different.
For miles around the good, steady-g going people
lay aside their work, don their Sunday suits,
and with sober faces and steady movement
gather at the house Of mourning The one
griet lays its finger on the heats Of all, and
makes them kin The lawyer bows to the
blacksmith, and the lawyers wife mods respect
fully TO the working girl. The women gather
in the house. exchanging salutations in whis-
pers, and detail all the incidents of the last
days of the deceased. The minister is present,
and when the time comes to go to the church
where the funeral service is to be held the men
cluster about the doors, take off their hats, and
with bowed heads listen to the minister while
he reads the fifteenth chapter of First Corinth-
ians and offers prayer Then, such as feel
iuclined, take look at the dead face, the cofiu
is borne out to the black -robed hearse, the
family succeed that, and then the people 10
their various carriages form the long and tcdi-
Gus procession. The travellers and waytarers
who chance to meet it lift their hats until the
cortege have passed, and then 60 their way,
musing on the death Of life and the life of
death. Two or three friends have remained
behind at the desolate house, to put it in order
and relieve 1t as much as possible OF the odor
and reminders of death. At the church the
front seats in the body of the church have been
reserved for the "mourners, whose entrance
following that of the coffin forms the chief OBJ
icct and spectacle of interest to the assembled
congregation When all is quiet, the minister
refers to the solemn occasion which has brought
them together, the "dispensation Of Provi-
dence" and then prays. The chior sings some
thing dolorous to a melodeon' 8 accompaniment,
sermon on death. life and immortality follows,
closing with an address to the mourners, which
is usually an address Of torture and grievance.
When God is speaking to human heart, alas,
that man should presume to speak and expect
to be heard! The benediction is pronounced,
and then the people in single file pass to take
a last look of the dead. Many shed tears
Now and then woman fingers over the coffin
make of the burial robe One presses her
hand on the cold brow, while another smoothes
with her fingers the damp hair. Sobs of grief
break forth from the mourners, which become
:; torrent of grief as leaving their pews they
take the last leok Of the household face. The
business like sexton screws down the cofin-lid,
the coffin is borne to the village graveyard,
where amid fresh burst of sobs and tears,
the hoarse thud of the falling sods strikes the
sore hearts like spears Some of the sympa-
thizers take turn among the grass-grown
graves, but soon all have turned away to their
homes recounting on their way the virtues Of
the dead. The occasion forms the theme of
talk for weeks to come, and in the quiet neigh
borhood there is something missed, and
ip neighborly exchange one hears let
fall, How we miss him. The birds
sing the flowers bloom, the fruits ripen,
and each and all are reminders of the lost one.
''She sang sweeter than the BIRDS sighs the
mother "How she loved flowers; even the
daisies crowned her like queer" the lover
saws to his soul. And so in hearts and in
thousand ways the sacred memory is kept alive.
The SHOWS preserve it, the rains revive it, the
breezes permeate it with the manifold fra
grances of nature, and all blossoming and ripen-
ing, things crown it with completeness.-N 7.
World. i