The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-23

lief, for the patient has gone off with. the
doctors pills and the undertaker's white
slippers. Greenwood and Laurel Hill
and Mount Auburn hold to-day thou.
sands OF such swindles.
A man dies in our neighboring city Of
New York. He has lived fictitious life,
moved amidst splendor. and dies leaving
his family not a dollar; but they, poor
things must keep up the same magnifi-
cence, and so
THEY RESOLVE UPON GREAT FUNERAL.
The obsequies shall be splendid! I give
you no imaginary case. I give you the
funeral of a man in uptown New York
life, the facts authenticated, anu in my
pocket. The undertaken was not to
blame; he only sold them what thew
asked for. The only blamejwa for those
who bought when they knew they could
not pay:
Casket, covered with Lyons velvet. sill
yer mouldinss .::... ...... ...... 49,. $3.50
atitvy p1ateo AanoleS ..... 50
Solid silver plate engraved in Roman
IetteES 80. ..... IS
Ten linen scarfs .... go. 1850
Floral decorations ...... .... ...... COS
Music and quartctte choir at the house. 40
Twenty carriages, walking to the GEM
Then }ttee, other important expend;- NV
lures, amounting to 49,. -. go. 1886
All the expenditures, added up, be-
HS 80. zee. 80. ...... IS, 1916
for getting one poor mortal to his last
home! Perhaps it would have been all
well if they had been able to meet the
expenditure but when it was known
they could not, it was villainy. There
are families that you know, who, in the
effort to meet the ridiculous, outrageous,
and wicked customs of society in regard
to obscquies, have actually reduced them
selves to perjury. They put their last
dollar in the ground. They wanted
bread, and you gave them stone.
There is in England what they call a
funeral reform. 1t is high time We had
such reform society in our own coun.
try.
This wide spread extravaganza &C.
counts, also, for the poverty OF religious
institutions. Men pay so much for show
they have nothing for God and religion.
We pay in this country twenty-five mil.
lions of dollars for the great benevolent
societies; but what arc twenty-five mil
lions Of dollars compared with the ninety
five millions for cigars and tobacco, and
the one thousand four hundred and eigh.
ty-three millions for drink? How do you
like the comparison? Great lavishment
for the world; great niggardliness for
God.
My friends, let us set ourselves in bat
tie array against this God defy ing ex-
travagance. Buy not those things which
are frivolous, when you may after while
be in lack of the necessities. Buy not
books you will never read, nor pictures
you will never study. Put not whole
months wages into one trinket.
KEEP YOUR CREDIT GOOD
by seldom Or never asking for any. Pay.
Starve not a whole year so as to be able
to afford one Bclshazzar carnival. Do not
pay SO much for a muller for the neck,
and be almost bare.footed. Flourish not,
as some know Of, in elegant hotels with
drawing-room apartments, and then van
ish in the night, not even leaving your
compliments for the landlord.
In the great day Of fire, we will have
to give an account not only for how we
made our money, but for how we spent
it. On this cold day, when so many are
suffering, and there is want before us
and want behind us and want on either
side Of US, let us quit our waste. Men
and women of God, call upon you to set
a Christian example. Remember that
soon you will have to leave your ward.
robe and equipage. l do not want you
to feel on that day like the dying actress
who ordered up her casket of jewels, and
then with her pale, dying hand, rolled
them over, and said, ALIAS that I must
give you up so soon.' In that day, bet
ter have one treasure in heaven, just one,
than to have had the bridal trosscau of
Queen Maria Louisa, or to have sat with
Caligula at a banquet which cost four
hundred thousand dollars, or to have
been carried out in pageant with sena-
tors and princes for pall-bearers. They
who consccrate to God their time, their
talents and their all, shall be held in ever
lasting remembrance, while the name Of
the wicked shall rot.
The Vices Of the Day.
Under the head of 'sWhat our vices
COST the Virginia (Nev.) Enterprise
saws