The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-08-02
FUNERALS COST TOO MUCH.

FUNERALS COST TOO MUCH.
We Spend Moro Money than We can Afford
to that we May Make an Ostentatious
Display. -..,...... -. 81 49,,
It is very strange, the material I'M
portanoe we now attach to q funeral.
We insist that it shall be conducted with
a certain show, at q certain cost; we re-
fuse to be content with an observation
of the mere prophecies. Expensive su-
perfuities are demanded; we do not be-
lieve we have discharged our duty to
the dead, unless We have honored him or
her with at least an approach to pa
geantry. We fancy that kinBhip or friend
ship should be expressed in 8 prodiigal
outlay; that bereavement must be reck-
oned by disregard Of dollars and cents.
Except on the score Of taste, there may
be no objection to this. When any
member of q rich or well-to-do family
dies, it is question for relatives to de-
eide how expensive q funeral the de-
ceased shall have. If they wish to make
a great display; il they Like to, render
his death more conspicuous than any
thing in his life has been; if they want
to advertise their income upon his coffin
and its Accomplishments, surely nobody
should gainsay them. But when the
dead was poor; when he leaves a family
with little or no means, it is more than
foolish to use the little they possess, or
to incur Indebtedness, in order to trick
out his corpse, and to send it to the
cemetery in manner they cannot afford,
and which certainly can be of no posi-
BILE benefit to him.. By such worse than
useless extravaganza they wrong his
memory and themselves, ana encourage
custom extremely unwise in itself and
decidedly mischievous in it's results. i |
Persons who can best afford to bury
their kinsfolks or friends sumptuously,
are less apt to do SO than. persons who
cannot afford it. It is one Of our ma
tional weaknesses and a miserable
weakness it i+to struggle against any
and every appearance of poverty just in
proportion to the degree of our pow
erty., We seem to be unconscious that
this constitutes the real meanness which
we aatter ourselves that We are avoid
ing. We ore wont to speak of it as our
pride, when any true pride would blush
at it, knowing it to be nothing but the
most vulgar vanity wearing q worthy
name. g. 'ra''..''i 49, '''.'''' -.
It would be surprising to learn how
common it is for families in this and
other large cities to overtax themselves
to provide paraphernalia for the tomb.
Not infrequently they spend every dol
lar that has been left, even exceeding
the amount sometimes, and in many in
stances anticipating a large share of, if
not all, the insurance upon the Life: OF
the deceased. Not q few instances
might be cited in which money, has
been borrowed to .defrsy funeral ex-
penses, when, if the funeral had been
modestly and properly managed, there
would haye been no neod of borrowing
at nil. What an unworthy return is this
to the man who has probably worked
hard for years, and given himself end
less anxiety to save something for his
family in the event of his sudden death !!
Of what advantage is it to him, in his
sheeted sleep, that there should be a
few more flowers or carriages, that the
coffin should be real rosewood, or the
handles genuine silver2 All has ended;
all is well with him. To him money is
no longer essential; whatever he has
gained beyond necessary expenditure
should be devoted to the service OF the
living. .,.,.... .,,.....r,4.r .,..r... ..f-
Undoubtedly, they, who 80 exceed
their means in such post.nortena parade
are generally influenced by good though
mistaken motives. They do not know
at least, they do not think-how far
such ostentation is removed from honest
reverence, from veracious grief, for the
loved and lost. If they could gee how
hollow, how pitiable. is this sacrifice of
sensibility to mere display, this profana-
ton of affection for theatric effect, they
would never be guilty of it. Influenced
by the spirit of imitaion-by an ig-
noble desire to do what others do, ire.
81 eotige Of ability or fitness they turn
occasions which are distressing, and
which should be sacred, to, tawdry
spectacles for idle comment and vulgar
gossip. ,,{-,. ..,,.ii-o.r..-.. .,, ...,:. 81
They who lead the best, the purest,
the noblest lives, care not for, indeed,
they are opposed to-gaudy obsequies.
They prefer, when they have acted their
part and the dark curtain has descended
between them and the world, that they
shall be borne quietly to the grave,
without pomp or circumstance. 1t il
only the vain, the shallow, the unde-
serving secretly conscious how totally
unimportant their death must be, even
to their own circle-who want to en-
phasize it with display and expenditure.
It is we'll to shear death of the unnatural
terrors with which superstition and
monasticism have invested it; it is well
to make it as little solemn as it may be
to view the inevitable with calmness and
philosophy; but it is not well to deprive
the tragedy which we must all undergo
of its pathetic simpleness and awful
dignity. .-Msw York Times.