The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-06-20
Extrayaeance Of Funerals.

II was n very sensible clergyman ~
Pittsburg who recently read pape.
mon the circumstances of funerals; ana
they were very sensible colleagues WV
adopted his views as their oPinion,
Mere fashion is nowhere more natelu,
than in the burying of the dead, anu
none the less hateful because it imposes
enormous expenses upon those VINO
can not afford them. The savings Oh
wear are often squandered in the idle
ostentation of funeral. 1t is not I'M
natural feeling among the poor that the
last service they can render to beloved
friend shall not fail IN any usual dis
tinction, and the result is that living
family is oftened straitened that dead
member of it may lie in q mahogany
coffin and be followed by long train
of carriages to his grave. Reform must
come from those who s'set the fashions"
and modest simplicity in funerals can
be attained only by the example OK
those who can afford to be extravaganza.
The worthy undertaken, who lives oy
the death of his fellow-creatures, Is
naturally DESTROYS that grief shall be
lavishly manifested, and he encourages
to the utmost the somber splendor. Inc
Young American used to be shocked as
he read in English stories of mutes ana
mourning carriages, OF men hireu 70
wear the garb of sorrow, and oil griei
measured by train of emptiness Two
or three years ago the movement
against this extravaganza began in Eng
land, and it has the public sympathy
and support of very eminent persons
II has shown itself in this country by
| the common request, with the an
nouncement of death, that no flowers
be sent. A simple and beautiful tribute
/ of affection has grown into an Cypress
i've fashion, and certain flowers have
become odious to many persons from
their constant association with funerals
When such gifts are in truth the oiier-
Jugs of love and sympathy, no
symbols can be more touching, but the
moment they spring from the mere
force of fashionable custom, and are
sent to the house of mourning as CUTS
are sent by formal acquaintance 10
bride, with no more feeling than IN the
leaving of ceremonious visiting cards,
they are touching and significant no
longer. The change in the mere fashion
of fiowers upon such occasions can be
carried by the same good sense into
every other funeral extravaganza, SO
that the poor need no longer feel that
their dead are sighted if they are not
buried with ruinous expense.
There was another suggestion made
at Pittsburg which is worthy of consld-
Grafton. 1t was proposed that funeral
sermons as matters of course should not
be preached; and to this suggestion
there will be probably a very general
amen. They are of necessity eulogies,
for no good-hearted preacher would
choose such time to tell unpleasant
truths. Yet if a man has been selhsn,
hard, grasping, self-indulgent, sordid
and there are such men-what IS the
poor preacher to do? The well mean
ING reply that every person has some
thing good in him, and the eulogist car
speak of that, is conclusive II the
preacher is not to give his honest view
of the character of the dead. But 10
say of man notorious for meannes'
that he went regularly to church, or o
a debauehee that he gave generously u
the poor, is not to tell the truth, but tC
dodge it. A change in this habit, how
ever, must spring from the good sense
of the clergyman and the community II
which he lives. And the first step TO
ward the change is calling attention u
the subject as the clergymen OF PITTS
burg have done.-H1rper's MGgdztT
for ,JtLIU.