Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-06-26
Expensive Funerals.

| Expensive Funerals.
1t was very sensible clergyman at
Pittsburgh who recently read q paper
upon the expensiveness of funerals; and
they were very sensible colleagues who
adopted his views as their opinion
Mere fashion is nowhere more hateful
than in the burying of the dead. and
none the less hateful because it i'm poses
enormous expenses upon those who can
not afford them. The savings of a
year are often squandered in the idle
ostentation of a funeral. it is a not I'M
natural feeling among the poor that
the last service they can render to a be-
loved friend shall not fail in any usual
distinction, and the result is that liv-
ing family is often straitened that a
dead member of it may lie in a ma
| hogany coffin and be followed by a train
of carriages to his grave. Reform must
come from those who" set the fashion,"
and a modest simplicity in funerals can
be attained only by the example of
those who can afford to be extravagant.
The worthy undertaken who lives by
the death Of his fellow-creatures is nat
urally DESTROYS that grief shall be law
lshly manifested, and he encourages to
the utm this sombre splendor. The
young American used to be shocked as
ne read in English stories Of mutes and
mourning carriages, Of men hired to
wear the garb Of sorrow, and of grief
measured by tram Of emptiness. Two
or three years ago the movement
against this extravaganza began in
England, and it has the public sympa-
thy and support of very eminent per-
sons. 1t has shown itself in this cOun-
try by the common request, with the
announcement Of a death, that no flow
ers be sent. A simple and beautiful
tribute of affection has grown into an
oppressive fashion, and certain flowers
have become odious to many persons
from their constant associations with
funerals. When such gifts are in truth
the offerings 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 gifts
are sent by formal acquaintance to
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 flowers 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 slignted if they are
not buried with ruinous expense.
There was another suggestion made
at Pittsburgh which is worthy of con-
sideration. 1t was proposed that funeral
sermons as matters of course should
not be preached; and to this sugges-
ton there will be probably very gen
eral amen. They are of necessity
eulOgles, for no goOd-hearted preacher
would choose such a time to tell I'M
pleasant truths Yet if man has been
selfish, hard, grasping, self-indulgent,
sordid-and there are such men -
what is the poor preacher to do? The
well-meaning reply that every person
has something good in him, and the
eulOglst can speak Of that, is conclusive
if the preacher is not to give his honest
view of the character of the dead.
But to say of man notorious for
meanaess that he went regularly to
church, or of debauchee that he gave
generously to the poor, is not to tell the
truth but to dodge it. A change in
this habit, however, must spring from
the good sense Of the clergyman and
the community in which he lives. And
the first step toward the change is call
ing attention to the subject as the Pitts
burgh clergynen have DONE EDITORS
EASY CHAIR, in Ha,pers's Mogaenie for
July.