New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-10-27

The simple duties with which each day is
Ere perfeet SCENE Of ny sct %se devise
viii life be fled
While he who eyer acts as CONSCIENCE cries
From Schiller, by arthur Hugh Cough.
THE BABY'S FUNERAL.
dertaker's Story. .r Wiedersehen.
We could hardly soc it at first, for
something tina: wa, in our eyes, and
made sort Of mist. but as it moved
slowly away We looked after it, and
thought how pretty and appropriate it
was: Father saw us all standing at the
window, and when we said it was the
baby's hearse, he looked too, and then
something got into his eyes, and he
walked of, and picked little Mabel up
and gave her such q kiss, and she
seemed to understand what he meant,
and held out her little white hands and
said, "pretty ba-bee," and then we
all laughed and squeezed her, and moth
er must be getting nervous, for she
cried, just as if it had been our baby
that had gone away.
staid at the window as long as I
could see the little white carriage, with
its clear glass sides, and all the lovely
flowers heaped within as if there had
been nothing else but load of rose
buds, and white carnations and velvet
pansies. Then I looked to see if the
long white ribbons, with their garland
of green leaves and pale pink buds had
been taken from the door; they were
still there, but while I was looking a
white haired woman came and took
them in. She was crying, and 1 thought
she was the baby's grandmother, and
most likely would be glad to die now.
and why must the little child 20 first.
told mother about it, and she said if
would look in my Sunday-school Bible
would know, and referred me to the
last clause of the 18th verse of St.
Mark, Chapter X; then she sung to
Mabel as she often does, but this time
it was about "a Reaper whose name is
DEATH" and wished the baby's moth
er could have heard the verse:
He gazed at the flowers with fearful eyes,
He kissed their dropping leaves,
He bound them in their sheaves."
We all knew mothers heart was full.
by the way she sung.
had curiosity to see more of the
baby's hearse, so one day I stepped into
the place where it is kept and asked the
man who has charge of it, to let me
look at it.
''Anybody deadP' he asked, in sort
of professional tone, ''want me to come
over and measure the baby?''
My heart almost stood still.
"Measure the baby!' I echoed his
words in dazed way, for it was not a
week since,
I" We measured the riotous baby
Against the cottage WALL
What did he mean2
'HyOu just want to see the vehicle, -"
he continued, seeing this was not a
business call, "come right out and look
at it; it's the first one ever came to
Detroit-been in use thirteen years, and
pretty as picture yet. Now amt it a
beauty and he stepped up and took of
the covering.
1t was pretty. White and satiny
smooth, with gold and silver rails run
ming along the sides, and pretty carved
ornaments of wood engraved with gold
and silver, and crystal sides, with a
white silk curtain festoOned within and
little silver urns to hold fresh flowers;
four snow-white, nodding plumes dec
Grated the corners, and the wheels glis-
tened in their freedom from spot or
blemish. 1t looked so like the pretty
coach a baby would choose to ride in,
no wonder people watched it as it
glided noiselessly, like a chariot Of
Israel, through the busy, noisy streets.
CHOW, you must see the horses that
draw it," said the owner of the hearse,
and he pushed open side door, and
there were the two milk-white animals,
in their separate stalls. "They're just
as knowin', them fellows" he said,
patting their white, smooth hair, "as
If they had reason, and quite as gentle
as if they knew it was baby they were
drawing. They've got style, too, but
it's subdued-kind Of kept in, all the
time, to becoming degree. They
know just as we'll as the driver when to
start, and what gait to strike, and they
change steps coming back, and move
out livelier, IS if they knew there
wouldn't be any feelings hurt. That
team and vehicle are worth $780,
couldn't match them for that"
Are all babies buried in the babies
hearsep'' .-
"All that can afford it and a good
many that can't; it costs eight to ten
dollars trip for that alone, and on &C.
count of the glass sides, the casket must
be handsome one, and that costs all
the y.from twenty to one hundred
dollars and then people like to have q
good many flowers, and they cost q
good penny, but it is beautiful sight,
beautiful. When we first started it
the women all along the route would
come out and look after It, and cry,
like it was their baby; older children
use it too-as old as twelve years, but
there amt so many of them de-
"What did they do before the hearse
was nader
Carried them in their laps some
times in the first carriage, or put the
casket in the seat, or had the big
hearse, just as they fancied; it wasn't
SO comfortable and convenient a way
either; there's lots of babies die; you
can see rows upon rows of little graves
up at Elmwood or Mount Elliott, in
some lots eight lying side by side.
Graves not over two and q half feet
long. There are all kinds of orna-
ments and keepsakes on them, too
toys they used to play with, half-worn
little shoes under glass case, and
marble lambs and dogs. Folks always