Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-11
BETWEEN OURSELVES.
A Vision of Death as Done up In Style by
the Undertaken.

the Undertaken.
Undertaking in it's present finish and popular
acceptance ia one of the awful discoveries OF
our time. To be buried nova days requires
a peculiar preparation which Is SO involved
and in many instances 80 artistic IN handling
as to be professional to dead certainty.
Mortuary millinery is of composite ana
graded variety. There are show windows hlled
with the kickshaws and gauds of the grave.
| In passing by them you note the tucks, ruchea,
gloves. wreaths, and even the cozily padded
| collins where they are to be displayed. There
are. then regular fashions for the final layout,
but there is savage irony in the knowledge
that the wearer can have no voice-no choice
| in the selection.
Becoming or unbecoming there is no disap-
pyobation and only the survivors can borrow
anv satisfaction from the experiment and ex-
pense. 80
One of our finest minds says: In the no.
| man Vatican and the Washington patent office
the respective characteristics OF the anclents
and moderns stand contrasted. We
| moderns did invent the printing press, but from
the ancients have we not the best thoughts that
i 1890
and sustains our best architecture does not her
spirit still animate and support whatever Is
soundest in societies and States? Or shall the
scheme of Fourier supplant the code of Justin
ian oplv when the novels of Dickens silence
the satires of Juvenal? If the coliseum
| EXPRESS the durability of Roman ideas, what
does the Crystal Palace express? Will the glass
of the one bide the hail storms OF eighteen
centuries. as well as the travertine OF the
other?"
And he might add final comparison about
the difference between ancient and modern un-
dertaking-as visible in the mummy-and the
thing in the conserver" of latter-day inven-
tion. Wemay brag of our civilization as much
as we will-but those old Egyptian fellows are
still far ahead of us in preserving the dead.
Indeed, SO admirably have they succeeded,
that specimens of their skill are visible to-day
after thousands of years. little brown, ana
time.worn. perhaps, yet convincing of high art
in the business.
| A peculiar literature embalms them too' IKE
Horace Smiths ode to mummy, ana Iheo-
mile Gautier's romance OF a mummy-together
with efforts of lesser writer's. Think you
| Horace Smith could have been inspired to
Den that remarkable poem, if his subject had
been kept in 'conserver, the face covered
with cloth dipped in some carbollc aclo pre-.
paration, until the features were accentua'eo
into the varied expressions Bret Harte COM
memorates in his well known sketch OF the
popular Undertaken" Of course not.
The suitably spiced and aromatlcaliy oty
mummy is Joy forever to the cold, ay, douoiy
cold, clammy thing conserved" by our boss
undertakers in modern fashion, with some pre-
tension. too, of throwing in EXPRESSION &C.
cording to the irrepressible Harte. In tne
sketch of the Popular Undertaken that artls1
\ had a way Of manipulating the features OF the
deceased. He worked over the face until
he nroduced what the surviving relatives called
a look of resignation-a sort OF smile. Wnen Nc
wanted to put in any extras MI "nAins
nroduced what he called-havlng regular
! charges for the work-a Christians Hope. But
the popular worker in clay lost his well earned
renutation by putting into the face OF no
torious sinner, the heavenly smile. which
WAS down in the bill as the Christians Hope.
That was a touch too much and the pastor and
some of the deacons thought that the line
oupht to be drawn somewhere, and were going
! to nave conference meeting about 1t.
There is powerful and repulsive poem by
| Andrea del Bassa which is mostly CHASTITY
apostrophe to the corpse of a woman of pleas
ure and utter worldliness. As the seductive
ness of each charm is dwelt upon, the corre-
sponding horror in death is portrayed with
haunting realism.
This poem has been slumbering in memory
for years. but every line of it was wildly
brought to mind a short time since in the pres
ence of dead woman, whose life had been
happiness rather than pleasure, and whose
bright youth had been rounded by respect and
affection, Her death was sudden, and as the
writer stood in the room from which every one
else save the undertaken had departed, the
scene became the most convincing plea for
cremation, the vanished skill of the ancients
being out of the question. Her long hair hung
down over the head-rest of the stretcher, and
swayed to and fro in the smart spring breeze
coming in at the open window
| All the contours of youth were sharpened and
rigid. Already the discoloration Of the neck
proclaimed the revel of the worm.
The hands were like sculpture,
except here and there where they bore traces of
hypodermic jabbing. The face had set in its
everlasting sleep with look of deepest suffering
-aHits coquetish little touches, it's pretty pert
ness obliterated by this frozen predominance
of pain. The undertaken with his assistant
moved the body to the coffin, and here's where
the Italians awful form came into the thought.
When the corpse was stirred, down from the
nostrils poured the most deadly ooze with a
sickening copiousness. Without any discern
able repugnance the undertaken staunched that
mortal mucus with cotton, cloths-and
more cotton and cloths. While
he was SO employed sentiment of the deepest
repugnance was grown to him and his business.
No corner lot no farm, no money would have
tempted the onlooker to sit beside this useful
man, to break bread with him, sleep with him
or even take him by the hand. His work SEEM
ed to be the most dreadful known to civiliza-
tion, with its troughs, conservers, ice and dis
infectants.
| When his task was done, the head stopped
in its run. the limbs and drapery composed
and the mockery of wreath placed on the hair,
the job was replete with grotesque horror
such as Dickens felt in the Paris morsue, when
the large, dark: dead man on the slab, with the
water trucking into the corner of his mouth,
making him look sly. pursued him with q
| haunting series of unpleasant imaginings.
| Not until he had crossed over into the Ger
man province did he get rid of his impressions.