The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-06-02
The Folly Of Funerals.


In the whole range of follies which
ashton ordains, there Is not one so
,enseless, or of such magnitude, as the
present style of conducting funerals.
At the best they are indicate and In
pad taste. Often they are barbarous.
The immediate mourners are expected
% abandon themselves to a luxury of
hopeless grief. Anything like phllo-
,ophical serenity or Christian fortitude
will expose them at once to suspicion.
Everything is made as narrowing as
lossible. In few days, to be sure, the
ltience of their friends will give out.
le bereaved ones will then be expected
control themselves and attend to
Il business of their lives like other
! peple. But at the time of the funeral,
! aiming like common sense and pru-
dele is regarded as heartlessness. The
mo- utter thou,htlessness is only con-
sided as prof of the worth of the
deadperson ant the sincerity of his
mourers. In tbs way has come about
fashion of funrals so disproportion-
ately expensive hat no sane person but
an undutaker void attempt to justify
them. hundreds of dollars are spent
at an aveage funtal, which are for the
most par cruep wasted. The only
possible result is make a show which
gratifies nobody, I'd which is in no wise
an expression of roper respect. Such
exhibitions pleas none but vulgar
tastes. They areoffensive to a right
minded person, that person is a
stranger. II he nm sorrow, he knows
and cares nothinebout the whole for
mality. His hea and mind are too
full. IL there is display, he is uncon
scious of it. WraIed in the agony of a
I great loss, no outsi sight or sound can
reach him. Whatomfort Is IL to a
I broken-hearted mher to know that
/ twenty-five handsOe carriages follow
: the one she is in, tohe cemetery? The
/ CHASTITY, grewsom things they call
Baskets. often coAundreds of dollars.
I When a man spendlll his little savings
! to put his dead within one, does he not
know, if he be ltwed to think, that
: she, herself, woul have thought it far
, better that thataney should be spent
for the chiidre? Can a fine funeral
atone to deawoman for one unkind
word? If in sue other life she knows
what is done her would it not please her
better to know tit that thousand dollars
has been given some one she loved
who needed it-lr mother or her sister?
1t may be saidhat n very rich man.
at any rate, shoultNot be criticised for
spending money laVhly at such time,
but this Is a mistal He has a plain
duty in the matter Nich he should not
disregard. He has nright to sustain q
fashion which may l a burden to his
poor neighbor. Becale grief is impru-
dent, and error can Nc count, the Gus
tom of good people shdd protect them
and not impose on tlsr helplessness.
1t may be little thingor rich man to
pay five hundred dollar for the burying
of his dead child, but lis q cruel thing
for him to make the pc, man next door
say in the bitterness of lourning, HE
loved his child no bett than | loved
mine; now they are dea, there shall be
no difference between tlm." Many .
hard working man has en;ad himself
for years to keep up sma life insurance
and has died clinging the thought
that his wife and babes, It least, had a
few thousand dollars tolive on. Siz
months from that time he mourning
clothes, the monument ad the under
takers bill will have exhausted the last
dollar of it.
The influence of this ashton on the
lower classes of society every observer
knows to be simpR destructive. The
colored people in prticular go to great
lengths in this direction. With an ex
IRENE desire to do white people do
and much impressibity of feeling, they
spend all they have nd lay heavy bur
dens of debt ON Themselves which they
are unable to carry, nd then, In turn
as paupers, come on he community a
large. 1t is the dutyC: good either
to use his influence a,ainst this folly
and while it is hard to Ay down an exac'
rule, it may be said tina in regard to tn,
fitness of things, few funerals should
cost more altogether han a hundred
dollars. - l9iatqJO{is Herald