The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-06-01
The Folly of Funerals.


In the whole range of follies which
fashion ordains, there is not n so
senseless, or of such magnitude, as the
present style of conducting funerals.
At the best they are indicate and In
bad taste. Often they are barbarous:
The immediate mourners are expected
to abandon themselves to a luxury OF
hopeless grief. Anything like philo-
sophical serenity or Christian fortitude
will expose them at once to suspicion.
Everything is made a. narrowing as
possible. In a few days, to be sure, the
patience of their friends will give out.
The bereaved mes will then be expected
to control themselves and attend to
the business of their lives like other
people. But at the time of the funeral,
anything like common n and pru-
dence is regarded as heartlessness. The
most utter thoughtlessness Is only con-
sidered as a proof OF the worth OF the
dead person and the sincerity of his
mourners. In this way has come abou
a fashion of funerals so disproportion-
ately expensive that no sane person but
an undertaken would attempt to Justify
them. Hundreds of dollars are spent
at an average funeral, which are for q
most part cruelty wasted. The only
possible result is to make a show which
gratifies nobody, and which is in no wise
an expression of proper respect. such
exhibitions please none but vulgar
tastes. They are offensive to q right
minded person, If that person is q
stranger. If he is in sorrow, he knows
and cares nothing about the whole for
mality. His heart and mind are too
full. If there is o display, he is uncon-
scious of it. Wrapped in the agony of a
great loss, no outside sight or sound can
reach him. What comfort Is it to q
broken-hearted mother to know that
twenty-five handsome carriages follow
the one she is in, to the cemetery The
CHASTITY, grewsome things they call
'caskets, often cost hundreds OF dollars.
When q man spends all his little savings
to put his dead wife in one, does he not
know, if he be allowed to think, b q
she, herself, would have thought it far
! better that that money should be spent
for the children? Can a fine funeral
| atone to a dead woman for n unkind
word? If in some other life she knows
| what is done here, would it not please her
better to know that that thousand dollars
has been given to some n she loved
who needed it-her mother or her sister?
It may be said that a very rich man.
at any rate, should not be criticised for
spending money lavishly at such a time,
but this is a mistake. He has o plain
duty in the matter which he should moi
disregard. He has no right to sustain 9
fashion which may be q burden to his
poor neighbor. Because grief is impru'
dent, and error can not count, the Gus
tom of good people should protect them
and not impose On their helplessness
1t may be a little thing for a rich man tx
pay five hundred dollars for the buryins
of his dead child, but it is a cruel thing
for him to make the poor man next doc
say in the bitterness of mourning, n,
loved his child no better than l lovet
mine; now they are dead, there shall b.
no difference between them" Many
hard working man has denied himsel
for years to keep up a small life insurance
and has died clinging to the though
that his wife and babes, at least, had
few thousand dollars to live on. ST
months from that time the mourning
clothes, the monument and the under
takers bill will nave exhausted the las
dollar of it.
The influence of this fashion on tn
lower classes of society every observe
knows to be simply destructive. TIL
colored people in particular go to grea
lengths in this direction. With an ez
treme desire to do as white people dc
and much impressibility of feeling, the
spend all they have and lay heavy bun
dens of debt on themselves which che
are unable to carry, and then, in trI
as come on the community Q
large. 1t is the duty Q. q good cltize
to use his influence against this folly
and while it is hard to lay down an exat
rule, it may be said that in regard to th
fitness of things, few funerals shout
cost more altogether than a hundre
acknowledgements Herald.