The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-07-27
GOLDBERG BROS.

He has lived a fictitious life, moved
amid splendOr, and dies leaving his
family not a dollar; but they, poor
things, must keep up the same mag
nlhcence, and so they resolve upon a
great funeral. The Obsequies shall be
splendid! give no imaginary case.
give the funeral of a man in uptown
New York, the facts authenticated. The
undertaken was not to blame; he only
sold them what they asked for. The
only blame was for those who bought
when they knew they could not pay:
Casket, covered with LyoEs velvet silver mold.
Heavy plated handles. oSS9
solid silver plate engraved in Roman letters. Is
Floral decorations. ns.................... 105
Music and quartet choir at the house 40
twenty carriages, walking to the cemetery. go. 40
Then htteen other Important expenditures. 80. 236
All the expenditures added up being .....S SI,s78
For getting one poor mortal to his last
home! Perhaps it would have been all
well If they had been able to meet the
expenditure; but when it was known
they could not, it was villainy! There
are families who, in the effort to meet
the ridiculous, outrageous and wicked
customs or society in regard to ObSe-
quies, have actually reduced themselves
TO penury. They put their last dollar in
the ground. They wanted bread, and
you gave them stone. There is in Eng
land what they call a Funeral Reform
Society. 1t is high time we had such a
Reform Society in our own country.
This widespread extravaganza ac-
counts also for the poverty of religious
institutions. Men pay so much for show
they have nothing for God and religion.
We pay in this country $22,000,0O0 for
the great Benevolent Societies; but what
are $22,OOO,0OO compared with the $685.
100000 for tobacco and 81 483,000000 for
drink? How do you like the cOmpari-
son? Great lavishment for the world;
great niggardliness for God.
My friends, let us set ourselves in
battle array against this GOd-defying ex-
traVagance. Buy not those things which
are frivolous when you may after awhile
be in lack of the necessities. Buy not
books you will never read, nor pictures
you will never study. Put not whole
months wages into one trinket. Keep
your credit good by seldom or never ask
| ing for any. Pay. Starve not whole
year so as to be able to afford one Bel
shazzar carnival. Do not buy coat of
many cOlOrs, and then in six months be
out at the elbows. Do not pay so much
for a muffleT for the neck, and be almost
baTefOOted. Flourish not, as some I
know of, in elegant hotels, with draw
ing-rOOm apartments, and then vanish
in the night, not even leaving your COM
pliments for the landlord.
In the great day of fire we will have
to give an account not only for how we
made our money, but for how we spent
it. Let us quit our waste. Men and
women of God, 1 call upon you to set
Christian example. Remember that
soon you will have to leave your ward
robe and equipage. do not want you
to feel on that day like the dying actress
who ordered up her casket Of jewels,
d,iod and then hen, with With her pale dying hand
must give you up so soOnp In that day
better have one treasure in heaven, just
one, than to have had the bridal trOs
seau of Queen Marie Louise, or to have
sat with Caligula at a banquet which
cost 100000, or to have been carried out
with a pageant with Senators and
Princes for pall-bearers. They who
concentrate to God their time, their tai
ents, and their all, shall be held in ever
lasting remembrance, while the name
of the wicked shall rot.