Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-04-23

H01k%UOAkA ASS$~0
doNDAY EvEnuSa. APRIL %. 1859
Funeral Fashions.
The excesses of fashion and folly IN
connection with the displays OF grle1 ana
Election at funerals have Of late years
,ften been the subject Of reproOf and
from the press and pull.
Dit, which are looked to to regulate pub
lie sentiment on this question. The ex-
pense attending the buria! of the dead
is consideration which often comes
nome In painful manner to
he bereaved when they are COM
PEELED to divert their attention from
mourning their dead to prudential
concern for the living. Besides this,
however, the fashion in funerals has led
to vulgar ostentation and profuseness of
display strikipgly out of accord with the
sentiment which, if not felt, is expect
ed to be manifested on such occasions.
The custom of displaying floral emblems
about the remains-regarding the pro-
priety and good taste of which there is
fair room for division Of opinion-has
been so grossly abused that there IS an
apparent reaction against it which
may lead to its correction, if not
abandonment. When the tendency to
indulge in floral decorations has come to
be made an exaction upon friends and
relatives and an occasion for vulgar
show, it is we'll worth considering
whether it had not better be suppressed
entirely and when the upholstery OF
the undertaken and the pomp OF the
liveryman have become such features of
our obsequies as make the modern
funeral appeal. to the dramatic rather
than the reverent feelings, it is high
time to lend encouragement to severe
plainness in the matter of the funeral.
Another consideration that has re-
Gently been advanced for the correction
of funeral customs has reference to the
health of the persons constrained by
existing fashions to attend them. A
New York clergyman prays to be for
given for the many colds and ensuing
deaths that he has caused by encourag
ing people to stand with uncovered
heads in the fresh damp ground, and
often on raw damp days around open
graves. He might have gone further
in pointing out the reckless exposure
of very young and very old people. OF
women and delicate persons, in seasons
of inclemency, lin the graveyard and cem-
etery and on the way hither. On such a
day as this present one is, often and
often, the spectacle is seen of such per
sons walking or even riding at slow
pace to the place of interment and there
gathering about the grave. sowing the
seeds perhaps of a dozen deaths; not to
speak of exciting the narrowing and ag
onizing scenes too often occasloned
By the circumstances of the case,
and in turn making the attendants
reckless of the ordinary precautions OF
health. Surely there is common sense
in the proposition. coming into popular
use, that the leave-taking of the family
with their dead shall be in the privacy OF
the home and that the followers of thu
hearse shall be limited to few mai'
friends and relatives adequate to see tha
a decent and proper interment tak'
place.
And, while the topic is under review, i
will not he amiss to consider the eccen
tricities and extrsvagances of fashion il
mourning apparel. The exactions o
the social code on this subject have tend
ed scarcely less to burdensome custom
than vulgar exhibitions. The mOurnin,
habit should, of all things. be left to tn
Individual judgment and taste. Th
black garb of veiled grief is often put OF
and worn as real protection to the be
reaved, and as such it is not to be crit
icised nor is the sorrow OF the weare
to be calculated in inverse ratio will
the height of the Grape hat band, bu
neither is he to be condemned who GOe
not carry his heart upon his coat sleev
and who chooses to do his grieving like hi
praying in the closet ofa desolated hom
and in the inner chambers of a broker
heart.
Unfortunately the many who are con
fronted with the responsibility and dutie
supposed to be attached to the position
Of bereavement yield themselves to thu
influence of class of people, whose
readily proffered advice is as WORTHLESS
as it is gratuitous, and who invade tn
sanctity of grief with their suggestion
as to how it is to be manifested, as ruth
lessly as they invade the stricken house
hold to feast upon the sensation of it
sorrow. What is wanted is tn
healthy example of individu Il independ
epseo on. these subjects by those who hav
89ithem thoughtful consideration an
eshbl1aill resolve upon reforms that the.
will encourage others in following
Even they who feel most keenly the EN-
barrassment of the present institution
shrink from new departures upon oil
time customs. The power of association
Aa1 organization may have to be invoke
fA4peSct people who want to reforr
the funeral system from the dreade
reputation of eccentricity or deepe
reprOach. If so the formation of a fu
norol s,Aform socipfv Onoht not tO h