The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-09-06
The Fuss of a Fashionable
Funeral.
THE JULY 18TH CELEBRATION
Examinations of "Wanderer'' on th.
Cholera Curse and Consistent
Christianity.
BELFAST. August o, 1885.
Correspondence of THE HERALD:

| stranger. Nor IS the curious confined
20 national distinction; for there are
customs among people according to
circumstances, or according to society,
as 1t Is now generally distinguished.
For instance, the hearses here are huge,
massive wooden structures, with weep-
ing willow carved in wood that is Is
oiack as a stove. the whole sight being
SO CHASTITY and ungainly that it gives
one the cold shudder to look at the
frightful things. The mem who DIVE
the hearses,- and carriages all wear
twenty-nve-cent stove-pipe hats, to
which are attached huge bows and rib
bons of coarse black Grape; and it is
sometimes laughable to see a little.
round, fat face with a jolly mouth, a
twinkllng pair of eyes, and q weather
beaten or whisky -blossomed nose
crushed beneath the sombre hues of
funeral head-gear. I do not wish to
nurt thefeehngs Of my Irish friends,
but l must confess that l was not a
little surprised and entertained here the
other day to see an old-fashioned Biddy
pulling" away at a clay pipe while
riding in a carriage which cen -tituted
one OF funeral procession OF two car
riages, the other being the hearse. She
seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it,
too; and evidently did not care fig who
=" ne.. np. -..---.o u Iunerals reminds
re of an occurrence | saw in Scotland
many times while there, as illustrative
# the "canDy" disposition for which
many OF that sterling nationality are
rover bially noted. And il seemed to
re a Gu stom that excited no comment.
ma Tor that reason must be viewed as
y ""''enal. no Fin vas nlaced in
O huge black closh-covered,b bog, and was
:, ,..f4-.-U, ..---.S LnT
burners rode In The carriage, thus
nklng the one vehicle do double ser
ce in being both hearSe and convey
nee for tie living. while both tie
'rpse and the living reached the objec
re spot simultaneously. 1t make
tie or no difference to the dead suo
'""'- 10 p"t "h'rk" .--iost such :,
proceeding, one can see little reason
vhv the living should agitate them
selves. Fashionable marriages and
funerals are among the conspicuous
banes of mankindin the nineteenth CEN
tury. A young man fears not so much
..IaI,..-,o a. the style, an .uelo ale
w people who would not actual,
ather continue 10 live shan to undergo
he ordeal OF a modern and ftshionabI-
This may look like an Irisl
bull. but.
- uoen disappointed in the l2tl
Il July celebration. In former iette
stated that the festivities were likel
o be continued for an indefinite period
nd that beds and other hOusehol
trticles' would be sacrificed to min
Incle"i in order to keep up Bacchanaliai
evelries while the TIN" could be mad
hold out. wish to recant. Within
en- days after the event the casual
n even close observer would hav,
marked no difference in the appearance
# this business centre of Ireland
'"~re NAV h" INSTANCES where tho ut
terances OF the business man from
whom quoteda are true, bat they are by
no means the rule. There is very little
DIR .nAeunessi comparatively and the
people hereabout are industrious and
willing 10 work, but labor is Woefully
slack and unless there is change soon
times promise TO be very dark for the
loil" citizens of the Province of Les
ter.
The American papers are worrying
themselves again about cholera. It has
broken out in Marseiles and is playing
terrible havoc in Spain. Considering
the anxiety which Americans display
over this frightful scourge, and their
g-eat distance from it, the manifest in
difference is rather appalling. No one
seems to care the least about 1t and out
side of brief kilograms telling the num-
Der of persons attacked by cholera dur
ing o given period and the number that
have died in the same length of
time, there is no comment what ever on
the subject, and people and press seem
as indifferent as they are to the eases of
beggary and vices and misery with which
the United Kingdom abounds. It is SO
longe since IL has been epidemic here
that people forget they are liable 10 at
tacks, but should it ever appear in
Great Britain it will find an abundance
of fOod-fruit that is ripe for the
sickle of death and which is already half
putrid.
Speaking OF the prevalence of disease,
recalls an item which appeared, the
other day, in one OF the local papers re.
garding the births and death rate Tor
three months. It showed that in the
Belfast District there had been register
ed about $500 birth for the period
named, three months, while the death
rate for tie same time had been some
thing over 800, showing an excess of
deaths over the births Of some 200.
This is increasing with q vengeance.
The report for the Province of Ulster
was given also, Belfast constituting q
part OF this province. For three months
there had been recorded ab9nt 80, 900
births, while the deaths were only about
1000 less than the births. Should these
figures prove the general condition of
lrela I'D, it will not be long before emf
grafton from the Emerald Isle ceases,
as the deaths will soon equal the births.
and the result, continuing the calcula-
ton in the same strain, will be the ulti
mate depopulation OF Ireland. These
figures are the more remarkable for the
reason that the percentage of mo t'lity
IS alleged to be greater among the Irish
than almost any other nation in
Europe; this being the case, were the
figures quoted to be taken az fair
standard, they would present really
alarming aspect. It may have been an
exception, however, but the fact that
Mortuary Statistics excited no comment
on the press gives ground for the pre-
sumption that they presented nothing
unusual. or that was viewed with ap-
pTehension by the great educator,
the CONSERVATION OF freedom, the
powerful press