The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-09-08

century ago people used to cut into
their tombstones the skull and cross
bones of the pirates flag. They have
abandoned this dreadful custom but
only because there is such a thing as
fashion in tombstones, not because
there has been much change in the
sentiment that determines our funeral
customs.
Candidly and fairly compare the
burial customs of this enlightened
Christian people with those of any
savage or barbaric race that may be
selected, and say wherein we have the
| advantage. Our customs are freed
from elements of intentional cruelty.
Our graves are not soaked with the
| blood of human sacrifice. Our widows
are not expected to burn themselves
with their dead husbands. That hid
eous survival of ancestral savagery, the
hired mourner, IS absent from our OBJ
sequies. But in their ability to express
the cheerful and confident hope of
rational religious faith our funeral Gus
toms are surely as barbara and as little
affected by cur prevalent enlightenment
as those of the least developed race of
whom we have any knowledge. They
Symbolic simply the doubt, despair,
agony, and gloom that shadow the
grave. They express no comfort,
breathe no consolation, suggest no hope
inspire no confidence. They simply
represent the natural horror with which
the healthtul mind regards the thought
of physical dissolution. This, of course,
is the main article of impeachment of
"Christian burial" that it is utterly out
of harmony with the Christian religion.
But it is equally discordant with the
teachings OF a wholesome social econ
omy. Without dwelling upon those
sanitary aspects of the case to which
scientific men are so earnestly calling
attention, is it not true that, from the
moment the man has passed beyond the
reach of human help and care, his
house Of clay is becoming a burden
upon the living? The orthodox He
brews have noble and simple method
OF disposlng of their dead. The body
is decently wrapped in linen. and
put in the earth in a plain, unorna-
mented coffin. They endeavor to ex-
press their conviction that death levels
all distinctions of rank or wealth. But
we often Withhold the body from the
grave till it has become a menace to
health. Then we inclose it in a casket,
the price of which would support
poor mans family for year. Then we
cover it from sight with ugly and taste
less floral decorations, often the offer !
ing of social vanity rather than of per-
sonal affection. And over its final
resting place we build a monument
representing, not unfrequently, as much |
money as would build modest hospital
or endow professorship in university.
1t may be urged, IN extenuation of this
senseless extravaganza, that these things |
represent labor, and that outlay ulti-
mately finds its way to the pockets of
the poor man; and, in our present
crude condition of social economics, |
this view of the case may furnish some
color of justification for the expendl-
ture. But do our excessively wealthy
people ever think of the hurtful lnhu-
ence of this wastefulness upon the
humble folk for whom they set the social
fashions? Many man spends at least
of his years income upon a
single funeral, and it is almost impossi-
Bile, under the present condition of
things, for one of the humber class of
wage. workers to bury a member of his
family without depriving of necessary
comforts those who survive. An ordinary
car driver or hod-carrier must spend
upon the simplest funeral the entire
income of six or seven weeks labor.
He almost Invariably spends nearly
twice as much. He will struggle with
poverty, he will rigidly economic, he
will stint his family at the table, in
school, and in society, but he will al
ways be lavish in mortuary display.
seems like an insult to the
dead. Some of the bishops and priests
of the Catholic Church made COM
mendable stand against this senseless
and hurtful extravaganza, but they can
not reach the root of the evil. Only
the Protestant ministry can do that.
For so long as the classes having wealth
and social position continue to indulge
in this sinful wastefulness, so long will
they be largely responsible for the social
barbarisms of class who servilely copy
and reproduce their follies and mistakes.
Another of the many crying evils
that attend "Christian burial Is found |
IN the unintentional but real cruelty |
which it inficts upon those to whom
death brings the nearest, sharpest pang.
They used to have custom in Phila-
delphia, and may have yet, of keeping
the ugly white window blinds, or shut
ters," that disfigure their houses almost |
closed, from basement to attic, for 3
whole year following q funeral. One
could see houses into which the light |
scantily struggled through these crew
ices, while from a score of windows
futtered the depressing ensigns of
death, warning hope and joy from
the thresholds. This cruel and |
senseless custom was kept up through |
the hottest and coolest weather ;
and its effect in increasing the gloom
and depression of death was all that