Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-08-09
THE STROUD INDUSTRY.
Enormous Proportions 10 Which II las
Grown within Few Years.

W u
Grown within n lew Years.
In the past five years, says the Philadel.
pha Times, the shroul industry in this city
has grown to enormous proportions. and
tia dress OF tho dead. Whilc II has ,cu;ne
unpopular v N SOHO. has grown steadily in
f..vor with Gers. The reason FOR the great
iacrcarc IN IT, ,,j..lss is on account OF the
Steady growth q the population, aid be-
cause the L.C;Scr tho population the bigger
lac Ucith rate.
IL used TO Cc that shrouds were made NJ
most entirely by laycrs-out of tic dead and
pJcr wo@lcn. who !slde regular buchl, ~
"a 1t ana worked early and late, according
90 ;hc number Of orders they had. ShrouGs
were then made at short notice, because
after the person died there wasn't much
time TO design and mako the shroud, and
women worked all night to fill their orders
Nowadays there are very few professional
shroud.mal;crs in this city. These few are
mostly women, who work regularly for somo
particular undertaken, but they don't make
much. A sEroud-mallcr said that she used
to have nice income from her business,
but that the big undcrtakers' supply stores
had ruined the busIncss for the shroUd-
makers about town, because they can make
the shrouds for great deal less money.
The woman was stitching away Mt shroad
at the time. "This is for an old Quaker
lady," she said, "who died yesterday.
must finish it before l go to sleep What
business / get now is almost entirely for
dressing old persons, principally women. 1t
used TO be that nearly every body was buric,l
In snrouds, and that isn't more ,n.n nan q,
dozen years ago."
A prominent undertaken who has what Is
known in the business us tony trade"
said: az don't suppose / have used moro
than half dozen shrouds year. With my
class OF trade tho custom is dying out. The
'oople l bury are nearly all cared for in
thcir sickness by professional nurses, who
have become as thick as hops in this city,
Nearly every physician has a list of dozen
men or women be can recommend. Well,
the professional nurses in tho past five
years have got to preparing the dead for
burial, and they can dress a corpse just as
well as they can live person. My custom
ers prefer to have their relatives buried in
either the clothes they wore in life or a
similar suit. A great many people bury
now ore buried IN their dress suits that
they have worn at weddings. receptions,
balls or banquets. 1t takes two persons to
dress body, but it is done easily nowadays.
Five or six years ago it was looked upon as
almost an impossibility, and up to that time
nearly every body was buried in shrouds.
For my pat, like to see q person prepared
for the grave to look as natural as they did
In life, and they certainly don't look lllIo
themselves If they arc attired in o shroud."
The biggest undcrtakers' supply store in
the country is in this city, where there arc
800 styles Of shrouds to choose from, rang
ing IN prices from s1T5 down 10 $40. Each
sample shroud is marked with q tag show
ing the pricc and 10 numbered. In big
book each number is accompanied by
detailed description Of the quality of the
materials used and tho style. Most OF these
sample shrouds arc duplicated in stock, so
that an undertaken can take his customer
to the supply store and pick out the style
and take 1t right of. II the sample isn't in
stock the supply store can cake il up In a
my, for they employ a large number of
rsons TO make them. The shroud-makers
very happy, and sing and joke and
laugh over their work as much as IL they
were trimming bonnets. There are shroud
designers in the factory whose brains arc
busy all the time thinking out new styles.
There arc more styles of dress for the
dead than there are for the living. This big
supply store sends out hundreds OF shrouds
every week They are shipped oil over tho
country and are ordered from plate cngrav-
ings showing tho style and tho price, with
an appended description OF the material.
Some OF the undertahers keep shrouds in
stock, but most Of them buy them as they
are ordered.