The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-01-25
IN PARIS.
An Enormous Concern Where $4,000 COT.
fins Are Kept in Stock.

ah -AAbA
fins Are Kept in stock.
In all countries death and the cere-
monies of burial are sad and repulsive.
In France, perhaps, d~ecency is observed
as well as in any country, thanks to the
excellent organization of the Com
pagnie dos Poinpes Funebres, which
FORMS, so to speak, the administration
of all the churches in Paris, exercising
on their behalf the monopoly of funeral
ceremonies. This company, Whose
monopoly is regulated by laws, is a vsst
enterprise, possessed OF exceptional re-
sources, an immense number of horses
and carriages, a numerous and well
disciplined personnel. Every year it
takes charge of about 5 0 1000 funerals.
about half of which are those Of the
poor. Thanks to this enterprise even
the poorest citizens are buried with
some show of decency and in conformity
with strict rules.
The administration of the Pompes
Funebres is situated at Paris inthe Rue
d'Aubervilliers. 1t is a big, heavy,
white stone building, built round q vast
p~lass-roofed courtyard. 70 the right
and left of the entrance door are the
offices OF the director and the book
keeping department. In the court
ward are the store rooms, the stables,
the coach houses and the harness
rooms. Every thing is black, sombre and
silent; every thing is vigorously num-
bered and ticketed, classified and ar
ranged for immediate use. The portearS,
or bearers, commonly called c~o42te-
m0rts, have q big room furnished with
oak benches, where they assemble every
morning, 400 in number, to await or
ders-gloomy, serious, clad in various
STYLES, some with blouses, but most OF
them in jackets. Over this room are
other rooms with c%upboard5 running
down the middle in double rows. Each
cupboard is numbered and fitted with a
lock, the key of whiss the correspond
ingly numbered eoquenort keeps. In
these cupboards are kept the uniforms
of the bearers, who dress before going
out on service and undress when their
service is over, only wearing their reg
ulation costume while on duty. The
masters of ceremonies have each a pri-
waite room to dress in. Their uniform
consists of It cooked hat, coat, knee
brooches, silk stockings, buckled shoes.
a court sword and a wand. This per-
sonage is paid by the day, SO much for
each funeral. His duty is to arrange
the procession in proper order, to fix
the order of the precedence among the
mourners and to start the funeral.
Beneath the vast building of the
Pompes Funebres are cellars dimly
lighted With gas jets and full of rows.
and rows of collins OF all sizes and
qualities. This cellar contains q stock
OF 1900 collins ready for use, vary
ing in length from 6 feet IL inches
down to y - inches, which are the
regulation maximum and minimum
sizes Of dead French humanity. For
persons taller than 6 feet IL inches q
coffin has TO be built on purpose and to
order. On one side of the cellar are
the lead collins, and in one rne a
stock of sqHare boxes in which collins
are packed for travelling by rail or
steamer without attracting attention.
Near the door Of the cellar are some
huge collins with a circumference of six
or nine feet. destined for the aceomMo-
dation OF very obese corpses. Like
wise mean the door are thirty hand
carts of peculiar form Oh two wheels,
painted green and lined with black;
these carts are used only when some
terrible epidemic is decimating the
population. The prices of the collins,
of the inner lining. and Of the covering
pail, and are all regulated by an immuta-
bic tariff. In 1870, during the siege, the
little handcarts painted green and lined
with black had to serve universally as
hearses, for ell the horses had been
killed for food.-N. y. san.