Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1889-08-24

Ia the pat FIVE years, says Jae iuiia,,el-
ohia Tisaes, the shrouc industry N this city
!,as grown to enormous proportions, ami
his dress OF the dead, while IL mas hcccme
unpopular with some, naslgrown steadily N
tlvor with others. The reason for the great
Increase IN the basinessis on accent of the
steady growtn OF the population, AMI be-
cause the bigger the population the bigger
the death rate.
Ii used to be that shrouds were made al
most cntIrely by iayers-out OF the dead and
peor women, who made n regular business
OF Ii and worked early and la;e, according
to the number Of orders they had. Shrouds
werc tncn made at short notice, because
after the person died there wasn't much
tin.c tc design and make the shroud, and
women worked all night to I'LL their orders.
Nowadays there are very few professional
shroud makers in this city. These few ATE
mostly women, who work regularly for some
particular undertaken, but they don't make
much. A shroud-maker said that she used
TO have nice income from her business,
but that the big lndertakers' supply stores
had ruined the business for the shroud-
makers about town, because they can make
the shrouds for great deal less money.
The woman was stitching away at shroud
at the time. This is for an old Quaker
lady" she said, "who died yesterday.
must finish it before / go to sleep. What
business get now is almost entirely for
dressing old persons, principally women. II
used to be that nearly every body was buried
in shroads, and that ISN'T more than half n
dozen years ago.
A prominent undertaken, who has what is
known in the business as a tony trade, -
SAID: / don't suppose have used more
than half dozen shrouds year. With my
class Of trade the custom is dying out. The
people / bury are nearly all cared for in
their sickness by professional nurses, VINO
have become as thick as hops in this city,
Nearly every physician has list of a dozen
men or women he can recommend. Well,
the professional nurses in the past five
years have got to preparing the dead for
burial, and they can dress 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 y
similar suit. A great many people / bury
now are buried IN their dress suits that
they have worn at weddings. receptions,
balls or banQuets. 1t takes two persons to
dress body, but il 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 part, like to see a person prepared
for the grave TO look as natural as they do
in life, and they certainly don't look liz,
themselves if they arc attired in a shSUud.
The biggest undcrtakers' supply sore il
the country is in this city, where there a.
30 styles of shrouds to choose from, rang
ing IN prices from . 115 down to $40. Fac:
sample shroud is marked with a tag show
| ing the price and is numbered. In BIZ
| book each number is accompanied by +;
! detailed description of the quality of th,
! materials used and the style. Most of thes,
| sample shrouds are duplicated in stock, $,
I that an undertaken can take his customel
to the supply store and pick out the styl,
| and take it right OF. III the sample isn't il
/ stock the supply store can make 1t up in
| iiffy, for they employ large humber o
| persons to make them. The shruud-mak
I are very happy, and sing and joke an,
laugh over their work as much as il HE.
/ were trimming bonnets. There are shrou'
designers in the factory whose brains ar
ousy all the time thinking out new styles
There arc more styles of dress for tn
dead than there are for the living This BIZ
4 supply store sends out hundreds of shroud
every week. They are shipped all over tn
country and are ordered from piaic engray
ings showing the style aud the price. wit
an appended description OF the maieTia
Some Of the undertaIiers Keep shrOuds j
! stock, bat most of them buy thcm AS the
are ordered.