The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1889-12-27

| ""ioihS ior oheir lutufe occupants. Ont
OF them was built to order for fat
jolly stock broker who is in bust
ness on Nassau street. OCCASIONAL Y he
calls around to take look at it, and
generally he taken off his boots and in
sists on getting into it, viewing himsel
| with & hand glass to see how he will
look when he is laid out. We have had
| this casket ready for him for three
| years, and the last time he called ht
found that he was growing so fat that il
was getting to be pretty tight fit fol
him; he Is considering the advisability
OF ha wing new ono made. Occasional
ly, too, we receive an order from people
who arc very sick and expect to die
but who ges well. They pay us for the
casket just the same, and as they some
times move out of town to some othel
city we sell the goods to somebody else
and are just so much in. This is not a
frequent occurrence, but It helps little
to make good the bad bills which we in
cur.
"Many people who come to us have ;
dreadful fear that they may be buried
alive, and while there is remote posi-
bility that this might happen, have
never known single instance Of it il
all my experience. These people insis
upon my promising to observe the ut
most precaution, even so far as to rur
red hot needles into their bodies, anG
other equally barbaric treatment, before
they are finally consigned to the earth
About four years ago young mar
called upon me one morning, il
terrible state of agitation
He had dreamed the night
before that his sister, who had been re
Gently buried, had come to life after
being placed under the sod | tried tt
prove to him the utter improbability O.
such an occurrence, but without avail
He insisted that her grave should be
opened, that he might be satisfied.
was actually horror-stricken at the sug
gestion, not that hsd the remotest idea
that his dream could prove true, but the
thought flashed across my mind that il
it should be so the shock would make
him raving maniac. l tried to per
suade him to defer the matter until the
following day, but he positively refused
Finally, as there was no other way Out
of it, consented, and, having obtained
the necessary permit, the body was ex
humed, and to my inexpressible relief
the absurdity of the young mans dream
was proven. The effect on him was
magical. He looked sorrowfully on the
face of his dead sister moment and
then burst into flood of tears, and,
throwing his arm around my neck, he
wept from pure excess of joy.
'Some people have peculiar notions
about burial. | have oftentimes been
requested to place the coffin in the grave
with the head pointing toward the north.
or vice versa. Once was asked if the
coffin could not be placed standing up
right in the grave-a request which, OF
course, was unable to grant.
Some people, too, are supcrstitious
about being buried on certain days
of the week, and leave special
order that their funeral shall take
place on certain day. Then there are
peculiar fancies in regard to flowers and
the hymns which shall be sung. Such
matters as these are, of course, within
reason, and are always complied with.
The queer and outlandish tastes of some
people are exemplified in the case Of
Joe Beef, well-known Montreal char
acter, recently deceased, who on the
occasion of his wife's funeral some years
ago, ordered the brass band which ac-
companied the funeral procession to the
cemetery to play The Girl l Left Be-
hind Me- on the way back.
"a custom which has sprung up re-
Gently, and which in many respects is a
good one, is to have stenographer
present at the funeral services to take
down the funeral grafton, prayers, and
so on. These are afterward type-writ-
ten in appropriate form, the hymns be-
ing incorporated with the report. l
know Of at least one stenographer in
this city who makes specially of this
line of business, and as he has but lit
tie competition he makes good thing
out of it. His minimum charge is tif-
teen dollars, and frequently he receives
as high as fifty dollars for his services.
He watches closely the obituary col
umns of the daily newspapers and
regularly calls upon number Of under