Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-04
A TRUSTS HARD ROW.
The Burial Association Boycoted-Why G
Funeral Was Postponed.

The Burial Association Boycotfed-Why G
Funeral Was Postponed.
PHILADELPHIA, May 3.-The $75 sui
that has recently been brought against thu
National Trust and Burial Association
which has its principal Office in this city
and charter from Maine. has developed
some interesting facts in relation to the
method of procedure of this and kindred or
ganizations. The prospectus of the associa'
tion reads like a fairy tale. Not only is q
capital stock of $500, 900 advertised glow
ingly, but the fact that large coffin and
casket mandatory has been established at
Harrisburg is amply impressed upon the
public mind to the end that the
stupendous character of the organiza-
tion may be fully comprehended.
But it might be wise for the public to take
all this with a grain of salt, for at least
three Philadelphia households are up in
arms over broken funeral contracts. One
of them has taken the matter to the courts;
from an official quarter come murmurs as
to unpaid salaries; and as to the mammoth
casket factory, its foundations are yet to be
laid. Instead, the visitor to the associa-
tion's business office, on North Eighth
street. may hear issuing from behind aicrim-
son curtain the merry tink-a-tink-tink of
single workman's hammer as be fashions
burial cssket or rough box, as the associa-
ton has need.
Throughout its career of seven short
months the organization has had more than
its share of sorrow. Above all it has to
contend against one very serious obstacle in
the shape of the Undertakers' Protective
Association, which includes nearly every
furnisher of funeral supplies in the entire
country. The adherents of this organiza-
tion place an inviolable boycott on all out
siders, SO that when the Burial Association
people have endeavored to purchase sup
plies at the regular establishments they
have been completely sat upon. Their only
recourse was to order their goods from
Maine and Michigan, or some remote To-
cality where the boycott was less stringently
observed.
One of their contract holders, colored
woman by the name of Mrs. Josephine Glib
son, took it into her head to die at an inop-
perfume moment Several weeks before her
death she had Joined the association and
provided for SIS burial, for which she or
her heirs were to pay by weekly install
ments of rs cents, the association agreeing
to perform the undertaker's duties from A
to . for that amount.
MIS-, OlDSon 1uneral was announced for
Friday at P. NJ, but Friday morning came
and as yet no coffin nor shroud had been
provided. The mourners began to congre-
gate, but no undertaken appeared. Almost
frantic the sorrowful husband hastened
forth in search of the belated coffin. When
at last he found the associations undertaken
that official calmly announced that as he
was unable to obtain the necessary 'shard-
ware" he feared the burial would have to
be postponed. The regular supply dealers
stoutly refused to sell, and though the
cofin-box was completed, it was useless with
out handles and ''fxings." In vain were
the dealers importuned. They were still
ine1orable, and the burial had to be put of.
But on Saturday Gibson grew desperate.
He did not propose to convert his house
into msusoleum, and moreover the ice bill
was mounting up enormously. Accordingly
he informed the undertaken that the burial
must either take place on Sunday or suit
would be brought. Thus goaded the under
taker made special effort to bribe regular
undertaken into sale of hardware, and by