Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-18
SAD FUNERAL SCENE.
One Carriage Conveyed the Mourners
and Corpse to the Grave.
PATRIARCHS FOR PALL-BEARERS.
Relatives and Friends Keep Up Weird
Chant Until Daylight.
TIE CHILD's PARENTS FRUSTRATED

A little pine and cheaply vanished
coffin, devoid of any ornamentation what
ever, the plainness being in conformity with
the poor surroundings, a single carriage in
which were seated four men, looking like
| patriarchs, the coffin being hustled in
among them without the least display of
| tenderness, crack of the whip and a shout
. from dozen street arabs, were the scene at
Hebrew funeral on Chatham street yester-
| day afternoon. At the window of the house
from which the coffin had been taken was
the pale, wan face of the young mother, and
| in o rear room was the father locked up, al
most bereft of reason, and acting like
mad man. The mother of the dead child
saw nothing, heard nothing, and while ap-
psrently gazing at the carriage moving off
with the remains, was totally oblivious of
what was being done. She swooned six or
seven times during the night and the spells
left her in dazed and almost unconscious
condition.
SOON RELIEVED OF PAIN.
About 2 o'clock Friday afternoon Eva,
the 2K-year-old daughter of Samuel Albern,
Hebrew huekster, living at No. Chath-
am street, was taken i'll. DR.. Blumberg, of
Fifth avenue, was Immediately sent for,
and the child soon developed symptoms Of
diphtheria and Group 1t grew worse and
worse, and after all illness of about thirty
four hours the little girl brcathed her last,
about midnight Saturday.
The news of the child's death travelled
through the neighborhood, and, notwith-
ing the lateuess of the hour, large crowd
of relatives and friends began to gather at
the house. The grandmother of the
dead child assumed kind of lead
ership among the people. After her ar
rival she began a sorrowful chant, in which
the others Joined. 1t resembled in tone the
Irish kiening, heard at old-fashioned
wakes" except the wall was more doleful
and weird. The women sat on the floor,
and with their hands clasped around their
knees rocked their bodies backward and
forward.
The mother and father of the dead child
were also present, and they Joined in the
general lamentation. The mother now and
| then would break in on the doleiuI sound
| and give forth piercing yells that swak-
ened the neighbors. The latter did little
sleeping the balance of the night, and ont Of
regard to the customs of the bereaved family
they did not offer any objections to the
noise. 1t would be impossible to describe
| the doleiul souQQs, DuI tney gave every
body the shivers who listened to the wall
| ing.
| THE FUNERAL SERVICES.
At2 O'Clock yesterday afternoon Rabbi
| Souvitz appeared at the house, accompanied
bv the two servants OF the syna-
gogue, and after muttering some in
yocations over the dead body hastily
left, and was driven to the CHARTERS
Cemetery, where the interment took place.
Two hours later another carriage drove up
to the house, and four old gentlemen jumped
in. The little coffin was bundled in after
them and the carriage driven away. At the
burial ground the old orthodox Hebrew
service was conducted.
Before daylight yesterday morning, the
| father of the child, it was thought, would
| 90 insane. One of his friends, Max Cohen,
| the Seventh avenue merchant, found it
necessary to put him in a room by himself
and lock him up. The mother went into one
swoon after another, and the physician who
| attended the child had to be called to pre-
scribe for her. She was very ill yesterday,
bat owing to the strong constitution of the
people OF her race, she will probably re.
cover,