Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-08
Select Councils Asked to Prohibit
Funeral Professions From De-
laying Cable Cars,
MR. HEATING WILL SUE SOMEBODY
If Carriages Containing Mourners Pre-
vent Him From Reaching
His Office on Time.
ROBERTSON FAVORS FUNERAL REFORM.
Collector Warmcastle's ImpassiOned Plea for ReIer-
ence for the Deceased.

their daily orea0, was the text MI. a. Z
Heating took yesterday afternoon for dis
course to Select Council in special ses
sion.
Mr.. Heating presented q resolution in
structing the Chief of the Department o
Public Safety to inform all the funeral di
rectors of the two cities that they must no
impede the progress of Pittsburg street car
with funeral professions. He asked for
suspension of the rules and the immediat
passage of the resolution.
EAs the author of the resolution, Mr.
Keating, made a forcible plea for its pas
sage. He said:
''It has been the custom in this city fol
street cars, wagons and private vehicles of al
kinds to allow funeral professions the righ
ofway. The Pennsylvania Railroad ever
stops its trains and will not break through
a funeral cortege if it is possible TO avoid it
and have seen them hold trains at Eleventh
street for Is minutes to allow funeral car
riages to pass. But the traffic on the maiI
streets, particularly Penn and Fifth avenue.
and Smithfeld Street, has grown so great
that funeral procession moving slowly
along hinders traffic, blocks the street cars
detains business men on their way to theil
offices and physicians going out on urgent
calls
A BUSINESS MANS GRIEVANCE.
'The directors of funerals occupy a ca,
track with long procession of carriages,
and will not turn off for street cars or any
one elese. myself have been detained for
Is minutes at a time with nv buggy, and
have been compelled to get out and run
ahead and request the person in charge of q
funeral to make an opening so that could
get down town and attend to nv business.
Funeral carriages have no rights that other
vehicles do not have, and have made up
my mind to prosecute the funeral director
who next impedes my progress unnecessarily.
have all respect for the dead, but / know
that il is seldom man is buried who would
not, when alive, have opposed the obstruc-
fion OF business in this unnecessary manner.
I do not like to take the unpleasant initia-
tive in prosecuting a funeral director, and 1
think if this resolution is passed and COM
fpiied with, the funeral directors will recog-
nize the Justice of the matter and obey it
accordingly"
Mr.. Warmcastle took up the gage at
once, and spoke up in defense of tie dead
and those who contemplated dying. He
first promised that if business man whose
chief duty at his Office was to read the news
papers did happen to be delayed for few
minutes, it did not make much difference.
At this MIR. Heating remarked sotto voce
that while he enjoyed reading the papers he
had something else to do in his Office
ONE THING SACRED.
n 4ls4.= s1Verz,eastle heeded not the interrup-
tiou, but continued: AT least one thing
should be sacred to cable cars and above
all things a funeral procession. This
resolution should not pass; it is not
right. There is no reason why there
should be such haste in any
business that 15 minutes cannot be
given to the dead. II you enforce such
rule as this funeral procession could not
travel from here to Allegheny Cemetery
without being broken up dozen times by
the cable cars. Moreover the majority of
funerals do not 60 out from this part of the
city; they come in from the other direction
to the cemeteries in Lawrenceville and do
not interfere with business down town,
There is not an average of two funerals per
day going out Penn avenue, and the num-
Der on Fifth avenue is considerably less
And as the horses in funeral carriages travel
at a smart trot, it is not at all likely that
they can impede traffic to any great extent,
even of cable cars. l have often seen funer-
ais turn out for cable cars, and believe 1t is
the custom to do so whenever possible. 1
think it very wrong, gentlemen, to aff1ict the
bereaved by the passage of such a resolu-
tion."
Mr.. Heating replied that the sentimental
Difference to the dead and the bereaved was
IN this case all bosh. He respected the
dead as much as any man in the city, but it
was not disrespectful to the dead nor hard
ship upon the bereaved friends that funeral
professions conformed 10 the necessities of
the living, either by kccning off the streets
II Ia hAs fuI d
eratipn-of the rights of other vehicles.
A CABLE CAR REFORM
Mr. Robertson thought the resolution
eminently proper. There should be an i'm
provement in the matter of funerals as well
as other things in this enlightened age.
And if the cable car would but succeed in
breaking the sentiment that was the cause
of the large public funerals seen on the
streets every day it would be a god-senj for
that if for nothing else. He was opposed to
the practice of honoring the dead with a
great string of carriages, and hoped the day
was not ,ar distant when the people would
realize its uselessness and abolish il entirely.
He knew of cases where parties paid for
funeral carriages and could not afford to do
so, simply because it was custom, and then
existed without many of the necessaries of
life for weeks afterward to make up for the
expenditure.
Mr.. Warmcastle resented the statement
that it was sentimental to allow funerals the
right of way. He denounced Mr.. Robert
sons remarks on the subject as barbarous
and said it would be positive violence to de-
prive funerals of their time. honored rights
and privileges that common courtesy en-
titled them to. 1t anything should be
treated with respect it was funeral.
APLEA FOR FoRBEARANCE.
Mr.. Lambie here arose, and gravely
stated that while he did not agree with any,
thing that had been said, he favored the
resolution. Mr.. Lambie took a hand in the |
discussion. He differed with all the speakers |
who had preceded him, while he favored |
the resolution. He thought the difficulty /
and delay caused by funerals could be |
avoided entirely if funeral directors, cable
cars and drivers of other vehicles would |
each make an effort to avoid it by giving
way at the proper time. A little forbear-
ance on both sides was all that was neces-
sary. He related an instance where he had
been DELAYED half an hour going out Penn
avenue on a car, by a funeral procession,
Thirty third street and the Allie
gheny Cemetery. The cable cars were
always in a hurry, and their occupants
also. 1t was a matter for considera-
zion that twenty-five or thirty business
men in each car, in hurry
to Het to their Offices or wherever they might
be Aping, and half dozen such cars de-
layet by funeral. The convenience Of
those\ pen was as worthy of consideration as
the respect o. the dead, and Mr. Lambie
had eyary respect in the world for a funeral.
He said the resolution did not deprive
funeral procession of an of its rights. but
simply emphasized that they had not the
complete right of wav.
DIR, MeCord opposed the resolution and
hoped Councils would met put themselves
On record In favor of it. He thought the