St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-02-08

calls around to take . look at it. ant
generally he taken of his boots and in
slsts on getting into it, viewing himsel
with . hand glass to see how he viii
look when he is laid out. we have haG
this casket ready for him for th.e,
years, and the last time he called h,
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 one made. Occasional
~, too, we receive an order from people
who are very sick and expect to die,
but who get well. They pay US for the
casket just the same, and rs they some.
times move out of town to some other
city we sell the goods to somebody else.
and are just SO much in. This is not .
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 possi-
bility that this might happen, have
never known single instance Of It in
all my experience. These people insist
upon my promising to observe the ut
most precautiOn. even so far rs to run
red hot needles into their bodies, and
other equally barbaric treatment, before
they are finally consigned to the earth.
About four years ago . young man
called upon me one morning, in
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 to
prove to him the utter improbability of
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 had the remotest idea
that his dream could prove true, but the
thought flashed across my mind that il
1t 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 1t, 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 I was asked il 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 superstitious
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 Is these are, of course, within
reason, and are always complied with.
The queer and outlandish tastes of some
people are exemplified in the case If
Joe Beef, q well-known Montreal char
acter, recently deceased, who ON the
occasion Of his wife's funeral some years
lgo, ordered the brass band which &C.
the funeral procession to the
to play The Girl 1 Left Be-
aind Me- on the way back.
"A custom which has sprung up re-
'ently, and which in many respects is .
,OOd one, is to have a stenographer
present at the funeral services to take
lown the funeral grafton, prayers, and
o on. These are afterward type-writ- Z
en- in appropriate form. the hymns be- ,
ng incorporated with the report.
now of at least one stenoGrapher in !
his city who makeSa specially of this I
inc of business, and as he has but lit Z
lie competition he makes . good thing
ut Of 1t. His minimum charge is If I
cen dollars, and frequently he receives
s high As fifty dollars for his services. c
Ie watches closely the obituary col I
INNS Of the daily newspapers and .
pgularly calls upon number Of under
lkers.
"As rule no unpleasant incident oc- !
urs to mar the successful carrying out
. funeral ceremony. OF course, the
irector must have his wits constantly b
bout him and must be thoroughly ex- i
erienced. had one experience, though, b
hich was most embarrassing and which s
FUSED no end Of trouble. 1t was through {
he carelessness Of one Of my assistants l,
nd the assistant Of one Of my competi- i
rs. had received an order to send d
le OF my wagons 70 the Grand Central il
epot to meet corpse which had been y
rpressed from Albany. 1t appears that 4,
y competitor had also received an or "
r to get body from the same train. G.
9th OF US dispatched . man to attend A.
the matter, and. as neither of them -
ought that there might be more than n
le corpse, they took no especial pains n
ascertain whether they got the right o
le. As result OF this carelessness Il
ch Of them got the wrong one. and as e,
'th bodies were those of men the mis- :,
ke was not discovered until the lids i,
ere unscrewed at the funeral for the q,
burners ard friends to take the last -
Ok 1t the dead. The blunder had ter a,
bic effect. and as the first mourner gazed il
Don the features of An entire stranger n,
. gave one wild shrek and tainted ~,
ad away in the arms Of her escort. |,
lis precipitated matters, and for . di
lille every body was p anic stricken. liz
Is dumfounded for . moment and al. .,
,st speechlss with modification. As 81
on as could recover my senses or ~
red the removal Of the body, and the G,
mister closed the services with pray. sv
I then set out to hunt up the lost Sc
rpse. and my work was facilitated IN
nsiderably from the fact that my COM wi
kitor had bean driven we'll ni0h cr>-v