San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-02

bearable was the odor in one of these
cases, and there were something like
ten or fifteen people who attended
these ceremonies who fell sick soon
tn hereafter"
sis not the habit of kissing corpse
dangerous one?" queried the re-
porter.
Eyes, it is very very bad practice,
indeed. But more 30 in such cases
as have just mentioned"
"We hardly ever handle corpse
in this weather." continued the un-
dertaker, without performing some
medical work on it. 1t is essential
that such is done. When we receive
body for burial, we insert a long
hollow needle with a rubber tube at
the end, into the stomach. The end
of the rubber tube is in stropg de-
odorizing fluid. The gases escape
through this fluid not in their
nauseous condition, but COM
pletely deodorized. in this way,
If an undertaken knows his business
he becomes a great sanitarIan, and
can prevent the spreading of many
dangerous diseases.
"But for the unsentimental part of
the matter; does the business pay?"
THAT depends. If person makes
undertaking speciality, 1t does pay.
Some parties run it in connection
with other business, such as livery
stables and the like, but it hardly
pays them, and they only ruin the
trade.n
"How about funeral expenses; do
they run very high?"
"rhey run just as high as man
wants to make them. A man can
have funeral that costs only about
$40, or he can have one to cost a
thousand or two thousand, for that
matter. People have no comprehen-
sion OF these things. They imagine
that we undertakes are the ones who
are to blame for an expensive funeral.
But this Is not the case. When q per-
son comes to us to bury some one, we
ask him questions like these: 'Whac
kind of coffin do you want? Here are
some for $40, SIS, and SO on, and here
are expensive ones running all the
way up to several hundred dollars
and the man can take a cheap, or me-,
dunn cheap wooden coffin or an ex--
pensive metallic one; it merely rests
with him. Then We ask him How
many hacks do you want? for we will
give him one hack just as readily IS
one hundred. The next expensive
thing Is the lot and he can choose
what he pleases. So we run down
the list of all things necessary to a
funeral, letting the parties choose
whatever they please and showing
them what every item will COST. But
generally they will take fine coffin,
an expensive hes -se, q costly lot in q
cemetery, a large number of hacks,
other expensive things, and then
complain that these undertakers
make the funerals come so awful
high"
"The people have most senseless
idea Of an undertaken anyway. They
imagine that he sits waiting for this
solicit of that man the burial of his
sick wife; in fact, they imagine q
great many things that you would
have had people, perhaps well mean
ing enough, but with such ignor-
ant notions of our profession to
sick, if you 60 around there, you
luiSnb geI Jop. lucy are uoTe III
sane Ia their ideas of us even than
that. They think that the under
taker pays doctors and others a COM
mission to secure burials for him,
when as a matter of fact he does
neither of those things that the peo-
pie so fondly imagine him to do. I
tell you the people have such mis-
taken ideas of the undertaken, that
he ought to be put before them in a
proper light, and wish to thank the
LIGHT for this opportunity of doing
So"
FROM IREI,AND'S HOME