Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1890-06-28

After careful study of the catalogue
of useless expenditures 1t would be
difficult to find a single instance where
money is spent more foolishly and liber-
ally than in the ostentatious display of
the modern funeral and the subsequent
memorials to perpetuate the name of the
deceased. Amid the dark ages, when the
devotee had been educated to believe that
all hopes of immortality and happiness
consisted in the preservation of the ex-
ternal form of man after death, there was
good reason that precious spices and the
embalmer's art should be brought into
requisition and added to the massive
mas onry, and that the tomb should be
hewn out of the solid granite, guarding
with vigilance the dust, that it should
not come in contact with the baser ele-
ments of mother earth.
AS we look at the preserved mummies
of the pyramid builders, the mausoleum
of the mound builders, our awe is tinct-
ured literally with derision. In our
boosted state of civilization we see that
applied science and Christianity alike
have combined to teach US differently;
nevertheless the powerful chains of chat
old superstition bind us still, and as we
advance each link seems to be the irmer
welded, else why should the gathering of
costly woods, the drying, working and
polishing, decorating them with silk and
precious metals, merely to be put where
hidden; destroyed and forgotten in the
shortest possible time, be such an i'm
portant and growing industry as it is?
The study of fashions and improvements
is indeed pleasant task, but when
placed in the show window of the under
4aI- h1.v Il rfn t.e,, ,1-fry
task! Yet how lovingly we examine them
how careful 10 select the finest woods
and most costly fabrics o be seen for
day and then buried from sight forever.
The labor of undert akers is labor of
money. In the gilded trappings and
costly equippages of the dead is the
money which rightfully belongs to the
living. How many mourner has re-
turned from placing a loved one in cav
erns deep ana wide, beneath the clods of
the valley, to fnd larder empty, physi-
clans and apothecary unpaid, and want
and penury staring him in the face?
STILL peoples tastes, depraved as they
are in this respect must be catered
to, but the work required in supplying
is simply wasted. Undertakers' bills,
though often unpaid, are among the first
TO be recognized, for above all things it
would not do to have the last sad rites
furnished with debt.
Again after NIL the pomp and display
of burial, as if to keep the deception
complete, we must have some of the
heraldic blazonry, some of the sculptured
pomp of woe, with foUnt uplifted to per-
petuate and honor the name of the loved
one gone before. Oh, what display of
stoncutting, of sculpture, may be seen in
all burial places. The ideas and subjects
would never have been accepted by poets
architects, or even the wage workers of
patterns; only manufacturers of sculp-
tured woe would ever use them. Perhaps
the mourner may derive comfort, perhaps
they who pass by may learn lessons from
the broken column, a stone teapot turned
upside down, with a stone napkin hung
over it, flower dangling from broken
stem, and though hard to make, of what
is a willing plant, an unknown flower,
with such an arrangement of corvela,
calyx and petals unknown in botany-of
what, l say, are all these emblematic? I'M
PROJECTIONS and monstrosities, who wishes
TO lowly bend and silently weep over
graves marked by such talisman?
Then the obelisk. Egypt was fond of
these; so are we. They meant something
TO them besides marking the place of
burial. What do they mean to us? They
had a place for them in their finely
graded and religiously graduated ave-
nues leading to their temples, and on far
up the eye was invited to the grand
propyleum. They covered them with
hieroglyphics that he who hurried by
might learn his doom and where rested
honor, greatness, and devotion combined
In the time of the Inquisition, Hindoo
devotion, human sacrifice, revolving re-
ligious exercises, and the gros sest super
stition, the people had the sarcophagus;
so have we. This manner of burial has,
indeed, classical authority. 1t had its
uses, but when placed over grave as we
place it, how does the definition we gave
1t apply?
On visit to any cemetery one may see
attempts at all of these and more. One
may see them made in imitation of buck.
cts, churns, tables. steps, doors, disks,
and some partaking of all the innate love
illness of country fireplace and a cast
iron stove. Yes, our burial places are
full of these, little obelisks, big obelisks.
big red granite and gray, white marble
and sandstone. zinc, glass and iron.
crowding and jostling each other amid
the green turf end iron ratings, the lat
ter emphasizing by their allegories the
wholesale repetition Of the same symbol.
for when We desire to see inverted urns
by the dozen, and torches by the score.
go to the city of the dead for the study
No nightmare can be worse. These
things are not pleasant, but We should
not make pleasure grounds of burial
places.
Happy people prefer not to be remind
ed of death at all, hence those seek their
sylvan retreats, their places of park-hke
beauty; they care but little for the names
and rarely, If ever. estimate the cost Of the
composition Of the epitaph, still less heed
what lessons are contained therein. The
mourner within the gates desires solitude.
quiet and meditation, the heart bowed
down, feelings BUNDLED and heart strings
are bleeding aud torn. but think YOU the
wound is not torn aRape afresh whom an
enemy who owns the adjoining lot has
erected a taller shaft containing more
abnormal flowers aud vines ou winter
marble than ourst
Far Boo d from thought even 10 attempt
D. detfact from the desire and IA De- as.
played pa The emlolllshmeut Of a loved
ones tomb, or che surrounding thereof.
but eu would htte thiI display ar ia,ts
lu aeaorltuta with good hunes ..r.s
aad convictions Deliver ua m iha
dasoiai1 hauQf OF che um liug