San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-02
MODERN FOSSORII.
THE UNDERTAKINGS OF SAN AN
TONIC.
Popular Aversion-Cost OF a Flu
matchmaking Corpse
Bad Job.

iolloi, hds louE ubucIUohcIes iNCOos
nizing that in our cosmopolitan popu.
latlon they must have experienced
many interesting and instructive
things, the reporter watched his op.
tunity and caught local undertaken
while enjoying a few minutes rest
from his dreary vocation. From him,
who by the way is one of our most
popular citizens and one of the ablest
undertakers, the writer gained the
following straight talk:
1--WE become undertakers just like
a man goes into every other business.
There are few things necessary in
learning our profession. A person
has to be good embalmer and a
man of strong nerves. That is the
reason why some people can never
make good undertakers. They can
not stand handling dead bodies.
Others again, are not actually able
to EN- balm the bodies. This is some
thing that has to be learned land the
speaker pointed to a diploma issued
to him from school of embalming.
"Do you practice the mode of en-
balming that was in vogue in Pha-
roah's land, or could you duplicate
the italian mode of petrefaction?"
"Wo modern people claim to do
Egyptians did. While we can not
say that the bodies that we have en-
balmed have lasted or will last thous-
ands of years, yet the bodies that
modern undertakers preserve have
kept natural and recognizable for the
length of ten or twenty years, while
the famous Egyptian mummies are
discolored and contorted pieces of hui
mainly"
LAS to petrefaction, that is imprac.
ticable, for body will not always
petrify, it depending chiefly upon the
soil in which 1t is embedded"
1.-THE popular aversion to the under
takers profession, however; how do
you account for it? Did you enter
tain the same aversion before you
went into the business?"
"True, there is popular aversion to
the profession, which undoubtedly is
due to the singularity of the profess
sion and the adherence of some
people for dead bodies and the objects
relating to them. 1 have been
in tho undertaken profession all
of my business years and have of
course, overcome all of these aver
sions."
sis the ordinance prohibiting cross
ing funeral procession a good one?"
"The ordinance Is, in itself, very
good, but it Is the execution to which
some objection might be raised, for 1t
Is often carried too far. Here is case:
Some time since woman was arrest
ed and fined for driving through q
funeral procession. She could not
remember what funeral procession
she had crossed; or in what street il
was. She did remember, how
ever, that she had seen one
process. \, and waited until it had
passed before she drove on. Now,
there happened to be few stragglers
away behind, whom no one would
have ever thought belonged to the
funeral. The lady was fined. There
are several such cases on record, but
barring these extreme ones, the law
is very good"
"The other law, which prohibits
undertakers exposing their wares for
sale, has no sense and reason In 1t, and
is simply based upon the peoples aver
sion to the undertaker's profession.
Texas is the only state in which you
can find city having any such ordi.
nance as that. We do not wish to
put up an elegant display of goods
upon the street, in the doors, or win
dows like the dry goods or fancy
goods man, but we want to have the
right to expose them to view inside of
our establishment. In front there
you will notice some of the collins ex-
posed to the view of parties entering
the house. The city authorities had
formerly compelled us to have them
covered up, but we have removed the
cover, and if the matter comes to court,
we propose to make test case out OF
it and see IL the undertaken, who
pays license, has not the same right
to expose his goods, inside OF his own
house, as any merchant. There is no
reason or sense in the law"
"The undertakers are great sani-
tarians, if they know their business;
if not, then they could do consider
able harm. 1 know of case recently
where lady died of typhoid fever.
The undertaken failed to pierce the
stomach and allow the gases that had
accumulated within the body to pass
Off through deodorizing fluid. AS q
consequence, the gases continued to
increase and began to purge out of
the mouth. The stencil, was told,
was almost unbearable. The dead
woman's grieving sisters constantly
kissed the dead face with this awful
gas escaping out of the mouth. 1t