Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-07-04

After a careful study of the catalogue
IF useless expenditures 1T would be
difficult to find q single instance where
is spent more toolishly and liber-
ally than in the ostentatious display of
the modern funeral and the subsequent
memorials TO perpetuate the name OF b
Amid the d rk ages, when the
devotee had been educated to believe that
all hopes of Immortality and happiness
consisted in the preservation o. the ex-
ternal form of man after death, . ere was
good reason that precious spices md the
embalmeY's art should be broL snt into
requis,,ion and added to the .~lnssive
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 m%ausoleum
of the mound builders, our awe is tinct-
ured literally with derision. In u
boosted state of civilization we see that
applied science and Christianity alike
nevertheless the powerful chains of that
old superstition bind us still, and as we
advance each link seems to be the tirmer
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 a pleasant task, but when
placed in the show window of the under
taker how distasteful and repulsive the
task. Yet how lovingly we examine them
how careful to select the finest woods
and most costly fabrics to be seen for a
day aud then buried from sight forever.
The labor of undertakers is a labor of
money. In the gilded trappings and
costly eluippages of the dead is the
money which rightfully belongs to the
living. How many a mourner has re-
turned from placing a loved one in cav
erns deep and wide, beneath the clods of
the valley, to find a larder empty, physi-
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
tarn IS he'd with debt.
Again, after all 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 a display of
~stoncutting, of sculpture, may lie seen in
all burial places. The ideas and subjects
would never have been accepted by poets,
architects. or even. the whge-workers of
patterns; only munuf.cturars Of sculp-
tured mo7 would ever use 1lem. Perhaps
the mourner may derive comfort, perhaps
they who pass by may lie !rn lessons from
the broken column. a stone teapot turned
upside down, with n stone napkin hung
over it, a flower dangling from a broken
stem, aud though ha,d to make, of what
is a willing plant, an unknown flower,
with such an arrangement OF corvela,
calyx and petals unknown in botnny-ot
what, ] say, are all these e~mblematic? I'm
perfections and monstrosities, who wishes
to lowly bend and silently weep over
graves marked by such a talisman?
Then the obeli-k. Egypt was fond of
these; so are we. They meant something
TO them besides marking tho place of
burial. What do they mean 20 US? They
had a place for them in their finely
graded md relig;ouSly era :uated ave-
nues leading to their temple, aud on far
up the eye was invited to the grand
propylnum. They covered them with
hleroglyph:cs, that no who hurried by
hoaor, greatness, and devotion combined.
In the time of the lnquisit,on, Hindoc
devotion, human sacr ii 4e, revolving re-
ligious exercises, and the grossest super
SIT on, the people had the sarcophagus;
so have we. This manner of burial hos,
indeed. classical authority. 1t had its
uses, but when placed OYER a grave as We
place it, how does the ddinit,on we gave
it apply?
On a visit to any cemetery one may see
attempts at all of these ind more. One
may see them made in imitation of buck.
cts, churns, tables, stepi, doors, disks
and some partaking of ell theinnate love
Illness of a country fireplace and a cast
iron stove. Yes, our fArial places arr
full Of these, little obelijks, big obelisks
big red granite and gray, white marble
and sandstone. zinc. glass and iron
crowding and jostling each other amid
the green turf md iron rulings, the lat.
ter emphasizing by theif a%liegories the
Wholesale repetition of the same symbol
oSoi1o w u u1ue
by the dozen, and torches by the score
60 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 buria
places.
Happy people prefer not to be remind.
ed Of death at all, hence those seek thei
sylvan retreats, their places of park-likt
beauty; they care bit little for the names
and rarely, if ever, estimate the cost of til.
composition of the epitaph, still less heet
what lessons are contained therein. Tn,
mourner within the gates desires solitude
quiet md meditation, the heart bowed
down, feelings humbled, and heart string
are bleeding and torn; but think you tn
wound is not torn agape afresh when 81
9nsmy who OWNS the adjoining lot ha
erected a taller shaft containing nor,
abnormal flowers and vines N white
marble than ours?
Far be it from thought even TO attemp
I detlact from the desire and taste dis
played in the embellishments of a love-
ones tomb, or the surroundings thereof
nut we would have this display and taste
in accordance with good, honest sens