Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1890-07-17
BY PROF. j. r. ELsoM.
The marble tombs that rise ON high,
Where dead in yanlted arches lie;
These, all the poor remains of state,
A dorm the rich Oh. 111aiaa the great

of useless expenditures it would be
difficult to find a single instance whore
money is spent more foolishly and liber-
ally than in the DESTINATIONS display of
the modern funeral and the subsequent
memorials to perpetuate the name OF the
deceased. Amid the rk 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
requistion 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 il tinct.
ured literally with derision. In our
boasted state of civilization we see that
applied science and Christianity alike
have combined to teach us differently;
nevertheless the powerful chains of that
old superstition bind us still, and as we
advance each link seems to be the firmeI
welded, else why should the gathering of
costly woods, the drying. working ind
polishing, decorating them with silk and
pT6ClOUS ul0bui5, uST0ly W DC pun WH6Fe
hidden, destroyed and forgotten in the
shortest possible time, be such an i'm
portant and growing industry as it isf
The study of fashions and improvements
is indeed 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
day and then buried from sight forever
The labor Of undertakers 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 loved one in cav
| erns deep and wide, beneath the clods of
| the valley, to find larder empty, physi-
clans and apothecary unpaid, and want
and perjury 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 biz,
| though often unpaid, are among the f9t
to be recognized, for above all things it
| would not do to have the last sad rites
furnished 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 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. stone teapot turned
upside down, with stone napkin hung
over it, flower dangling from a broken
stem, and though hard to make, of what
is whiting plant, an unknown fcwer,
| with such an arrangement of corvela,
| calyx and petals unknown in botany-of
what, say, are all these emblematic2 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 us2 They
had 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
propyl@um. 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 grossest SUPER
stition, the people had the sarcophagus:
SO have we. This manner of burial has,
indeed, classical authority. Tt had it's
uses, but when placed over grave as we
place it, how does the definition we gave
1t apply2
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 fire. place and 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,
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.
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 burial
places.
| h6ppy pGOplO prefer UOG GO Dc remind
ed OF death at all, hence those seek their
sylvan retreats, their places Of park-l like
beauty; they care but little for the names.
and rarely, IL 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 humbled, and heart strings
are bleeding and torn; but think you the
wound is not torn agape afresh when an
enemy who owns the adjoining lot has
erected taller shaft containing more
abnormal flowers and vines on whittier
marble than ours?
Far be it from thought even to attempt
to detract from the desire and taste dis
played in the embellishments of loved
ones tomb, or the surroundings thereof;
but we would have this display and taste
in accordance with good, honest sense
and convictions. Deliver us from the
desoiate horror of the rural buryina
ground and neglected country graveyard.
cattle, sheep and hogs, wing with reps
tiles Shiny and vile, i'm the work of deyas~
tation and ruin. Deliver us from the
i deserted city cemetery, abandoned for q
prettier spot, left rendezvous for
thieves, robbers and sacrilegious orgies.
whose disgusting and loathsome lives are
in strange contrast with visitors when the
cemetery was in its prime. Deliver
us from those desolate graves in the
Alpine solitudes of Europe where the
little pits with stone over the mouth
cape ceaselessly until another corpse Isl
received into it's insatiate NAV. Deliver
us from the private burying ground, with