DeSoto times. (Hernando, Miss.) 1879-1898, 1890-01-02
ther anil mother was opiot .nd .n,o-

OF entering our warerooms to make an,
selections; he merely sent for me to cal
al MS house and then quietly requested
me 10 make all necessary arrangements
ior the funeral, and, handing me blank
check with his signature attached, bade
me fill it out myself.
Occasionally we receive orders fol
persons who are alive and we'll, and
whose chances of living to ripe old
age are apparently as good as yours or
mine. Some of these customers have
thelr caskets sent to their homes.
others prefer to leave them with us,
and we have on hand now three of them
waiting for their future occupants. One
OF them was built to order for a fat,
Jolly stock broker who is in bust
ness on Nassau street. Occasionally he
calls around to take look at it, and
generally he taken off his boots and in
slsts on getting into it, viewing himself
with a hand glass to see how he will
LOOK when he is laid out. We have had
this casket ready for him for three
years, and the last time he called he
found that he was growing so fat that it
was getting to be a pretty tight fit for
hlm; he is considering the advisability
OF having new one made, Occasional
ly, too, we receive an order from people
who are very sick and expect to die,
but who get well. They pay us for the
casket just the same, and as they some-
times move out of town to some other
city we sell the goods to somebody else.
and are just so much in. This is not
frequent occurrence, but it helps little
to make good the bad bills which we in
cur.
MANY people who come to us have
dreadful fear that they may be buried
alive, and while there is remote possi-
bility that this might happen have
never known single instance of it in
all my experience. These people insist
upon my promising to observe the ut
most precaution, even so far as to run
red hot needles into their bodies, and
other equally barbaric treatment, before
they are finally consigned to the earth.
About four years ago a young man
called upon me one morning, in
terrible state of agitation.
He had dreamed the night
before that his sister, who had been re-
Gently buried, had come to life after
being placed under the sod. tried to
prove to him the utter improbability of
such an occurrence, but without avail
He Insisted that her grave should be
opened, that he might be satisfied. /
was actually horror-stricken at the sug-
gestion, not that / had the remotest idea
that his dream could prove true, but the
thought flashed across my mind that if
it should be 50 the shock would make |
him a raving maniac. | tried to per-
suade him to defer the matter until the |
following day, but he positively refused,
Finally, as there was no other way out |
of it, consented, and having obtained |
the necessary permit, the body was ex-
humed, and to my inexpressible relief
the absurdity of the young mans dream
was proven. The effect on him was
magical He looked sorrowfully on the
face of his dead sister moment and
then burst into flood of tears, and, |
throwing his arm around my neck, he
wept from pure excess of joy.
"Some people have peculiar notions I
about burial. | have oftentimes been
requested to place the coffin in the grave
with the head pointing toward the north,
or vice versa. Once / was asked If the
coffin could not be placed standing up
right in the grave-a request which, of
course, / was unable to grant.
Some people, too, are superstitious
about being buried on certain days
of the week, and leave a special
order that their funeral shall take
place on a certain day. Then there are
peculiar fancies in regard to flowers and
the hymns which shall be sung. Such
matters as these are, of course, within
reason, and are always complied with.
The queer and outlandish tastes of some
people are exemplified in the case of
Joe Beef, well-known Montreal char
acter, q recently deceased, who on the
of his wife's funeral some years
ago, ordered the brass band which ac-
the funeral procession to the
cemetery to play The Girl | Left Be-
lind Me- on the way back.
"a custom which has sprung up re-
,ently, and which in many respects is a
rood one, is to have stenographer
present at the funeral services to take
lown the funeral oration, prayers, and
10 on. These are afterward type-writ-
ON in appropriate form, the hymns be-
ng incorporated with the report. /
know of at least one stenographer in
his city who makes a speciality of this
inc of business, and as he has but lit
lie competition he makes good thing
,ut of it. His minimum charge is fif-
cen dollars, and frequently he receives
IS high as fifty dollars for his services.
lie watches closely the obituary col {
INNS of the daily newspapers and
egularly calls upon number of under
akers.
"As rule no unpleasant incident oc-
,urs to mar the successful carrying out
# funeral ceremony. Of course, the {
.irector must have his wits constantly
bout him and must be thoroughly ex- c
had one experience, though,
which was most embarrassing and which
aused no end of trouble. IL was through I
80 cicta vrtC @