Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-04-07
4 NsR MAN.
--an-ny DeIusion of a Curious Charss
ter Who Follows the HeaEse

ter who Follows the HeaEse.
Afuneral procession wound its gloomy
wAy down Mission street. The car
riages rolled heavily over the pave
ment.
The hearse was a white one, and the
little coffin inside was covered with
flowers.
An old man passing along stopped
and raised his hat as the heare passed
him, and a groupof noisy street gamin
Stopped their play a moment. As the
last carriage turned the come a strange
figure shambled into sight-a weird
hgure that seemed TO loom suddenly
out of the mist like aspecter-the figur
of a tall old mar running.
He was running as fast as he could
with a sort of halting limp that brought
him every minute nearer the last a
rage. He stumbled painfully over a
stone in the street. but he never paused
he limped breathlessgy on, his wild
eyes glowing with an eager light. be
was a thin, gaunt old man with a bag
gard face and jaws that moved horn
bly,.
Just as the procession stopped at the
church the strange figure stumbled for
ward.
When the little coffin was lifted teS
derry from the white hearse the figure
pushed eagerly up to the steps. Tha
paIIbearers walked carefully up the
stairs to the door.
On the topmost step stood the tad
man. He was still. Ills lean arm wa
stretched out in a stately gesture. His
wild eyes were aLghr with a fanatics
enthusiasm.
. When the coffin p ssed him he waved
ms stick with a < ngy dignity. He
muttered somethinc to himself. A pc
6ceman took him ~ the arm.
Move on he sid
The tall man 81 srted suddenly. Th-
light faded from mis- face. He impeo
sleztiy away. A little child standing
s-sa the steps clutched her mother.
''Oh," she said, terrified, there u
the funeral man.
The funeral man is a well known
character. All the u~ndertakers know
him. All the sections know him, but
no one knows where he lives.
Some horrid intuition seems to tell
him where the unburied dead are ly-
ing. He haunts the afflicted neighbor-
hood until the funeral procession forms.
Then he hurries behind the carriages
and always manages TO reacht the church
IN time TO meet the coffin as it is borne
to the church. Sometimes a cortege
starts without his haunting shape, but
he always starts into sight somewhere
and hurries, limping, after the last car.
rage.
He is very tall and very thin. Hi.
Raunt figure is incased in tight fitting
frock coat. which is shiny and thread.
bare, but scrupulously neat. His head
Is covered by a gray cap and he carrie:
IN his hand a long stick. He never
speaks to any one nor does he reply
when a addresses him.
= No one ever sees him except at g
funeral. He seems to think it his mis-
SION to mutter his mysterious words
over the bodies of the dead. Whether
they be curses or blessings no one car
Ruess. There is scarcely a church in
the city upon whose steps he has nol
stood and waved his gaunt arm in mys
terious greeting to a silent figure in tbs
egfin-
The drivers of the hearses know
him, and look back expectantly at the
sound Of his stumbling limp.
The little children Of the poor, VIII
wander aimlessly in the wake of an!
procession, know him, and shrink ava.
frightened al his approach Yet he ma
never harmed them. He sees NOTHING
but the nodding of the mourning
plumes. He listens only TO the rumbl
of the heavy wheels of a hearse.
No one knows his name or how b
lives. He Is simply the Funeral Man.
To what strange happening be owe
this ghoulish fancy who can sayl-Sa
Francisco Examiner.
Snakes Legs.
IT.. - Tv-a vorv finely DFnTrorn