Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-01-19

To tho old mans shaking hand,
Saying this is all bring We
From the braveSt of the land!"
'sWoe, woe and lamentation,
What piteous cry was therel
Widows, maidens mothers, children
Shrieking, sobbing in despair!'
20, the blacklist day. for Scotland
That she ever knew before!"
That is the picture of hopeless despair
ing defeat, irreparable loss. Is that what
death is to you? Then are ye barbarians
and not Christians. For the Christian
death is victory. If anybody wants to
hang Grape on my study door now, I have
nothing to say, it is appropriate, for get
defeated many times each day, but let no
one hang it there when I am dead for then
for the first time in my life I have passed
beyond the reach of defeat. Most appro-
priately might we all wear black now, and
our friends dress in black for us, if they
want to show sympathy, for we all are
daily sad and defeated, but let them not
wear black for US when we are dead, for
then we are happy, victorious. There
is nothing in all our lives becomes
any of US like the leaving them. Let
there be uniform for mourning if you
will, but not black. Flowers are most
beautiful and most appropriate at
luueTdlS, uauSnIeTs oil III WHlCe
because they make them bright,
promise; laurels ought to be wreathed
around the head and coffin of every dead
Christian. That would be Christian burial.
Still those very flowers would have
given more joy if used some other way
perhaps. l suppose when 1 die all my
friends will send some flowers. I wish
they would send them now SO that the
public and could get some pleasure out
of them; maybe that is selfish though.
Well, must pass on to some more prac-
teal considerations for have not much
hope of changing crepe and alpaca into
green laurels and sunny white. But
have little hope of persuading some
family not to impoverish themselves over
the funeral of a relative who loved them
too we'll to wish that they should do that.
The display which we make at our funer-
ais everybody knows is relic of heathen-
ism, paganism, barbarism.
A death in poorish family is
get the means to bury the dead
in the way they call decent9
There is but one way, and that is to i'm
povsrish themselves, to incur a debt
which it may take half lifetime to pay.
Why, old people are accustomed frequent
ly to save with all their nights that there
may be little something to bury them
with. People seem to have an idea that
the costlier the funeral the more it shows
their love. You can't show love to dead
person. Alas, no; you must show men
and women love before they die if it is to
do them any good. All that at best you
can do is display your love before the
world. While everybody knows that cost
ly funerals are half the time only desper-
ate efforts to hide lack of love, to soothe
guilty conscience. The expense is
monstrous from beginning to end. A
woman, the wife of man who was by
no means rich, drew from the bank the
other day $500 to buy half lot in Laurel
Hill cemetery to bury her husband. OF
course that was in the city; figure on it
here and see how it comes out: Fifty dol
lars is moderate for a casket, 81 for the
hearse, five carriages at least So apiece, and
see what dreadful expense working
man has to meet when his child dies, and
all the time he is haunted by the thought
that his child, which he loves just as dear
ly as the rich man loves his, cannot have
as nice burial. Oh, it is terrible to think
of the anguish these things cause, to say
nothing of the long areas of debt they
leave behind. It costs some men more to
die than to live. Before the funeral Of 8
poor man killed on the railroad in Michi-
gan collection was made for the family
The lumbermen and railroad men gave
generously, but the wife insisted in put.
ting every cent of it into casket in which
to display the dead. 1t was useless tc
plead with her that the living children
needed the money more than the dead
father, and that the dead father would
much prefer that they should have it
Into the ground went every dollar. Many
a man who was solvent while he lived has
become insolvent when he died. Is mo-
to it these manufactured terrors of pecu
mary embarrassment? Many families have
actually been reduced to pauperism by
their efforts to meet this barbarous anc
wicked custom, having buried their las
dollar in the ground.
The piteous wall of the poor, the Mace
DOMAIN cry of the heather, is heart
on all sides and yet annually the useles,
display at funerals is costing fabulou
sums Dr.. Charles A. Purdy of Chicag'
Investigated the subject short time ag'
and found among other startling fact
that one and e-fourth times more none,
is expended annually in the United State
for funerals than for schools. More mon
ey for moth and corruption than for the
living souls of the children. In 1880 tn,
funerals of the country cost enough t,
pay the liabilities of all the financial fail
ures of the country and give each ruined
man capital of So, $50 to start on again
|/Some expenses are necessary of course, but
not one-twentieth of the expenses ",
make, and some of them are so meaning
less, SO senseless. The plate on cofir
costs five dollars at least, which it woult
take poor man some time to save Out
of small wages, and what does it meana Il
it that God may know who is sleeping un
der it, or is it that we may know that i
is our friend who is deada A well-know1
business man remarked naively to hi
family that they should put no plate o,
his coffin; the people that cam,
to his funeral would know VIII,
he was. I am not speaking these words t,
criticise our customs, but, if possible, i
only for one heart, to make the burdens O
burdensome time more merciful to you
If people are poor these customary expen
SEES are dreadful cruelty to them; if the,
are rich it is dreadful waste to commit t,
the dust that which might be used for tn
comfort of many burdened heart, ant
the conversion, actual conversion to Cox
of many an srring soul. Is that honorin,
the deada It were well enough to bur,
some hard-hearted, selfish man that way
but not the kind and the generous, for i
bellies their lives, which were neve
thoughtless, never unkind. And oh, na1
friends, what can you take away from thu
power of death by these mummeries; wha
can you add to the splendors of the resur
rectiona Nothing is grander tnan death
itself; nothing more beautiful than tn,
emancipated soul. Anything which de-
tracts from these great thoughts is not onl,
poor taste, but unchristian.
Let me plead with you gently and will
myself, for tits not your custom, but ours
that I am condemning for the removal o,
one more of our ancient barbarisms, anG
that is the custom of viewing the remains
would not dare to relate her,