The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-02-28
SURVIVAL OF OLD CUSTOMS.
The Queer Funeral Rites of Swedish I'm
migrants in This Country.

The Queer Funeral Rites of Swedish I'M
migrants in This Country.
1t is remarkable how foreigners dUmi-
ciled in this country still cling to their
native customs. This is especially true
when they are congregated in large
numbers. The single German, French
man or Norwegian who has made his
home in some portion of this land of
liberty may still adhere to the oddities
and habits of old, but he does not meet
with the necessary encouragement
from his fellows, and probably finds
that often ridicule takes the place of the
expected appreciation.
Last summer field-hand on one of
the farms in North Dakota was struck
by lightning and instantly killed. The
proprietor of the farm notified the
parents of the unfortunate Swede of
their sons fate. They were an old
couple who owned and farmed one of
those quarter-section tracts that Uncle
Sam gives away so lavishly. They had
been in this country for many years,
their son was born here, and yet when
it came to the solemnity of burial, they
reverted at once to the memories of
their native land and its customs.
The parents did not even go to view
the body, nor attend to it's preparation
for the grave. Friends brought it home
in an ordinary farm wagon, and then,
instead of carrying it into the house,
placed the remains upon a wide plank,
resting on two upturned barrels, in the
stable. The horses grew restive, as
they always will when placed near
corpse. The cattle forgot to munich
their hay, and covered back in the
stalls showing their realization that
something unusual was happening. All
this while the dead boys parents were
busy within doors donning their best
| apparel, the aged mother even hunted
up an old hair-trunk, from the depths
of which an odd and peculiar sort of
mitre was taken, decorated with rib
bons of all possible and impossible
colors This she solemnly placed upon
her head, as she had seen it done in the
far-away home, so long ago, near the
North Cape.
They took chairs, side by side, in their
| living room and waited.
After while friends arrived, many
of them wearing odds and ends of cos
tune brought from over the ocean scores
of years ago.
Then, all excepting the parents, adj
| journed to the stable, collecting around
the body of the dead man, where re-
freshments were served, and an occa-
sional low, wailing song was chanted.
After this they proceeded to the burial
ground, ten miles away, and the last
sad rites were performed after the same
simple manner.
Strangest of ALL the two beings most
interested still sat within door, in sol
emn silence, decorated with their quaint
relics of DIRE IS. They declined to accom-
pany the funeral cortege; and hours
afterward, when the mourhers and
friends had returned, were sitting inn
movable as though spell-bound Sup
per for the entire assemblage concluded
this rather ghostly performance; but
the old people who had lost their boy
still sat silently as before, without an
expression of complaint or plea for
sympathy Was this lack of feeling
or stoicism?- Illustrated American.
AT the Theatre. .-"But, Mr. Finkel-
stein, why applaud the play so vigor-
ously when it is so execrably bad?"
'That makes no difference to me, my
dear fellow. Ilent the author 100 marks
this morning. g."-Fliegende Blatter.