The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-12-03
Odd Funeral Customs.

\ correspondent of the n. Y. Herald,
writing from FOgelsville, Pa, says, in re-
ference to how the Dutch in Lehigh and
Berks counties act at funerals When a
person dies the bell of the church to which
he belonged is Immediately and severely
rung. after which the bell is tolled once
for every year the deceased lived where
upon all the people for miles around take
to inquiring "Who is dead ?"
Then the hereayed family send out mes
sengers in every direction, giving notice of
the funeral to the turthermost consauguin-
ity. To overlook even the most distant re-
lative-in-law is an objectionable offense
To complete the extensive arrangements
for the funeral, from four to six days in
tervcne between the day of death and the
day Of burial If it can be arranged to
have the funeral pageant o. Sunday, and
with the regular church service. the mourn
ers are doubly happy, for that insures
crowd, and these Sunday funerals always
assume a magnitude that amounts to Sab
bath desecration.
The funeral service begins at the house
in the early forenoon, after the gathered
mourners have breaklasted. The ofiiciat-
in" clergyman, upon his entrance into the
boryo ,,vo,t, 81 n ,,,,,,r,,,,., ,,;tb 90, - l,.,,
/ Then the choir sings, or rather attempts to
sing. After another address by the min
lister the choir sings again. Now the pro-
cession starts for the church, where full
/ service with sermon has to be endured
These funeral sermons are nearly always
far from the truth. Generally the less
1 good man has done the more good the
preacher is expected to say of him. No
matter how much man may have hated
the church when alive, when dead his
/ friends will do for his body what he would
never do for his soul.
After the sermon is finished the pastor
talks to the family, one after another, re-
minding them of their loss
Before the benediction is pronounced the
pastor reads the personal, giving full
! particulars of ancestry, date of birth, bap-
tism, confirmation, marriage, how many
children, grandchildren Ne, the disease,
how long sick and age To the day. Then,
by request of the family, the pastor thanks
the people for their attendance at the iu-
neral, and in the name of the family invites
them all to 90 back to the house of mourn
ing and get something to eat.
After "the remains have been viewed
the visitors form line in the church-yard,
while the mourners follow the corpse by
twoS to the grave, which is always in the
church-yard. where another service, with
singing, is held, and, while the intcrment
is taking place, people can be seen hasten
ING to the funeral house in order to get at
the first table
There is nothing solemn about these iu-
nerals after the services are over. Hence
forth the thing resolves itself into pie
nic The entire neighborhood suspends
work and all come to eat. saw at one
of these fress metchcs five cooking stoves in
full blast three Of them in the yard, tables
everywhere, and the meats, vegetables, pies
and cakes tumbcd and piled confusedIy
upon the tables, and the crowding and the
gormandizing would make fashionable
New York wedding dinner blush to eonlu-
sion. 1t was conservatively estimated that
three hundred dined on this occasion, and
not chicken wing was left to tell the tale,
Funerals are so expensive in this section
Of the country that it costs more to die
than ia live. have known men who died
solvent, but became insolvent before they
got under the ground | have known
families who in their false reverence and
mistaken affection have put their last dol
Iar III tHe STOUhu
The funeral dress is Just as barbarous,
irrational, gloomy, chilly and despairing as
it is in the cities. Paurs glad music over
death and the grave is everywhere muffied
by the raven feathers of funeral pIumes
The waving Grape upon the doOrknob, the
darkened windows, the body shrouded and
coffined in the color of gloom; women and
children veiled and draped in black, mems
hats banded with Grape. what hopelessness
all these things express
They symbolic doubt, despair agony
and gloom. Many young women have, |
heard, complained that they had to go into
mourning, whose only compensation was
that it was becoming to them