The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-04

crown and sell them.
Well, after while you have paid the
undertakers bill And then, because
somebody elses child has one, you feel
that you must put up a marble monu-
ment, and for year, or perhaps two
you act the thief TO the living TO crafty
what is, after all, not duty TO the dead,
but your own vanity. You think, per-
haps, that / am n little severe. There is
not to-day one human being who has
greater respect than / for the dead, and
Tor that very reason l cannot see them
made an excuse for extravaganza, nor
can l endure their going out of this world
being made a sort of a festival day
for the mere acquaintance and the Cos
sip. What do | think is right2 I'll tell
you The first duty you owe is to the
living, but you can give your love and rev.
erence TO the dead without interfering
with that. Take up the form that you
loved, put it in its plain wooden box; if
you wish, have a little plate with its
name on it, but | think at the last great
day neither God nor you will need it to
know the dear ones, bury it quietly and
with just few, simple services, and then
come back home and go on living. Let in
the bright sunshine, and If you think, as
you will many times of that one who is no
more on earth, you will think with love
and not with horror as you would If, after
the gorgeous funeral each month found
you worried to get together the money
necessary to pay for what was simply
ridiculous.
THE PRINCES BURIAL.
When the son of the Prince of Wales
died, his father and brother walked
three miles behind the caissOn on which
his coffin rested, and after them walked
all those who wished to pay respect TO
the dead Prince. None of the women, for
on the other side they think, properly
enough, that nervous, excited, tender
hearted women are out of place in ceme
teries, and that it is the duty of the men
of the family to bear the heaviest bur
dens. Here, if that had been the son of a
salesman, or man in the middle class of
life, there would have been eight or ten
expensive carriages to be paid for, and
the family would be put in debt for
months | feel all this Just now very
much, because on the other side of human
ity | have seen so much of what l call the
burden of the dead. l know that until
the wiser Of our people insist upon fu-
neral services being simpler, funeral
trappiugs quieter, and announce the pos
sibility of great grief without yards of
Grape that this burden will rest upon the
poor forever and forever.
| do not grieve the less because | refuse
to go in debt for Grape gown, and yet
the woman Of moderate means thinks the
world will believe that she did not care
for the one who has gone before unless
she gowns herself so that she looks
gloomy, and puts a heavy veil between her
and God Almighty's sunshine
If only the dead could come back and
tell us If they could only say: MY
dear ones, you do not make me believe less
in your love or in your remembrance of
me by all this folly, and beg of you to go
on and live your lives as you have done,
and make me living memory among you
and not dead one" Who is to blame1 I
am afraid it is the people who have
plenty of money, and who have thor
oughly imbued all the rest of the world
with the idea that respect to the dead is
shown by long professions, by expensive
caskets, and by the wearing of stuffs so
gloomy that it makes death seem horrible
rather than restful
THE oUAKER's EARTH TO EARTH"
We could all learn lesson from the
gentle Quakers. Among them the coffin
in which the poor or the rich man sleeps
is perfectly plain; he is laid in the ground
about the meeting house, and at his head
is put little stone-they are all alike
on which his name is engraved When
a hundred years have gone by the stones
are taken up, the ground is plowed over,
and, behold II is ready to receive other
sleeping forms, those closest TO the living
of to-day. | have heard this called hard
hearted, but do not think it is.
When the last great day comes, and the
trumpet rings out its call, and you and /
and our dead stand waiting to hear our
names called, we may be very certain that
the sin of avarice will not be forgiven be-
cause the mahogany casket cost 1000;
that the sin of impurity will not be over
looked because the handles on 1t were
solid silver; that the sin of dishonesty
will not be wiped out because there rested
above us a monument of finest Carrara
marble. On, no. On that great day the
rich and the poor will really stand to-
gether in the sight of God, and this mortal
shall put on Immortality without there
being any question of collins or hearses, of
funeral sermons or wired flowers, or lying
obituaries; but it will be asked of each
one,
chow is IT WITH YOUR soULW
There will never be question of the
treatment given to the dead body, but all
will tend toward How did you do your
duty toward God and those whom he en-
trusted to your"
Think it over; it's worth while, and
make up your mind. if grief comes, that
you are going to do your duty TO the liv-
ing, and not make your sorrow an ever
lasting one by combining with it the hOr-
ror of debt and the continual depriving
of what belongs to the living that you
may feel that you have done like the
rest of the world to the dead. You don't
want to be like the rest of the world
You want to be honest, clear-headed and
clear-hearted, fearing no man and doing
that which is right And the right way
to treat your dead is TO give them tender
respect and to put them in the warm
arms of Mother Earth so quietly and so
simply that your grief will have due
honor given it because you have not at
tempted to frame it In vulgarity and ri
diculous display Am right2 do be-
lleve am. And l prove my belief by