The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-12-15
FOND OF FINE FUNERALS.
French People Make the Last Rites On
Occasion for Great Display.

French People Make the Last Rites IN
Occasion for Great Display.
The owe of the French for display in
ceremonies has been pointed
as characteristic of the nation.
The people have a pathetic way of say
although it costs much to live in
Paris, it costs still more to die" This
is, as a measure, true, and that it is sc
is due to the fact that the government
has a monopoly of the work of burying
the dead, and has established a scale
of prices by which the style of funeral
is regulated, from that costing hun
dreds of dollars to the one which opens
the fossc commune common gravel.
As a rule the French are fond of fine
funerals. For statesmen Of the
first rank tie government DEGREES
a state funeral, which is an &C.
casion of great display and fire.
quently leads to political demonstra-
tions; but private funerals are also
and many a man who has lived
with the utmost all his life
is laid to rest with princely pomp.
The door of his residence is hung with
black curtains, embroidered with sill
yer; his monogram, in silver, is on all
the mourning coaches which follow the
hearse; the drivers are dressed in
black, with knee breaches, high boots.
three-cornered hats and long Grape
streamers on their arms; the horses
for the hearse are caparisonsd with
sweeping draperies of black and sill
yer, and on the hearse itself are plumes
and silver figures of angels and cher
nbs. Then, too, the custom of sending
out notices Of the death and invitations
to the funeral is very common, and
sometimes those notices are Is elab-
crate and as elegantly engraved as the
most expensive wedding cards or invi.
tations to q ball.
' In striking contrast with the decor.
GUS funerals of the rich are the scenes
when the body of . very fpoor person
is to be laid in the grave. The city Is
strict in regard to them. The body
can only be kept twenty-four hours
from the time Of death, and It must be
buried in a coffin made Of thin deal
boards, implanted, unvarnished and 90
slight that it is always wrapped uE
and fastened with ropes lest it should
come to pieces. It is taken to the
grave in a hearse which is hardly bet
ter than q dray. At the fosse com
mune the priest is allowed to Include
six funerals in one service. Fully Il
explain the necessity for the fosse com
mnne, it is necessary to say q wors
about French graveyards. They ar,
governed entirely different from ours
and their object seems to be to affort
graves to the millions who are dead
without taking toe much space
from the millions who live. In Ger
tain parts Of the cemetery graves ma,
be bought outright, though at enor
nous prices, and remain forever in tn
possession of a family. In other ssc
lions the graves are bought singly 70
five years from the date of burial, an
at the end Of the specified time tn
bones are taken up and buried in tn
fosse commune. The fosse commune
lowest grave of all-is . ditch twelv
feet deep, twelve feet wide and - LON
as the size of the graveyard permits
Here the collins are put side by side Il
two rows. the heads meeting in tn
center. VIXEN . certain number r 4
the ditch it Is closed, and ON anothe
layer of earth more cofins are aftel
ward laid. When the ditch is filed I
the surface anothSr One alongside
opened, and so until fAe available spac
is used up. Then the first ditch h n
opened and fresh collins arN put in |
place of the old ones, whi0hrksve d
cayed.-Baltimore Sun.