The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-04-04
rrpnse. Shopper year. in advance.
Six Months 80 cents.

and going forth in all directions are
vehicles that form that melancholy
procession, to which all ParisianS lift
their hats. On entering large wing
you find large store houses, filled with
ladders, rolls of house and church
hangings in black, also complete as
sortment of white hangings for child
rem. Other rooms are filled with chair
covering, flags, temporary affairs, and
wreaths. In one large room are score
of women and sewing machines manu-
featuring draperies; large shields hang
on the walls with silver letters for the
name of the deceased, similar to our
door plates; they are changed at every
funeral.
Next we come to room filled with
benches, that would shock the late
P. L. Barnum, with seating capac
ity of thousands; now we come to
vast collection OF candleStlcks, and
numerous collections of armor. Paint
ers and gilders are at work among
this collection of the days of royalty
used for display, for the real and
would-be nobility. Some of the trap
pings of those, whom American mil
lionaire beauties seek for husbands.
The British royal arms of lSO1-1S37,
are here at commando. where George
the Fifth ended his sightless career,
and came to ask a Christian burial of
the city, which, like himself, had been
the victim of Bismarkian vengeance
and rapine Now we come to store
house filled with sawdust, saturated
with carbolc acid, which is put in
cOffins as disinfectant. Blacksmiths
and carpenters are at work the year
around. Ostrich feathers are piled
high in another department, the mag
nificence of which would stir the envy
of our Broadway shoppers. Four
hundred fine black horses are stabbed
here for hire, at twenty-five francs per
day. Carriages of all descriptions;
| closed vehicles for carrying the remains
of the dead, from the dissecting rooms
) of the colleges. The power of the lead
ers of these funeral possessions is great;
he leads, and with wand in hand
, everything must give away to him. He
resembles one of our modern police
men, with club in hand, on a busy
street corner, clearing the right Of way
/ The French with all their gaiety, are
: economical Graves are not bought,
| but rented generally for five years,
: Graves in France, are for the living,
s not for the dead. No people in the
: world derive so much pleasure from
}, the dead as the PariSians. The
f Feegean may derive pleasure from
e eating his companion, but after diges
ton, the memory is no comfort; but in
Paris Sunday is a vast holiday of
Pilgrimages to the cemeteries. The
roads swarm with bazars >of mortuary
, tributes. Infant Jesus, flowers,
~ wreaths and roses are scattered over
- the ground by anything but sad faced
~ multitude. The cemeteries are grand
- pleasure ground, and political arena,
9 Every one in France, except the indi-
-, gent, pays tax. Everything is taxed;
~ you cannot die decently, unless you
~ get a stamped and signed permit.
~ This tax entities you to the service of
- ), the public official, called ordinateur,
-. whose cooked hat, staff of Office, and
~ sash are we'll known to all the inhabit-
y ants of Paris. He is monarch of all he
- surveys; all must stand aside for him
:, and his to pass. Such are the tributes
=. paid to those who pass to that bourne
~ from which no traveller returns.
CREOLE