The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-24

assemblages to which not only every one
who had ever remotely known the dead
person, but even crowds of strangers.
came attracted by a morbid curiosity.
are now practically things of the past,
Only in the case of some great man whose
public career has made him known to
thousands of people is the immense
church funeral still regarded as necessa-
ry. comparative few of the intimate
friends of the family are all that are now
generally expected to be present at the
house.
sign that the idea or quietness and
simplicity is frequently carried still fur
! Their is to be found in the words now
so often appended to a printed death no.
tice, Funeral private" The same reform
has been carried out in the matter of fol-
lowing the body to the cemetery A few
years ago long procession of coaches in
the rear of the hearse was the regular and
expected thing-the very sign and symbol
of funeral. Now, one or two carriages
are more common than greater numbers.
1t is no longer considered in good taste
to make, as it were, literally parade of
ones grief.
Some peculiar and rather grewsome rem
iniscences told by a woman hair-dresser
last week indicate a decided Improvement
in one direction toward funeral reform.
you don't know what a relief it is to
me-" she said, mot to have to go out any
more to dress the hair of corpses 1t was
the most dreadful ordeal 1 ever experience
ed, and I finally grew so nervous over it
that l had to tell the proprietors here that
! they would have to send some one else.
thought, perhaps, a younger girl might
stand it better than l could. But, fortu-
nately, she has not had to go much either
The custom of making an elaborate ar
rangement of the hair in honor of the fun
eral is fast dying out, and it is a blessed
thing that it is so. Why, inappropriate
as it sounds now, a few years ago people
wanted the hair of a dead woman to be
frizzed and curled and puffed to an extent
usually much greater than she had ever
worn it in life. The fussiest coiffures that
we could possibly have designed for a bali
were not a bit too fanciful for a funeral
An experienced hairdresser had to be call
ed upon for this, and as 1 say, have serv-
ed my apprenticeship at the work
81 suppose it was partly the utter incon-
gruity of such frivolity with the GOODNESS
and solemnlty of death which made the
task so horrible 1t seemed to me that
shrank from 1t more each time. Then il
was very difficult as you can imagine, to
keep the corpse in such a position that
could manipulate the long hair. The body
was always prefectly rigid, as it lay up
on the table or bed. The undertaken or
his assistants had to bend it forclbly in
order to raise the head so that I could
work, and then support it in that position.
What added to my dislike of the oper-
alton was seeing how roughly most men
handled the bodies They would pull and
bend them about as unfeelingly as If
they were wood, instead Of the remains Of
delicate human beings. 1t seemed par
ticularly horrible TO have the corpses of
women treated in that brutal way, and 1
often wished l could have worked with
woman undertaken. They would naturally
be more gentle. and 1t seems more appro-
pirate The hairdresser's work is not
called for so much now, as | told you.
The hair is just parted and smoothed
away from the forehead usually by some
member of the family, and l certainly
think 1t is fitting to have it as plain as
possible"
The suggestion regarding women as I'M
dertakers is not new. There are. I'm fact
several IN this city and Brooklyn and
they have been successful at the BUSH
ness Many people have the natural feel
ing expressed by the hairdresser. that
women should take charge of the bodies
of women, and It is in this line that the
women undertakers have obtained their
patronage. Without doubt the idea is des-
tined TO spread. and the only obstacle even
now to its increase is that instructive