Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-14
THE EXPENSE OF FUNERAL
From Harper's Weekly.


1t is the most natural thing in the world
to do honor to the dead. Some eastern peo-
pies regard the dead with more considera-
ton than the living. and in a certain sense
worship their ancestors. Western people
under the Christian dispensation regard
the body of a deceased person merely as
clay-cIay worthy of honor. to be sure, but
clay from which nearly all meaning has
departed. But there appears TO be the
strongest kind OF desire to honor this dead
clay. and this desire has been strengthened
by custom, by poetry and by religion. Fu-
neral customs have become so firmly estab-
Hshed that among poor people the expense
Of what is considered proper burial adds
another pang to death thrifty and
proyident man whose scant earnings pre-
clude any considerable savings more fire.
quently than not joins some society which
undertakes to bury with decency and pro-
priety the members to die. These socie-
tbs are usually of the assessment kind.
and whenever a member dies each living
member Is assessed from fifty cents to a
dollar This yields anywh here from
hundred TO two hundred and fifty dollars.
and this sum, whatever 1t amounts to. Is
paid 10 the dead members family. The
writer has been informed by a man who is
connected in an executive capacity with
two such societies that il Is rarely the case
that any of such money Is left after the
funeral expenses have been paid, but, on
the contrary, more frequently than not, the
family pays from its savings runs into
debt. so that greater honor may be shown
to the merely senseless clay. from which
all that was sacred or immortal has de-
parted
The independent poor in America have a
deep-seated horror of being buried by char
ity. by the public authorities or in the pot
ter's field. They are therefore willing to
make sacrifices while living to prevent this
when dead. and the living do not shrink
from contracting debts that the dead be-
longing 10 them may be buried in what
they consider suitable manner. And there
Is another popularity about the funeral ex-
peHses of the poor. They regard debts so
contracted debts OF honor that must be
discharged in preference to any others.
The doctor who tried to save the dead per-
sons life. the grocer who furnished sup
Plies, the landlord who gave shelter-all
these must wait till the undertakers bill
be paid
Many persons of enIig htenment and
healthy sentiment have thought for a long
time that it would be a good thing from
every point of view TO reform burial Gus
toms 50 that the expense should not tear
so heavily on the poor. and so that grave
yards should not be a menace to the public
health. as. in not few instances, they
now are. In the valley of the Schuylkill,
from which Philadelphia draws its water
supply. there are a great many graveyards,
all draining into the water courses tribu-
tary to the Schuylkill Many diseases have
been traced to the pollution of the water
supply from these graveyards. and one wit
has charged the inordinate family pride of
Philadelphians to the fact that they were
continually partaking of their ancestors in
solution
These reformers seem to be agreed that
the most sensible method Of disposing of
the dead Is by incineration, and within the
past thirteen years twenty-four cremato-
ries have been erected in the United States
so that dead bodies might be burned u1
with reverence and decency.
For exceptional deserving cases a whole
cremation funeral may be arranged at
total cost of twenty dollars. but the reg.
Mar charge for creTnatins body will rur
from twenty-five dollars to thirty-ffve dol.
lars. OF course. this charge must not be
considered an offset to the ordinary funeral
charge, but rather against that Of the
cemetery and grave digyers.
But when sensible people know that a
coffin Is to be Immediately burned up. and
discard the idea that IL Is to serve as the
perpetual bed for the loved and lost, some
Of them will conclude that the ive-dollar
coffin will answer quite as well as that
which costs fifty or 1--WE hundred dollars.
The idea OF incinerating the dead Is
spreading IN America, but not very rap
idly. Statistics recently published from
The Urn. the organ of the Cremation So
ciety, state that $50 bodies have been