The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-20
BURIED IN MILD PEA GREEN.
A Travelling MANS Tnie OF . Community
where CasLcts Were Nnns-HIued.

where Caskcts wcre NInns -HIued.
when ! read that Millionaire Richardson
had his coffin made thirty years or more ago
and that 1t proved too small for him i was re-
minded OF n man who lived in n little isolated
town in Lincoln county, Maine" said a travel
ling man. Il was travelling in that part OF
Maine with q friend who was well acquainted
through there. and when we came to this little
town l noticed n small wooden building at one
sido Of the single street curlously decorated
with waves Of paint Of various colors. giving
the front of tho shop very much tho appearance
of a reproduction of a rainbow.
Now, said my friend. 'you would hardly
take that gay.looking establishment to be an
undertaker's shop, would your
81 assured him that / would take 1t to BIO any
thing else in the world but that.
"'That is what 1t is, ul the same said my
friend. Those dashes OF paint arc tho samples
from which the undertakcr's customers mako
their choice OF the hue they desire to have on
the coffin they are ordering. Now, maybe that
is hard to believer
II told him that it was about as hard n thing
to swallow as / had ever run up against.
"'True, every word of IL! he declared. L
don't know what ever prompted that undertaken
to adopt and insist on fancy colors for painting
his collins, but he did it, a long time ago.
Then he told me all about II. The town is
u Soou many HlllCb TOu any OlucE IlUtC HcIC
there is an undertaken, and it costs money to
get there and back, and money is something
these good people haven't an over stock OF. So,
although they kicked a little when the under
takcr introduced his notion of colored collins,
they gradually fell in with it, and now they
wouldn't think Of ordering an ordinary every
day black coffin. They have different tastes as
to color in their mortuary receptaclcs. and it
has got to be the custom to refer to the village
funerals. which are not frequent, as pink
| funerals. or blue Or yellow. or green mr. Durnlp
funerals. 1t is said that pale blue and orange
orf ,Sxp Of q e etmaf. nHi nU OF c Sha then a coffin is
lagc: %nnumber OF years ago, after thinking the
matter over. declared that he never would be
buried in n painted coffin; SO one day he went
twenty-five miles to another place, where he got
was ii finished, and brought 1t home in his wagon.
.h ".Iaere, said he to his wife when he brought
ono decent funeral In this town, and that'll be
mine. No barber pole coffin for met
- His wife was taken somewhat aback when
the old man dumped his coffin down in front Of
her, and when he insisted that she SHOULD go
The idee! she exclaimed. The idee O. folks
seFs ,hSy'f EIDE, dead! You don't le e"Sif mo non a do Pa;
,";why, mother argued the old man. yer
oo.n. S SMa sTI "a replied tho Wife; but they'll
the old man exclaimed. You don't ca'clate to
have one O them barbcr.pole collins. do yer
NO. Jest a nice pink one said the wife.
The old man ripped and tore. and protested
on II pink coffin, and that. was all there was to it.
The old man threatened to get a divorce. and
even went 50 far as to take advice on it from an
ter went. But the couple, who, had lived peace
fully enough together up to the disagreement
over the coffin. passed their remaining years Of
their companionship with relations not a little
The old man slowed his coffin in his barn.
and as time went on without occasion coming
for odds and ends OF things that accumulated
about the barn. AT last. though. after several
The widow, although she still had her mind set
on n pink coffin for herself, did not care to insist
on her late husbands being buried. so to speak.
with lying co.ors, and, being at the same time
OF n frugal mind and thrifty bent, she had tho
antc-mortcm caskct dug out from beneath the
hay and beans and cornstalks and other rub
bish that had long covered it, and prepared
for the reception of its owners remains. But
when they tried to place them in the coffin they
found that the deceased had taken on such add
tional bulk between the date OF his measure
mcnt for the coffin and the date OF his death
emergency. The services OF the undertaken
that the deceased had so contemptuously dubbed
the 'barber-pole coffin man haC to be called in.
Its somcthin' that can't be helped the
compromise as much as kin. and have it made
a mild pea green. l don't think that Danl, sot
in his ways as he was, could object to mild pea
green
in q caskct of mild pea green. His widow, in
settling the undertaker's bill, labored with that
unique artist long and earnestly to have him
take tho ante-mortcm coffin as part pay for the
You can call it secondhand. she said, and
20! R ar t horK Hp ~ orer tn r hahdiest kind: ~, ,
don't know what the ,disconsolate widow ever
did with the mistit coffin"