The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-17
NEW STYLE or hEARSE.
Vehicle without Columns or Glass Carved
From Solid Wood.

Vehicle Without Columns OF Glass Carved
From Solid Wood.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Artistic funerals are not
from the point of view of the funeral
director, but they do not always appeal
to the artistic sense Of the lookers-on.
Styles in funerals, like in all other
things of human design. change as
time passes, but the somber shadow,
the pail and darkness have been re-
tanned in some way, as most expressive
of the feelings of those who are left
to follow later. While cofins were dis
carded for 'caskets' with every vari-
ETY. of shape and decoration, the hearse
has remained the same. glass windows
at sides and rear, that the public might
know from the sidewalk, just what the
style of the coffin was, and the expense
which the family thought would be
about the proper sum for the final at
tention to the departed. hi invited
competition among all classes, until
the expenses of funerals became a bur-
den too large to be paid by many OF
the survivors.
But all of this is changing now,
thanks to the funeral directors. who
seem to be earnestly at work to edu-
cate the public away from the practice
of expensive funerals. And the first
step has been the roduc OF the
closed hearse. The hearse could not
be Invested Of its character as a con-
veyance for the dead, and therefore 1T
had to be altered to give the tone and
style which had formerly been expend-
ed on the coffin and it's A
coffin might be plain IL conveyed to the
cemetery in a closed hearse, because the
coffin would be used but once, while
the nearse might be a thing of beauty.
for 1t could be used over and over
again.
And thus It a come about hat the
part of the funeral equipment which
is not buried has been made more and
more beautiful and elaborate. until the
poor can be taken to the cemetery with
as much show or style as the rich. and
yet not leave family and relatives
bankrupted by the burial expenses.
While the prices of collins depend on
the decorations which the family may
order, the plain one ides in the same
elegant carriage which onveys the
most expensive.
But 1t has remained for a Pittsburg
undertaken, Hudson Samson, to design
and have built by the Crane & Breed
Manufacturing company Of this city
the most artistic hearse ever built IN
any country for uses by the general
public, and 1t is a question IL such an
artistic funeral car ever bore royalty
to the tomb. While the car which bore
the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte
through the streets of Paris to it's final
resting place had a temporary magnifi-
cence. its trimmings of cloth and tim
sci were the decorations of a day which
were paid for out of the public treas
ury, yet as a work of art, a thing OF
beauty, it could not be compared, in
any artistic sense, to the design OF Mr..
Samson.
The sides, top and ends of the car
- $780, n.-4l
carved. out of solid wood, the original
timbers being 10 inches In thickness,
and all of them fastened together so as
to form a solid o Of three sides. the
rear end doors having been made sep
arately. The work of the. artists in
wood was to reduce the outside of this
heavy wooden box to the shape Of
heavy cloth folded into the drapery,
held in place by heavy cords. No ade-
quate description of the work can be
written. 1t is difficult to even picture 1t
except by photography. The box is
8 feet long, 5 feet deep n I feet wide,
and the 10 inches of wood is carved
down to three-quarters of an C In
the hinnest places. The effect Is that
top piece of cloth draped over ii and
looped with a cord at a little over one
third the distance from the rear end.
the cord and tassel being carved from
, the wood. Although the drapery seems
exactly as 1t would be IL made Of heavy
cloth. with all its graceful folds. there
il not a place anywhere that will hold
a single drop of water, so perfectly has
the drainage been looked after.
The rear doors. although part of the
drapery. are so deftly carved that when
closed no one can see any trace OF q
break or opening. While the top dra-
perry il finished and colored to present
the appearance of black cloth fastened
upon a ark gray lining. which shows
at the edges. the lower or under dra-
perry has q slight tinge of purple in its
coloring, just enough to be noticeable,
yet not enough to make q contrast.
The drivers seat is covered with the
usual heavy carriage cloth. with a wide
fringe. while the lamps are OF cut
glass with brass frames. the lamp
canopies being also Of brass In antique
finish. The iron work over the front
wheels all blends tremendously with
the wood carving. and h hubs OF the
wheels are gold-plated.
II should be explained that the wooc
carving on each side IL almost Identical
except that Il IL right and left %
that a picture of n side Is a picture
of the other.
The interior finish Is hand-carvec
white mahogany. this work being aise