The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-28
EXPENSIVE FUNERALS
The Rev. DIR. Krauskopf Criticises
DESTINATIONS Obsequies.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

or the keneseth Israel Congregation,
Broad street. above Columbia avenue.
by the Rev Dr. Joseph Kraus-
kopf. The rabbi made a strong arraign-
nent of the Ostentation so frequently seen
at funerals and during the periods OF
mourning. Referring TO David's despair
when has child wrestled with the death
angel, and the calm resignation displayed
by the King when death had carried Off
his beloved son. DR.. Krauskopf said that
it was then that he showed himself truly
king, facing his calamity with majesty
that was sublime. God had willed 1t
otherwise than he had wished, and he was
resigned. One loved to linger at so noble
lesson as this of King David 1t formed
a pleasing contrast to the scenes so fire.
| quently witnessed nowadays. In having
been obliged to surrender their dear ones
20 the pittlcss monarch of the tomb many
persons seemed TO make it their delight
or their duty TO surrender themselves TO
all the horrors Of despair, to every anguish
OF grief. Life had lost for them every Joy
and charm. Though a dozen other pre-
cious lives be left to them, these counted
as nothing compared with the one that
had been taken. There was but one spot
dear to them, and that the cemetery, and
only one coior-black, They were wroth
with the sun for shining, with the birds
for singing and with childhood and youth
for being merry and gay. Continuing the
rabbi said:
I'VE are mortal and share, more or less.
alike tie weaknesses of mortality The
lives of our dear ones are rooted deep
within our own lives and we cannot have
them torn out of our beings without that
thousand heartstrings are made to bleed
within us; without that a thousand fair
and fragrant flowers are withered along
our narrow and troublesome path that
winds its serpentine way through this val
ley of our sorroMM For us ordinary NOR
tails, therefore, m to mourn our dead
were not to beHnan. Some few of rs
may have the stoicsm of David but
most of us must approach our dead as
the Scriptures tell us Abraham did when
the wife of his youth and the sharer of
his every joy and sorrow was summoned
to her final rest he came to mourn for
Sarah and to weep for her. But after
this first outbreak of grief his hopeless
ness and despair gave way to complete res
ignation 20 the will and wisdom of God.
and he was about his duties as of old
The same cannot be said of those who
make it their duty. their religion. their
disease, their fashion, to nurse their sor-
Tow of bereavement, to transform their
homes into cemeteries, to parade their
grief, to make it the only theme of thought
| conversation or concern, to make their
own lives and those of others miserable
| to waste large sums of money, often even
running into debt, in the extravaganza by
! which they express their mourning or
seek to remember their dead
The moment the dead has breathed his
/ last, down go the curtains and shut go the
shutters, and out goes the natural light.
and in comes the artificial light of gloom.
| What harm the innocent light of day has
| done, or can do to be thus cruelty ex-
! PEELED, and what comfort to the dead or
! living lies in artificial light or gloom. or
| utter darkness, l have never been able to
| discover. Next, the mirrors are covered
| to give the home an unnatural and appal-
| ing appearance. Ask the mourners why.
! and they are not able to tell you. Then
the crepe is fastened upon the door, that
the pang of the home may be commune
/ Gated to all the passers-by, and that many
! a heart may be saddened and many a
| spirit weighed down, as if there were not
| enough of sadness and heaviness in this
| world without thrusting this additional
! gloom upon an innocent public. And then
the dressmaker comes. Special dresses
must be made, special headgear must be
| gotten, special wells must be worn, all of
one special material, and all of one special
cOlor-the color of hooelessness and des-
pair-the color black. Why this must be
so l cannot say, you cannot say, the
/
mands it, and the slaves obey. 1t is not
long since that 1 heard young lady say,
upon hearing that a friend of hers had
been bereaved of a parent: "Oh, - will
he glad to go into mourning, since she
knows that black becomes her SO we'll"
What cruelty it is to be obliged to add
trouble upon trouble in many cases disas-
trously So in being driven into enormous
expenses by, fashion. by undertaken, by
| nurseryman, hveryman and every other
man, who, in the hour of your supremeSt
anguish, can manage to thrust his hands
into your pockets. Expensive collins must
be gotten, banks of flowers must be heap
ed up, carriages must be hired to convey
people to the cemetery, the expensive
burial lot must be gotten, for you must
| know that there are front
pews or front rows in the
cemetery, as well as there are in
the church. theater or foot ball field. Then
there are the expensive tombstones huge,
massive, cold. And what makes these fu-
neral extravagances still more deplorable
is the tendency they arouse in the poor
for imitation. These conceive the notion
that unless they, too. give their departed
a respectable funeral the world will think
that they did not care for their dead, and
respectable, of course is made to mean
costly.
1T is with sense of relief that we turn
from these mummeries and extravagances
to the simple mode of disposing of the
dead, recently witnessed in this city, in
connection with the last rites over the re-
mains of the much esteemed Rev. DIR. Sa-
bato Morals. There was no undertakers',
no liverymans, no nurserymans, no
clergyman's feast there There was no
expensive coffin, no flowers there to tell
how beloved he was, no speech to pro-
claim his greatness, no blocks of carriages
to vaunt of his popularity. Instead of
evergreens and violets there was quick
! lime, so that earth may return all the
speedier to EARTH and avert the danger to
the living from poisonous exhalations. as
in the case of cremation. Fully do 1 share
the late DR.. Morals implied belief: All
the flowers we can afford for the living;
for the dead, quickiime or fire. The lat
ter is a service of love to the living And
so also is 1t a relief to turn to the direc-
lions John Wesley, the founder of the
Methodist Church, gave as to the final
disposal of his mortal remains. He re-
quested that six poor men should have
80 shillings each for carrying his body to
the grave; that there should be no hearse,
no coach, no escutcheon, no pomp, moth
ing save the tears of those who loved him.
GAS to the mourners, il il 1t their desire
to give evidence of how much the depart
ed was esteemed by them, and IL they have
han 1af han vI,,,sn