Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-09-29
VIEW roma FUNERALS.
Bow They Appear 10 southernerA-,Srrot-
ting 20 the Grave sesms sacrilege.

ting TO the Grave sesms hacrilege. ~
Differences between the life Of this
city and the life of towns Of the South,
says the New York Sun, impress them
selves strongly on the Southerner who
comes to Now York to live, and they
seem always to he something more
than the result Of the ways OF
metropolis as compared with those OF
city only fraction as big. Tho South
erners who come here find the distinct
i've characteristics Of New York life
not in changing cable cars nor in
towering skyscrapers. The lavish evil
dences Of wealth and all the good that
it can accomplish are always interest
ing to them, and they appreciate the
advantages of the libraries and art
galleries the delights of the theatres
and tho opera, and the best elements,
Of metropolitan life. But if they really
feel as some OF them have said they
do, the genuine differences lie deeper
than the contrast Of all these externals
with the features of smaller towns To
the superficial differences Southerners
say they can become accustomed. 1t
is only the opposite elements OF charac-
ter to which they are sometimes unable
to reconcile themselves after years of
residence here, and this applies not
only to New York, but also to any city
where the influences are wholly North
ern.
''If anybody should ask me in what
the greatest difference lay between the
habits, maybe should say between
the characters, too, of the people OF
the North and the South. ] would I'M
hesitatingly say that it was their treat
ment of death" said Southerner.
with us in the South death is an
awful, solemn grief that shuts us out
as completely from the world as II the
black veil actually did fall between 1T
and us. Here death is only or seems
to me to be only dreadful incident Of
life. Nothing in my life ever gave me
greater shock than the first funeral
procession ever saw in New York.
The horses were trotting along at a
lively rate, with the hearse moving
nearly as rapidly. / had never before
seen funeral move at any gait more
rapid than walk, and l felt as If /
ought to tell the drivers to go more
slowly, that what they were doing was
sacrilege. But soon became accus-
toned to seeing funerals moving at
that rate Of speed, and the smiling
faces of many persons who sat in the
carriages told me that probably the
monotony of riding slowly would have
proved tiresome to them. The sight
Of these rows of carriages travelling
rapidly through the streets gave me a
pang of inconsistencies when ! thought
Of the slow, solemn professions of the
dead that were "reminiscences of my old
| home. And that was not country
town, but city Of several hundred
thousand inhabitants. There is, OF
course, not the same rush and hurry
and scramble that exists here, but
while my home city has activity and
enterprise, there is plenty of time as
well to bury the dead with all the
solemnity and respect that dignity can
town has very little to do with 1t. The
go slowly here IL death meant the same
to the people who sat in them.
Doubtless New York people grieve
for their dead just as much. But the
dry eye, tho composed manner, the
placid voice-they are not found among
us. Mere expression Of emotion docs
not, of course, indicate the depth.
Still waters have always run deep.
But this very composure means thai
the feeling is different. The idea oil
the thing Is not the same; the grief,
the depth Of sorrow that, accompany
death with us seem to be unknown ir
the North. The promptness with which
the old ways Of life are taken up again,
the return to pleasures, the quick re-
covery-all of these things help tc
mark the difference to me between the
| xua ~ in M III oh So,rt HI rnarc and tho moo.
pie Of New York look at such things. y