The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-10
Respectable Funerals May Be Had
at Low Cost.
DISPOSAL OF PAUPERS
UNDERWRITERS HAVE OFFERS
TO PURCHASE THEM.
Law Neither Forbids Nor Sanctions
the Sale of Bodies and Morticians
Have Thus Far Avoided the Prac-
tice in Utah-Consequently There
Is a Dearth of Cadavers.

AS science and progress in this fin de
steele period have cheapened the cost
of living. so have they cut down the
expense of dying. The man who says
he can't afford to die because the fu-
neral would be too expensive. displays
woeful ignorance of existing condi-
tons. OF course. the outlay for a fu-
neral can be maze as extensive as the
decedent's estate will allow.
Can Die Well For SIS.
An inquiry recently instituted by
The Herald has disclosed some facts,
however, that ought to make a man
more cheerful about wrapping the
drapery of his couch about him." The
average man can die for SIS, and de
well, while a United States senator can
go to rest, exclusive of Doctors bills,
for $1,000, and often does so in the
larger cities. The highest price paid
for funerals in Utah seldom exceeds
$1,000, and the lowest asked is $15.
| What constitutes a funeral of these
different types is a study best inter
preted by one in the business. Said a
local undertaken the other day:
Some people are very much sur
] III iSGu. HOl W say ulSiudNtu, WHtI lOll
that $4,000 is an outlay easily expended
upon a funeral. They cry robbery and
declare the undertaken a swindler of
the worst variety. But let US consider
just few facts. The undertaken is
given that amount, for instance, and
thence assumes all responsibility at
tending the funeral
THE casket fixtures are of the cost
lest quality. The pure silver handles
on it are $500 per set. The gold or sill
yer mountings cost that much more,
and the tufting and crepe must be of
lndia's fabric, and the wooden work
itself of natures rarest bark. The
body, clothed in the finest money can
buy is laid away in a $500 lot in the
cemetery. The handsomest horses and
carriages are procured for IA corteSe,
and, finally, several dozen pairs of
white kid gloves for as many mourn
ers Will cost probably 500.
There are a thousand and one
things not enumerated before the I'M
deT-taker's statement is prepared, put
the sum is disposed of easily enough.
/ believe the caSket itself is the most
expensive feature"
The average funeral in this city, The
undertaken said, costs between $15 and
500. The cortege is provided for this
amount, the casket is of good material,
and all the incidentals, such as OPEN
ing the grave, usually from 81 to S.,
are included.
Disposal of Paupers.
A pauper is buried at the expense of
the county for about SIS, though there
is a cheaper way of dispoSing of them,
were there any provision in the statutes
of Utah as in the east. From time to
time physicians have offered under
takers from SIS to $25 for a dead body
T. l. 1T.
mans anatomy. While there is no law
against it, there is no judicial authority
for such disposition and the undertaken
shunS propositions of the kind. In the
east the law provides that bodies cared
for by charity can be sold to the med
ical colleges, where they are dissected
by students, who make a specific study
of whatever disease caused death. But
even then there els a scarcity of sub
jects, and it is estimated that from
10000 to $4,000 bodies are taken from
graveyards - against the law - each
year.
And that's what will be done here"
said an undertaken, unless the legis-
lature acts. For years we have tried to
get a measure through, but it fails, for
some reason. These doctors are far
from college, and they must have their
practice. 1t is a lack of these facilities
that compels them to return east for
the postgraduate course, and unless
something is done, 1 confidently believe
there will be grave-robbing - harsh
through the term may sound"
Returning to the burial question, the
speaker said that a neat cedar casket
and good clothing were in all cases
provided for paupers. IF there is one
thing of which the people of Utah can
boast" he continued, st is their ex-
cellent care of the dead. A body here
is never laid to rest without good cloth
ing, which is more than a great many
regions can say. In this, / believe, Utah
manifests her superiority over all other
states in the Union"
Bury a Child For SIS.
For SIS a child can be given as re-
spectacle a burial as the adult for $15.
A pair of handles on the latter's coffin
will pay the entire expense of an in
fants funeral.
The undertaker's profit, at any rate,
is not large. the new-made widows
friend to the contrary, notwithstand-
ing. 1t was cruel of him to respond as
he did She sighed that all she could
do for dear John had been done, but
asked her sympathizer if the outlay on
his funeral could not in some way be
increased. He laconically replied:
Have the plumber bury him.
Many people have funeral fads. Their
caskefs must be just so. 1t is remem-
bered that the late President Woodruff
stipulated in his will that his burial
garments the casket trimmings and
all should be of white, and that the
body was transferred from the original
casket a day before his burial. Abra-
ham Lincoln and other noted. states
men have had carefully preserved ideas
of burial, and at home it frequently
occurs that relative or friend of one
deceased is at the manufacturer ell
bow, experimenting the construction of