The Opelousas courier., 1900-12-01

Fn1iadeIpnla, Boston Gnd BalG1nlorSs
SO that the funeral party may enter
the car without in any way coming il
contact with other travellers"
At the up-to-date cemetery the train
Is met by The officials who take charge
of the funeral. A rich man may be
buried in q ten-thousand-foot lot and
a poor man IN q ffty-footlot, but there
the distinction ends. The same style
of hearse, the same uniformed bearers
are provided for rich aud poor. Every
grave opened is lined with evergreen:
The poor man only paying 50 Oh $40
for cemetery expenses has the same
chairs, the SAME awning provided for
the rich man. The use Of the hearse,
bearers, and one carriage is free.
Altogether, by the new system, a re.
spectacle and eyen elaborate funeral
is possible in a poor family, at q cost
infinitely below that of the old time
function.
The newest cemeteries in the large
cities are being arranged with hand
some chapels, costing all the way from
$50, 900 to 800, 900, and the S OF
these chapels for services is free. SO
that the expense of hiring o city church
is avoided. On tho whole, dying, IN.
der present conditions, seems cheaper
and more luxurious thau living.
The next innovation will be the
street-car funeral. Such an arrange
mont has already been seriously con.
sidered. Electric and cable lines
run past the gates of almost all the
cemeteries near the city, and will, IN
time, reach eyen the furthest. Fun
eral cars could be provided by the
street car companies, and the funeral
could be conducted with great expe-
dition and very little expense.
The real estate profit on cemetery
property has, in some cases, been
enormous, and. of course, goes to the
capitalists who have originally bought
and improved the land. Tho ceme-
terry corporation ordinarily docs not
include all, if any, of these men. That
is, the men who are financing the
speculation do not take out tho
| charter or attend to tie "details of the
management. When the lots are all
| sold their connection with the affair
ends, and the cemetery is supported
merely by the current income from
burials. The probability is that,
while now the private lots are cared
for by the employees of tho cemetery,
their care will at some time in tho
future deyolve upon their owners;
but, just at the present, such burial
inducements are offered that one feels
himself guilty of neglecting o golden
opportunity if he doesn't have himself
and family buried at once. The
earliest inhabitants of the cemeteries
are generally secured by arrange
ments with undertake .s. doctors and
health officers. With that combina-
ton against him the man who escapes
o lodging in the new ceaetery must
be Of more than common strength OF
body and character. The undertaken
who has been in the habit of charging
high prices naturally objects to the
new style of burial. 1t takes much
of the detail out of his hands and cuts
down his perquisites; but the honest
undertaken realizes that all that le.
ultimately belongs to his business is
still in his hands; and, Tor a consid'
Grafton, greater or less in accordance
with his prominence, agrsea to advise
his patrons to buy a LIT il the new
cemetery, or at least to use its ra'
ceiving tolnbs while deciding about a
lot. The physician in attendance
upon the bereayed family alao sings
tho praises of the new cematery. The
mourner, willing to hava response
bility lifted from his shoulders, agrees
with the Suggestions. Then the bust
ness of tho cemetery official is to
make the cemetery so attractive a
resting place that the family will be
satisfied with it, and the friends who
attend the funeral will yearn for lots
of their own in the place. There's 8
depressing lack Of sentiment about
the system, but, as sho cemetery mel
say:
"We're giving honor to tn
dead and more comfort to the living
and charging tho latter only about
third of what they would have to pay
under the old system, SO nabody's be
ing hurt except the poets"
@ $50