The suburban citizen., 1900-06-16

to attend the funeral may be secured
and run, by special engine, to the
cemetery. Or the car may, at less ex.
pense, be attached to regular train.
An ordinary coach may be used as a
private car by the party if more than
eighteen persons wish to go, aud, il
even that is too expensive, the casket
may be carried in the baggage car for
a small sum and the friends may use the
regular train service. To avoid all pub
licity, a special entrance has been ar.
ranged in the Grand Central station
and in stations of other cities-notably
Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore,
so that the funeral party may enter
the car without in any way coming in
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 a ten -thousand-foot lot and
a poor man IN a fifty-foot lot, but there
the distinction ends. The same style
of hearse, the same uniformed bearers
are provided for rich and poor. Every
grave opened is lined with evergreen.
The poor man only paying $5 or $40
for cemetery expenses has the same
chairs, the same awning provided for
the rich man. The use OF the hearse,
bearers, aud one carriage is free.
Altogether, by the new system, a re-
spectacle and even elaborate funeral
is possible in q poor family, at 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, 200 to 500, 900, and the use of
these chapels for services is free, so
that the expense of hiring a city church
is avoided. On the whole, dying, un-
der present conditions, seems cheaper
and more luxurious than living.
The next innovation will be tho
street.car funeral. Such an arrange
ment 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 even 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. The ceme-
terry corporation ordinarily does not
include all, if any, Of these men. That
is, the men who are financing the
speculation do not take out the
charter or attend to the 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 the cemetery,
their care will at some time in the
future devolve upon their owners;
but Just at the present, such burial
inducements are offered that one feels
himself guilty of neglecting a golden
opportunity il he doesn't have himself
and family buried at once The
earliest inhabitants of the cemeteries
are generally secured by arrange
ments with undertakers, doctors and
health officers. With that combina-
tion against him the man who escapes
lodging in the new cemetery 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 tGat le-
Ultimately belongs to his business is
still in his hands; and, for a consid.
GRAFTON, greater or less in accordance
with his prominence, agrees to advise
his patrons to buy a lot in the new
cemetery, or at least TO use its re-
ceiving tombs while deciding about a
lot. The physician in attendance
upon the bereaved family also sings
the praises OF the new cemetery. The
mourner, willing to have response
bility lifted from his shoulders, agrees
with the suggestions. Then the busi-
ness of the cemetery official is to
make the cemetery 30 attractive
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 a
depressing lack OF sentiment about
.he system, but, as the cemetery men
say:
"We're giving more honor to the
dead and more comfort to the living,
End charging the latter only about
third of what they would have to pay
under the old system, so nobody's be-
ing hurt except the poets"