The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-04
PASSING OF THE
 BEAD THREADRR
4 FUNERAL SERVICE AT THE
 FRARI IN VENICE.

seant Ceremony Accorded the Burial
 Rites of the Poor-Picturesque Inte-
 rior of the Frari--The Funeral Pros
 cessIon on the Canals.
 I chanced this morning upon fune- ral st the Frari ill Venice. After look ing at Bellini's music-making angels, and at the triumphal arches and equestrian monuments, among which stands out so grimIy the wooden box, painted with cross and skulls-holding, for our fancy at least, the headless corpse of Carmagnola-I was stopped, in going away. by the arrival of men in red smocks carrying heavy gilt can dlcsticks and a coarse gilt Christ upon pole. After them came priest and acolyte and a bier.
 The bier was set down in the choir, opposite the altar; a coffin, covered with a magenta pail, imitation silver crosses hooked to the sides, and tin sel crown on the top. And round it gathered five or six young women, composed, correct in their best blue dresses and black lace Veils; prayer book, handkerchief and fan in readi- ness. And with them, to show that the contents of the little coffin had been, as an old man told me, nubile- that is, unmarried, though of mar riageaole age-came four little girls in starched white frocks and wells, each with a bouquet of artificial flowers. They stood round the bier, while the young women knelt down, trying to spill as little as possible of the thin waXlight in their hands. Then the service began, gabbled out at tremen- dous speed before the tomb of Fran- cesco Foscari.
 THE CONGREGATION. A small congregation had meanwhile assembled-I know not whether out of compliment to the poor little marriage able dead, or merely because church is convenient nursery on hot morn ing; for these faithful were mainly children They lolled and rolled about, LII S5lOAGo p4 GHoS 1llALA LAAGGnB hCA4 tAA1S girls with curls and topknots, little moving bundles of scarlet and pink and faded yellow among the carved oak saints of the choir stalls; the mothers keeping one eye on them, the other on the priest bobbing up and down before the altar When mass had been dispatched the priest, his acolyte, and then men in their red smocks took up their positions before the coffin. ' Tn saecula saeculorum, amer" i" reads the priest as fast as he can tear Amen" answers all in one syllable, the acolyte. The women lean forward, the waxlights guttering over their benches; the little girls in white, su- perior imperturbahle, shift from one leg to the other, pull up. a loose white stocking, adjust the paper bouquet. 1 The children in the stalls grow weary and unruly, open and shut their moth CTS red fans, drop them noislly, litter, take each other by the hair; the little ragged boys, meanwhile, running round the upper row of stalls, bend over and catch at the heads below such sweet, clean-featured, little heads, with knots and curls of blonde hair; l heads rolling from side to side, elbows meanwhile pushing, legs kicking, feet clacking.
 "Et lux perpetua luceat el, Domino, " 1 intones the priest.
 Amen answers tie acolyte, in one syllable.
 A rattle of money boxes, and the ser vice is over.
 l In a minute the four fellows in red smocks had stripped off tinsel crosses and crown from the rough deal coffin and replaced the red pail by a rusty black one; the congregation had dis. persed, leaving only the priest talking to the women in black, and the little girls in white. The four men raised the coffin on their shoulders an6 walked down the nave, between the torbs of the Titan and Canova, the various triumpfal arrangements of ad. mirals and captains, the great spectac. ular monument, where the Doge Val Ter, or Venier, is going to heaven 1T state-("Hic revixit," says the inscrip ltion)-among his negro laeSeys and at. tendant cherubs. asked a young ca cristan in red who the dead persor was: A girl who made bead garlands for cemeteries: nineteen years old she had died of consumption.
 I left the church by the side door In the square, blazing with sunshine, came upon the funeral once more-peo pie crowding round, and people on tht wharf, and staring from the bridge over the canal. The black coffin was settled in a long, black boat. which made off with it, two of the men in red sitting at the stern. The priest anC his acolyte. still in purple and lace stepped under the hood of 8 gondaola one of the bier carriers, pulling off hit red smock over his head, and taking an oar--a stalwart and keen-featuret lad, with shining teeth. Finally, thu Iyoung women in black, after many compliments. also got into 8 covered gondola, looking to their veils as the!
 got under the felze. And all shot un
 der the bridge.
 Very heartless? Surely not, if w
 strip away the hypocrisy of peopl having at least five hundred a yea
 and a sitting room. The poor httl
 consumptive maker of bead garland
 for cemeteries is indeed now-save
 perhaps, for her mother-as little i'm