The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-04-29

New Workers do not go tofunerals
when they can avoid it. A full
church at funeral service is great
compliment to anybody who leaves
New York for the other world. It'll
an indication that he was either very
rich or very popular. It is not al
ways safe in this city to count on a
large attendance at the funeral of even
a celebrity.
New Workers are too busy with the
affairs of this life or too Indifferent to
attend to duties of this kind. So
we'll recognized is the disinclination to
60 to funerals that the attendance of
only handful of persons at church
funeral service is not cause for cha
grin to the family of the deceased.
They all know that New Workers do
not go to funerals if they can avoid
it.
Strangers who come to New York
are more impressed by the impor-
tance of the sexton at funeral than
by anything else, save the small at
tendance. Most sections here are also
undertakers, and when parishioners
die the funeral preparations are usual
ly handed over to them.
Who has not observed their oficious
and hasty trips up and down the aisles
ofthe church before the service begins,
their solicitude over the order in which
the family are are to enter, and the
state of excitement, bordering almost
on panic, which they arrange the de-
parture from the church? The SEX
ton has his share of enjoyment at
every funeral, whether the congrega-
ton be large or small, and he is the
only person about a New York funer-
al who really does 60 at his work in
any but an uninterested way. He
seems much concerned. The con-
gregation stares about with consider
able indifference.
Last summer New Yorker, who at
one time had large wealth and was
always in possession of high social
position, died. Eleven persons at
tend his funeral. To be sure, he was
buried on day that separated two
holidays. Many of his friends were
near enough tothe city to come in if
they wanted to.
A member ofseveral large city clubs,
a rich man in a small way, in life a
New Yorker, was buried last fall in
the presence of handful of persons
in church to which he had belonged
for twenty years. He had a large
family connection, but they were
away or sick or too little interested to
come to his fnneral. Sos man whose
acquaintance would have kept him
bowling constantly in the Fifth avenue
church parade, had fewer persons at
his funeral than he would greet on
one clear morning.
The little groups that gather at the
church door are sometimes too shy to
enter the vast church and scatter them
selves through it, making only an
occasional head here and there.
They. wait for friends to give them
courage.
In the same way the funeral party
waits for mourners that never come
until, finally, the oficious sexton,
with look of Disappointment that
more persous are not to see his splen-
did arrangements, starts the mourners
up the aisle.
If there are choir boys they prob
ably begin half tone fiat and get
further and further down as they
march to meet the funeral party.
Suddenly called in for this outside
work, the boys are carefully scrubbed
until their shine and the procession
diffuses an odor of soap.
In addition to the drawback of sing
ing out of tune, the boys walk SO close
to the congregation that every sepa-
rate voice sounds out so distinctly as
to rob the choir of all homogenity.
There is sometimes enough in the
mere singing of the choir to discour-
age attendance at funerals.
Yet there is always certain air OF
expectancy in the attitude of most
New Workers who go to a funeral.
Two women in black astrachan jackets
entered church the others day just
before the service began. They were
plainly friends of the family, for they
bowed to some among the few Other
persons in the church.
They turned back the collars of theil
coats, which they t1nloosened as they
stared about the small gathering
Occasionally they whispered together
They could not have acted differently
had they been at a matinee, except
that they might have taken their hat!
off there.
1t is interesting to observe the emo
tional effect of the hymns, which some
times alter the demeanor of the most
Indifferent attendant. It may almos
be said that tits only at funerals tina
men attempt to sing.
The influence of Nearer, My God
to Thee and Lead, Kindly Light
sometimes inspires desire to sing
even in men who might be described
as cold blooded. Usually they give
up the attempt after few trails
After few preliminary rumbles tn
average man looks about him in
sheepfaced way and then suddnel,,
stops. 80
| Women stick to it longer. The,
will follow the notes to an altitude
far too lofty for them under the in
spiration of the fervor aroused by tn
familiar melody. Women, however
are never troubled by the fact tina