The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-04-25


The versatile and brilliant CORE
%spondent of the Kansas City Sun.
anu progressive life. This tendency
to worship the dead with such public
demonstration is positively wrong,
and brings to light one of the strang-
est p~aradoxes in all human affairs
that of some deceased person, even
below mediocre note, figuring as the
dead principal in a rich and ex-
pensive funeral where money, flow.
ers, time and curiosity are lavished
upon one, who in life, perhaps
enjoyed or ever merited these things.
No objections are advanced against
relatives and friends showing proper
concern regarding any deceased but
in our burial ceremonies we should
seek simplicity and divest the funeral
of this unnatural pomp and vain
glory, especially is this true of the
Sunday funeral when so many people
are compelled to either see these pro-
cessions or listen to the Th~anatopsis-
like music.
DOLlC pIOlHluCul AldSOu has duNlSSu
a more simple ceremony in affairs OF
this kind and for this reason we urge,
every lodge to refrain from the Sun
day funeral whenever possible and il
they must have %turnouts, let them be
in the week and not on the Sabbath.
We understand that in Denver, Colo,
that these professions are forbidden
on Sunday by city regulations. At
tending church on a Sunday one is
invariably confronted with some fun
eral procession or the prospect of
one, this should be stopped and there
are several concrete reasons for do
ing so which we give below:
LIST. The average colored person
works hard six days in the week and
should not have his day of rest and
recreation disturbed by a pretentious
funeral with an ill-tuned brass banC
as its chief feature.
End. A funeral has a morbid effect
on the public mind, especially wher
it is pompous and loud. And in indi
) vidual cases there have been seriou,
=, complications resulting from debili
I tating music that reaches the ears o
. the sick who must hear these airs
i with as you can imagine no hopeful,
> feeling.
3rd. The average bereaved famil.
can i'll afford these expensive funeI
ais, ever though there is an endow
ment of several hundred dollars, AM
e worthy friends who lavish the flower
on a deceased friend in death, NUT b
n reminded of the irony of this action
n since they usually fail to do these oil
fices toward the object when in life
d 4th. Any week day is the loglca
o time for a funeral. And simplicity
n the one rule to govern all. The ricl
o have ceased to practice the "showy
procession and even request that n
/" flowers be sent, and discourage cur
osity by holding simple Services
from their residence. What the rio
do from a good taste, the poor ca
lie do from the same, with this adde,
virtue-economy.
We believe the above reasons ar
&c sufficient to warrant the %discontinI
dhCe VI the Sunudy pTdCIlce nor al
we lacking in those human symps
thies for one another in hours whe
he some dear friend has closed his @
her earthly career.
g Sorrow wins its way to the recel
10 tive heard and needs no brass ban
% to advocate it's cause. The real SUI
ID ferer or mourner does not seek tn
n lime light Of public curiosity or val
y display but rather quiet and solitud
a. alone with God where vanity may b
n excluded from sorrow and the suffe
y ing n realizes the quality Of infinit
u love to cure every human wound.
the deceased has demonstrated goo
- in life, remember that the same ca
AZ not die. And that truth, howevt
humble may be the one that lives !
has the quality of eternity stampe
upon it and must live, just as true {
: error, vanity. falsehood, and 9TH
like things must perish, and canont I
perpetuated by any methods of va
proceedings.