The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-12-22
HIGH COST OF DYING


cost of dying, yes, and why the cost
of being born, also, has so gone up in
the last fifty or more years, he might
be able to throw some light on the
much discussed question of the high
cost of living.
Both birth and death have in our
time become very expensive luxuries,
and one had better think twice or
thrice before he INDUCES in them. In
the first case there is danger that he
will bankrupt his parents, and in the
latter case he will impoverish his
heirs.
If he contemplates making his adj
vent in, or his egress from, one of
the great cities, say New York, let
him beware. Let him put it off as
long as he can. Let him change the
venue to the country; he will find the
terms hard enough then. And the rea-
son is that we demand so many COM
forts, and conveniences, and Injuries,
and elegancies, even in the country.
We must be nursed into the world, and
nursed out of it. We must be born
sumptuously, and be buried luxuri-
ously.
The time | selected to come into
the world, nearly eighty years ago,
things were different. Neither the
standards of birth nor of death had
taken such a rise. l doubt if it cost
my parents SIS to launch me fairly on
my career. One or two visits from the
old village doctor with his leather
saddle-bags, a call of a night or a
part of a day from a neighboring
housewife, a little extra care and at
tention from the "hired grip, and the
crisis was safely passed. A trained
nurse was never dreamed of, or heard
of, and in a couple of weeks mother
was probably up and around about
her misunderstanding milk and
packing butter.
If had decided to die after a week
or ten days illness, on reaching mans
estate, the cost of my family would
probably not have exceeded $25 or $50
Say ten visits from the doctor, three
miles away, good cherry coffin made
by the local cabinet maker-good
enough for king-no undertaken, no
hired carriages, no vain show, the
coffin taken to the church in a farm
er's pleasure wagon, then borne tc
the cemetery by the hands of neigh
bors, and the grave filled by the same
hands-and all is over!
But the old simplicity, the old
homely ways are gone and the snowy
high priced, fussy new ways have
come in. There is a vast army of
trained nurses to be supported and &
vast army of doctors to be supported
and to persuade you or command you
to employ trained nurse.
A friend who had been referred
frome specialist to specialist, fol
whom trained nurses, a masseuse
sequestration, special diets and va
rious other remedial measures had
been adopted, was naively assured by
her last trained nurse (who was
about to be dismissed that a nurse
for other specialists might be in
stalledl, Really, Mrs. N, i
would be cheaper for you to die"
In the household of another ac-
quaintance l recently learned of there
having been five different specialists
and as many trained nurses called
within eight days.
Yes, and there is a member of the
coffin trust in every village to tax you
500 for a sham but snowy coffin and
the use Of his dismal trappings and
funeral properties.
No special class of persons is to
blame for this change. 1t is the spir-
it of the times, the increase in wealth.
the rise in the standard of living, the
growth of pride, the rivalry and COM
petition in all departments of life, the
decay of serious mindedness of humil-
ity and the shifting Of the standard of
values from the real to the meretri-
cious among the people.
Of course, one reason of the high
cost of living, as of dying, is the
abundance of money. AS money be-
comes cheap things become dear. An
other is the thousand and one eonven-
fences and Injuries with which we sur
round ourselves-the telephone, the
telegraph, the trolley line, automo-
biles, the electric lights, state roads,
the newspapers and the food supplies
from all parts of the earth.
we lIuSI pay IoI WldC VIC hdNSJ we
must pay for every pretty wrapper
and box and tin can and bottle and
paper bag that our food and drink
come in.
We buy pound of rice put up in
cotton cloth bags, prettily stamped;
we buy sugar in 5 or 10 pound bags of
a similar kind, and flour in 20 or 80
pound bags, and so on. We buy our
groceries in driblets, elegantly put
up. We buy our apples and potatoes
and peaches by the quart and have
them sent home. We are ashamed to
be seen on the street carrying a mar
ket basket. sn~.
Some years ago I did see the judge
Of one of our county courts going
home carrying his Christmas turkey
in his hand. / believe that judge
would give you fair trial.
In my time the farmers and villag-
ers lived independently of the can
ming factories. In a country store at
that time you saw mainly dry goods
and hardware. Now all the main
az