Omaha daily bee., 1919-11-16
'SUAVE TACT HIS
STOCK IN TRADE
His Job These Days Is to
Make Funerals Calm
and Peaceful.

Your undertaken. or, as they
prefer, your funeral directors, are
really kind-hearted, calm tribe OF
men. and even their professional
weekly is called THE Sunny Side.
They do not sell crepe and habitu-
ally wear what the negroes call
"long clothes" and a plug hat, but
mind their business as cheerfully as
the next man, comforted and armed
with tact and imperturbability.
Moreover, the curious will find that
we who are mortal are returned to
earth with artistry by members OF
profession with a code Of ethics
in which much pride is taken. As
one old-t'mer gracefully put it. We
keep things going smooth aud find
great satisfaction in the profess
sion"
One might suppose from reading
old books of the dark mid Victor
ian age that undertakers were re.
cruited from the ranks of orphan
boys caught young and forced into
the Job. Not so. Most of those
now in the business certainly took
il up of their own free will and pre-
ference after attaining years Of dis
erection. There is really very hui
man side to the business as now
practiced. The task of burying a
departed one and at the same time
managing host of wrought
relatives without their being aware
they are managed requires the ut
most tact and a keen appreciation
Of human nature.
Lessening the Family Shock
The unconscious psychology of
the undertaken, the probable but
unrealized motive for sticking to
this, trade and finding keen salts
faction in it, lies in the fact that the
men are dealing with elemental
law and insofar as they aid the
relatives to pass the crisis of the
tomb with the least possible dis
tress, they attain that satisfaction
which only comes to man when~he
feels himself working in accord
with the will of Nature. An un-
dertaker says, II like to fix body
! up nice and lifelike so the family
don't feel the shock" or Il find
satisfaction in well-ordered quiet
burial that runs along smoothly"
He is trying to express the fact
that he is satisfied with being, or
trying to be, the perfect agent of
nature.
It is natural enough that in strict
ly business hours the purely altruis-
tic side of this profession is not
opermuch in evidence It seldom is
in any business. For example, if
you were some vague unknowing
parsonage, such as man from
Mars, and should inquire after the
manner of our departure from this
vale of tears, you would presum-
ably wander into a funeral parlor"
in the quest. You would find this
place silent, subdued and eminently
respectable. Some quiet body, usu-
ally feminine, would sympatheti-
cally inquire your errand.
You want to see Joe?" All right,
he's out back in the workroom."
Then you, as spectator, will shift n
breath from the musty gentility
/ Of the parlor, the studiously soda
tive manner of the outer office, to
the business end of the establish
ment, where plain unimaginative
Joe tolls at his trade.
Undertaker's Job VS.. Doctors.
Somehow, you being the man
from Mars, you are rather mega tive
ly impressed as to the obvious
merits of this profession of your
informant. Not he. This really is a
good line of work." says he, and |
can't see why anyone acts funny
about it. Isn't it better to handle
calm, still, passive person, than
have to listen to all the torments of
] the sick and injured, as a doctor
does! Sure, why it isn't much get
ting body ready and then when
you do have him all snug and ship
shape in the casket natural look
ing and dressed as he always was in
life, it gives you certain sort Of
pride that any artistic job will.
Here's a little book that shows
what skill we have to use. Take it
along with you if you want"
Has the man from Mars been
made at ease and does he feel en-
thusiastic over Joe's trade? He
might have, but alasl Joe alb
stractedly was looking him up and
down with a mildly speculative eye.
OF course every man knows what
length coffin he will take and what
sort of corpse he will make, noble
looking and all that, but he likes to
I forget it. "Do come in again" says
Joe, "and stay longer" and who
ever YOU are. perhaps you feel sure
Joe adds under his breath-"and
come feet first. | like you"
These undertakes and doctors
have a lesson for all the rest of us,
we second rate sensitive minds, in
their sane and .prosaic attitude to-
ward human body without life.
To most of us the dead are still ia
boo as they have been to every
! savage since the world began. To
the rnde@kakers they are matter,
and because it was once human
they are not moved as are the less
initiated. And though this attitude
appears cold biooded it enables the
undertaking profession to lead the
family to t3ke up a more cheerful
and enlightened attitude. than II
they encouraged the relatives to
exercise their natural and inherent
bent towards grief.
Old-Time Black Funeral.
In great measure all the reforms
in the burial service from the funeral
directors standpoint are due to this
constant pressure on their part to-
ward calmness and sanity in
handling the dead. Fifty years ago
lust previous to a, funeral lugubrious
gentlemen in long black clothes and
little boys with rolls of crepe would
attack the house of the dead and
drape all the rooms in black, the
TT. .z~k-ast- ,p ht,ri- cevh, n e