The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1924-03-20
Drat. TnlkH
BY HELEN RICH
Courtesy of the Colorado Springs
ette-Telegraph for which
Helen Rich is writing a
series of articles entitled
Dear Folks


part of the daily business of living
That sounds like strange statement
but those who have been here will
bear me out when I say that one sell
dom goes out without seeing at
least one funeral procession and some
times two or three. I cannot say
whether or not the mortality is high
here. Probably there are just as
many funerals in America. We don't
notice them there because the great
motors hurry so quietly through the
streets that we are only dinly con-
scious of what they are and what
still burdens they bear. Funeral pro-
cessions in France are the same to-
day as they were three hundred years
ago. They are invariable events of
majestic Importance and every
Frenchman, no matter how busy,
pays his respects. Even the dead
pauper is honored. 1t is just another
instance of the strange wedding of
the past to the present which gives
this country that charm we call
atmosphere"
Do you ever see motor hearse in
France? Never. Do you see trail
of chugging taxis following the
horse-drawn, blackdraped carriage?
Hardly. In fact the mourners march
behind the body for some distance,
chattering away to one another to be
sure, and then enter the hacks which
carry them to the cemetery. All
traffic gives way to the procession.
Not a man but lifts his hat high
from his head as the cortege goes
slowly by and not a woman, if she is
a Catholic, but crosses herself.
In democratic America one funer-
al is practically the same as another
no matter what station the deceased
occupied while living. Such is not the
case here. The funeral depends upon
the financial condition of the surviv-
ors. In France one may have any
sort of funeral from frst-class to the
eighth better known as the "service
ordinaire." Remember that France
is largely Catholic and that l am writ
ing of Catholic funerals.
Probably only a president of the
republic or great general is worthy
of first-class funeral. Over the
doorway Of the church from which he
would be buried would be great
black velvet drape bordered with
many symbols. In the center would
be the embroidered initial of the
last name of the man. Inside, the
casket would be draped with another
rich mantle and placed on so high
bier as to give an altar-like effect, it
would be surrounded by many tapers.
Needless to say the mass would be in
keeping with the impressive furnish
ings. The funeral coach would look
like a mournful replica of the coach
of Louis XVI, black plumes waving
solemnly from each high corner. The
coal-black horses would be plumed
and covered with velvet trappings.
The coachman, himself, would COM
plete the picture. The cost would
harmonic.
A second class funeral is only a
candle or two below the first class.
And so on down the eight classes
less candles here, fewer stars on the
Grapes, there, plume off, here, less
dignity there. By the time one reach
es the ordinary service, it seems
hardly worth the having. Rusty, un-
caparisoned nags bring the pine box,
covered with slimsy cloth, to the door
of the church. The box is caught up
on the shoulders of four Indifferent
men, carried down the aisle to a side
chapel where it rests on an ordinary
wooden truck and two tapers are
placed on either side. There is no
drape over the door, no initial on
the cloth that hides the humble coffin.
The service over, the relatives form
in line and follow the poor form to
the silent city.
But whether funeral be first class
or just ordinary every passerby hon
ors the dead with all reverence.
1t is hardly necessary to add that
most Of the funerals in these hard
days are ordinary.
-
France shares the tragedy of Rus
sia's fallen nobility as well as bearing
her own heavy burden. Thousands of
the survivors of the Tsarist regime
are here in Paris and one meets
princes and princesses, dukes and
duchesses at every turn. 1t is sur
prising how unimpressed one is to
meet duke when he can claim moth
ing but a dead title. / wonder if it
doesn't make us, who never had titles,
never will have titles and who
wouldn't know what to do with titles
if we had them, feel almost superior.