Year: 1875

DEATH OF A BALTIMORE COUNTY MIsER.-The
Sunday Neos of l4th inst says "Mr. Henry
Dreamer, German, died at his residence on
Garrison's LaLe, near the Frederick avenue
tollgate, on the western limits of this city, on
the 9th instant, aged seventy-fve years. A
Latin aphorsm, translated into the vernacular,
admonishes us to "say naught of the dead but
that which is good = yet there were certain &C.
entricities, to use charitable term, about
this old mans life that are worth being told, if
for no other reasen than that they are of novel
interest. II seems that he felt certain his end
was drawing nigh and conversed with his wife
(she was his third spouse) about his approach
ing DEATH with a composure and nonchalance
which were truly astonishing. few days be
fore he died he needed shaving badly and in
sisted on sending for barber to do it while he
yet lived, urging as reason that 1T was vastly
more economical to be shaved before than after
death, since the anti-mortem shave would only
cost ten cents, while the post-mortem tensorial
performance could not be done under dollar.
The man of lather and razors was accordingly
summoned, and a neat, clean, operation, pre-
paratory to death, was the result. Dreamer also
gave very particular directions to his consort
that there must be neither hearse nor carriages
hired to convey his remains and the mourners
to the graveyard, as these only necessitate USE
less expense and extravaganza in fact would
be "throwing away money for nothing" This
was not all. She had kept in his garret for six
years, a coffin, made cf rough, unpaned pine
boards ready to reclne his body after death !;
he concluded not to use this, however, and sent
for an undertaken, and ordered the plainest one
that could be manufactured; there was to be
no wake, no sitting up by him after death, as
candles and oil cost too much money" He
further charged his wife that she must hire
six of the tallest men in the neighborhood to
carry his remains to the tomb failing in this,
she must hire furniture wagon for the pur-
pose His faithful and obedient wife made
not the slightest remonstrance against this
miserly whim of her husband, but promised
to execute to the very letter all his orders
respecting his economical and unceremo
nious putting away" After making all his
arrangements for his funeral in manner so
cheap and satisfactory to himself he took his
exit from this world quietly and gently as a
zephyr. His wife, as he had directed, procured
six of the tallest men she could find in the vi
cinlty, but they said that the road leading to
the cemetery muddy and heavy. and they
would not undertake to transport the corpse
thither en- a bier for less than two dollars per
head. She would not agree to this proposition,
and so hired the furniture wagon sure enough,
as her late generous (?) husband had suggest
ed. The coffin was placed ir this, ard the fu-
neral train (all the attendants on foot) wended
its way to the grave, where the remains OF the
old miser were Inferred The deceased had
amassed considerable wealth; he owned the lot
and house thereon in which he lived, and other
real estate, besides having some Sl2, 600 or Sl5,
900 in cash, parts of which falls to his son, liv
ing in a Western State. His wife worked at
VIM. Wilkens Co.'s steam curled hair factory
on the Frederick road, near the toll gate, and
was obliged to give him her weekly INSTALL
ments without fail"