DRESSING THE DEAD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1053, 20 September 1883, Page 4

DRESSING THE DEAD.

- While in England we are discussing /depose of the dead in the simplest, most practical, and most economic manner, across the Atlantic the tendency of late has been in a very different direction. In America the quiet of the beautiful garden-like burialground is only reached after an almost incredible pnount of painstaking and labon ihas ibeen bestowed upon the from the time when life ceases rp|til the coffin is covered with earth. If) as the old legends say, the soul of the ddpiatted drovers-Over its deserted body during the time between death and burial, that of the deceased American is much to be pitied. Instead of lingering peacefullyin a darkened room where all noise is hushed, it has to look ftom the ceiling or some remote corner at-the work of the undertakers, who, becoming more and more artistic, claim the body as their own, until, bv their work and that of their auxiliaries — (Jressmakers, milliners, florists, dentists, and those whose profession it is to let art step in where beauty fails—the appearance of death is banished and a bejewelled, bepainted, and fashionably aUirfetD corpse can be exhibited in a “casket” of polished oak or marble, silver-mounted, whose costly linings harmonise with the gorgeous toilet of itf ghastly tenant. “The common practice in the States,” says Miss Gordon Gumming, in a late number of the Contemporary^'Review, “is to send the dead to , their long homes in fine raiment of fashionable " cut, and with mousjind flowers in their bmton-holes.’ r ” The toilet of the ladies cprrespqnd? to that of the moustache waxed flower button-holed gentlemen-: —“ Miss R,” writes a New. York, reporter, “ was laid out in white rep silk, elegantly trimmed with white satin and very fine point lace. The skirt was 4rap'£d| )ryit,h[ smilax and ’lilies : of the valley. The casket, made in the celebrated Princess style; was covered with the most delicate shade of blile silk velvet, with corners and mouldings tufted with white satin. The inside Was trimmed with white satin, and with heavy ■ sewing silk and bullion fringe. The; handles were long bars with sewing silk. The casket opened atf'full length, the inside of the lid being tufted, with white satin. Miss ..very natural, more as if asleep than dead. There was. a .splendid display of flowers, sent as tokens of sympathy, from her many friends. All tfe'sitands containing‘the .flowers were covered with white, giving a general appearance of purity.” . Undertakers are,ready., by day and night, at only a “ hint,” to practise their art, “the firsts rate style” sometimes being paid with io,ocodol. The 1 pallor of death vanishes before their skill, blue lips become red, distorted features are hidden, and a set of false teeth saves the looks of dead women. But inTashibns, as well as in other things, when they have reached an extreme, a reaction is sure to set in ; and it is reassuring to learn “that the leaders of society in New York now affect extreme simplicity, and have declared in favor of pure white shrouds and unadorned coffins.”