THE RIGHT TO A GRAVE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1656, 24 January 1913, Page 7

THE RIGHT TO A GRAVE.

; ' — : —♦ .'. ■■■•'■ Tho old men of p the workhouses of Bicetre and Jory (France) recently addressed to tho Municipal Councils a'vory pathctio petition, claiming eagerly, if humbly, the favour of a few feet of kindly earth; for, as things now stand, only thoso who at their death leave a sum of 255. have the .right to n coffin and a grave. Others take tho last dread journey to the dissecting room; and to some—indeed, to most—of the old men the thought is an obsession and a torment. To havo toiled nil these years, and in. old ago be pensioners at another's tablo, under another's roofthat is hard enough. But one is old and tirod and acquiesces in the end. But not to belong to oneself in denth—that is the last and most terrible outrage. So there arc many who at table sell to wealthier inmates the single glass of thin wino allowed them—that wine which is, in the Frenoh phrase, "the old man's milk." But 255. is an infinite, sum to amass bv'daily sous, and life is short in a workhouse. Five .hundred pounds ,a year is'all that is required to take this now, terror from [leatli. Surely it will not bo asked for iiv vain.—"Daily-Telegraph."