COFFINS TO RENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 89, 13 April 1878, Page 4

COFFINS TO RENT.

This is the latest effort of American ingenuity, and pays better than vending outright these indispensable articles of melancholic trade. The poor people of San Francisco have an unaccountable mania, for funeral pomps and ceremonies, consequently when a member of a family dies all available funds are expended in laying the body in Btate and in an impressive cortege. The matter of carriages is not vexatious to the purse of the mourners, as their occupants are expected to contribute their quota to the expense of conveyances, a privilege eagerly embraced by hundreds who regard a funeral procesBion in the light of a gala parade. But the lyiug in state, to be imposing, is a , v-.ostiy luxury, particularly with; the impecunious ; consequently, as a corpse is an object of curious inspection by admiring friends, the beauty of the exhibition can be secured at a smaller expence through the hire of a casket than its purcbase outright. Iv an undertaker's window can be seen a coffin of the most costly fabrication, Svith a superabundance of silver ornamentation Heed with rich Ealin, and otherwise adorned most magnificently. A fac aiinile of this 300 dollar casket can be hired of its exhibitor, who supplies an exquisite lining in accordance with rules of the trade, pink for a brunette, light blue for blonde, and so on, ; and into the loaded receptacle places the corpse until the bour of burial arrives, when the inside frame of the coffin is slipped out, and the deceased transferred to a cheap stained wood imitation of a costly outer casket, and "planted" without the imposture being detected. At present a handsome external 'case

demands a rental of sdol. a day, and as the body ie generally «' laid out" for tbree days, thia with incidentals, constituteß a good source of revenue.