SINGULAR FUNERAL

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2534, 6 October 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

SINGULAR FUNERAL

A. ,stka>'i:e funeral lias been witnessed at Montmarti'o, one of the Northern heights of Paris. A girl of nineteen, (laughter of the owners of a iargc perambulating peepshow, which was installed at the Fair in the borough, lately died, and was " waked " in the iShow. Mdllo. de Beautort was the joy of her father and mother, and was known among all the male and female mountebanks among whom she lived as the " I'earl," by reason of her stainless conduct and her sympathy for unfortunate creatures whom an accident, bad health, or hard times had plunged into destitution. When the peep-show prospered, the " Pearl" always levied a small tax on her parents' profits for the benefit of poverty-stricken "Infant l'liunomena," giants out of work, and pigmies who were "down oil their luck." When she suddenly succumbed to consumption, the sorrow among the itinerant players and mountebanks was universal anil heartfelt. They brought (lowers to place 011 her body as it reposed inside the peep-show awaiting mt;rment, and her funeral was one of the strangest spectacles that had been witnessed for some time in Montmartre. The hearse was covered with numerous and handsome wreaths, and behind the chief mourners walked all the celebrated lion-tamers of Paris, colossal women, skeleton men, athletic negroes, giants, dwarfs, clowns divested of their Warpaint, circus professionals, and all the general pirs-mnil of the fair.