A FASHIONABLE LADY'S TOMFOOLERY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2540, 20 October 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FASHIONABLE LADY'S TOMFOOLERY.

The authorities of Wood lawn Cemetery, one of the great burial places of New York and neighbouring cities, had a knotty question before them a few days ago. An undertaker appeared before them with an application for a burial permit for '•Cosey Bell," a 10-year-old Skye terrier, that had died of heart failure in a fashionable residence of this metropolis. Accompanying the application was a death certificate signed by a physician who certified that the demise was due to natural causes, and there was no reason why the permit should not be granted. The clerk of the bureau of vital statistics demanded the names of the parents of " the child," and said they must be known before tho certificate could be granted. He had not observed the character of the animal for whom a burial place was sought until after the. momentous questiou was propounded. After considerable discussion, it was decided that a burial permit was unnecessary, and the interment could proceed without interruption. Cosey Bell was the property of a Mrs Bell, and the lady was so attached to her pet that she expended 60 dol. (£l2) in a satin lined and silver trimmed casket; it was the best of its kind in the stock of the undertaker, and was made for an infant, for whom it proved a misfit. When it was found that the ceremony could go on the carriages were called and the processiou startedfor the cemetery with all the pomp and circumstance of a funeral in fashionable life, except that the mourners were limited to the lady and an intimate friend, no others having been invited. The remains were placed in a plot for which the mourner paid 250 dol., and it is probable that a costly monument will be erected over the grave of Cosey Bell And the same papers that contain the account of this burial of a dog contain also an account of a man somewhere in the west who died recently and left the greater part of a comfortable fortune to his dog. The money is in the hands of trustees, who are to take good care of the creature during his lifetime, provide for his funeral expenses, aud give whatever balance remains for the benefit of some deserving charity. Dogs are evidently looking up.