child.

=CHECKING EXPENSES IN ADVANCE=

It is curious that long association with the sadness of death seems to
have deprived an occasional funeral director of all sense of moderation.
Whether the temptation of "good business" gradually undermines his
character--knowing as he does that bereaved families ask no questions--or
whether his profession is merely devoid of taste, he will, if not checked,
bring the most ornate and expensive casket in his establishment: he will
perform every rite that his professional ingenuity for expenditure can
devise; he will employ every attendant he has; he will order vehicles
numerous enough for the cortege of a president; he will even, if thrown in
contact with a bewildered chief-mourner, secure a pledge for the erection
of an elaborate mausoleum.

Some one, therefore, who has the family's interest at heart and knows
their taste and purse, should go personally to the establishment of the
undertaker, and not only select the coffin, but go carefully into the
specification of all other details, so that everything necessary may be
arranged for, and unnecessary items omitted.

This does not imply that a family that prefers a very elaborate funeral
should not be allowed to have one; but the great majority of people have
moderate, rather than unlimited means, and it is not unheard of that a
small estate is seriously depleted by vulgarly lavish and entirely
inappropriate funeral expenses. One would be a poor sort who for the sake
of friends would not willingly endure a little troublesome inquiry, rather
than witness a display of splurge and bad taste and realize at the same
time that the friends who might have been protected will be deluged with
bills which it cannot but embarrass them to pay.

=HONORARY PALLBEARERS=

The member of the family who is in charge will ask either when they come
to the house, or by telephone or telegraph if they are at a distance, six
or eight men who are close friends of the deceased to be the pallbearers.
When a man has been prominent in public life, he may have twelve or more
from among his political or business associates as well as his lifelong
social friends. Near relatives are never chosen, as their place is with
the women of the family. For a young woman, her own friends or those of
her family are chosen. It is a service that may not under any
circumstances except serious ill-health, be refused.

The one in charge will tell the pallbearers where they