PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE SUNDAY F U N E R A L— F O R AN D AGAINST 
Such a reform as the abolition of 
the Sunday funeral is a matter of 
time, possibly of long time. And it 
is a question largely of education. No 
common custom of the centuries that 
have been passing along, can be 
changed by the blast of a trumpet, 
nor even by a bill in the legislature, 
because, the chances are, in the great 
majority, that in the earlier educa- 
tional efforts not enough headway 
will have been made to secure votes 
sufficient to pass such a bill. Not- 
withstanding this the time, owing to 
the progress of civilization, may be 
quite ripe for even so radical a change 
of custom. 
It is now some years since the first 
efforts were made to do away with 
the Sunday funeral, and naturally, in 
the earlier years, little progress was 
made, though the seed of the reform 
found good ground in which to ger- 
minate into serious thinking, by 
many, on the subject. As the years 
have passed the question has become 
a common one for discussion, and 
quite a number of cemetery corpora- 
tions have changed their rules and 
regulations in order to stop Sunday 
interments, except where public law 
compels such burials for the sake of 
the public health. And we have really 
arrived at the time when co-operation 
throughout the country should abol- 
ish the Sunday funerab A curious re- 
sult of this is recorded in Detroit, 
iMich. The abolition of Sunday buri- 
als has led to Monday being a very 
busy day in the cemeteries, and in 
consequence, all flowers being ordered 
for the day before, it necessitates that 
the florists have a lot of extra work 
thrown into their Sunday. About a 
year ago the hack drivers’ union of 
Detroit also decided to refuse to drive 
on Sundays, concluding that six days 
work was enough for a week. Such 
incidents, however, will adjust them- 
selves in a very short time. 
The following extracts from an ad- 
dress delivered before the California 
Funeral Directors’ Association, by 
Rev. E. R. Dille, D. D., sets forth the 
desirabi'ity of reform from the stand- 
point of the clergy. This is followed 
by a communication from Mr. M. B. 
Faxon, who speaks largely on the 
conservative side, favoring the reten- 
tion of the old custom: we note that 
he lays too little stress on the break- 
ing up of the day of rest for a large 
number of people, who are necessarily 
compelled to labor on account of it. 
Reasons Against Sunday Funerals 
"We have come to believe that it is 
lawful to do good on the Sabbath day; 
that necessity and mercy erase all 
edicts and are the supreme law of the 
individual and society. And if the 
Sunday funeral were a necessity (and 
it may be in some cases) we will 
concede that it is fitting under that 
necessity to accommodate the surviv- 
ors by burying their dead out of their 
sight on the Sabbath day; but I think 
that it is not a frequent necessity. 
The Savior’s statement that it is law- 
ful to help out of a pit on the Sab- 
bath day an animal that has fallen in, 
does not apply to the man who digs 
a pit Friday and then pushes the ani- 
mal in on the Sabbath. 
"I do not like the idea of the Sun- 
day funeral on the basis of first prin- 
ciples. If there is an inappropriate 
day in the calendar to have a funeral, 
it is Sunda}^ The day is not a momn 
ment erected in token of interment; 
it is a memorial of liberation and 
resurrection. 
"The Sunday funeral contradicts 
not only the history, but the purpose 
of the Sabbath; it is a day given to 
holy rejoicing and worship; not a day 
for dirges and requiems and, least of 
all, for funeral pageantry and dis- 
plays. If we have a. funeral day it 
ought to be Friday, the doleful day 
when our Lord died, and was buried. 
Sunday ought not to hear the tolling 
knell nor see the slow-paced cortege 
move to the city of the dead. The 
origin and spirit of the Sabbath are 
wholly against the Sunday funeral. 
“Neither is it right to deplete our 
church congregation by Sunday fu- 
nerals, because in my congregation 
when there is a funeral on Sunday a 
large number of persons do not go 
through the regular services because 
they must attend the funeral. 
"And then I object to Sunday fu- 
nerals on account of the double work 
it gives undertakers and their em- 
ployes and cemetery superintendents 
and their employees. Some under- 
takers doubtless have twice as many 
funerals on the Sabbath as they have 
on an ordinar}^ day; and so are com- 
pelled to double their force, and set 
twice the number of them into break- 
ing the Sabbath than are employed 
on secular days. 
"Again 1 protest against Sunday 
funerals in the interest of society. 
TJiey break in upon the calm and 
sweetness of the cemetery upon the 
holy day so many set apart to visit 
the graves of departed ones. 
"What more incongruous sight 
than a military or fraternal funeral 
on Sunday, in some quiet cemetery, 
with the blare of bands, the waving 
of banners, the tramp of armed men? 
It seems to me both a desecration of 
the day and the place. 
“It brings in the spirit of commer- 
cialism to have the funeral of our 
friends fixed on the days when we 
cannot work, do business, make 
money or seek pleasure: to take the 
day closed to business and when we 
can do nothing else, and then the next 
day take up the matters of sordid 
money making or pleasure seeking. 
It seems to me that it takes away the 
respect that ought to be shown to the 
dear departed. 
"I recall today with unpleasant 
memory some of the Sunday funerals 
at which I have been compelled to be 
a sihner, desecrating the .Sabbath 
with others. When I recall the 
th.rongs of men that be'ong to fra- 
ternal orders (and I belong to a half 
dozen of them myself and believe in 
them), but when I think of the bray- 
ing of bands, the rustle and bustle 
and hustle, the shouting of police- 
men keeping back the crowd of 
idlers, the warning gongs of the 
street cars, the interruption of travel 
