LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

OQO

For the rich, cremation would answer as well as burial; for the
ceremonies connected with it could be made as costly and ostenta-
Sous as a Hindoo suttee; while for the poor, cremate would be
biter than burial, because so cheap'-so cheap until the poor got to
Siting the rich, which they would do by-and-bye. The adoptiou
rf cremation would relieve us of a muck of threadbare burial-
but on the other hand, it would resurrect a lot of
Ld cremation-jokes that have had a rest for two thousand

ave a coloured acquaintance who earns his living by odd jobs
and heavy manual labour. He never earns above four hundred
dollars iTa year, and a, he has a wife and several young, clnHren
the closest scrimping is necessary to get han through to the end o
the twelve months detiless. To such a man a funeral « a colossal
financial disaster. While I was writing one of the preceding chap-
ters, this man lost a little child. He walked the town over wxth a
friend, trying to find a coffin that was within his means. He bought
the very ch^pest one he could find, plain wood stained. It cost
him tJnty*** dollar*. It would have cost less than four^ probably,
if it had been built to put something useful into. He and his
family will feel that outlay a good many months.
i Fonr or five dollars is the minimum oosi.