everlasting, are much preferred to crape upon the
door.

Press notices of the funeral and death should be sent to the
newspapers. The conduct of the funeral should be arranged with the
clergyman chosen to officiate, the superintendent of the cemetery
consulted (usually through the undertaker), and the notes of request
sent to those chosen to act as pallbearers. Sometimes the latter are
purely honorary, the undertaker furnishing the bearers. The honor is
usually given to intimate family friends, or close business associates
in case of a business man.

A carriage is always provided for the clergyman, and he is entitled to
a fee, although clergymen do not charge it, either at a home or church
funeral. If the service is held at a church, the sexton, organist and
singers,--and the singers at a home funeral as well,--are entitled to
recompense for their services.

Carriages are sent for the pallbearers, and are also provided to
convey the family, and as many of the friends as may be invited to go,
to the cemetery.

One may announce in the newspaper "Burial private," in which case it
is understood that only the family attend at the grave; or "No
flowers" if the family wish the usual sending of flowers dispensed
with.

The clergyman usually consults the wishes of the family as to the form
of service, the hymns or music, and remarks. The funeral service
should be brief, and preferably a ritual service with no sermon or
eulogy. The last are usually harrowing to the feelings of the
mourners, and there should be every reasonable effort made to relieve
the tension of the occasion, for the sake of the living.

At a church funeral the pallbearers sit in the first pews at the left
of the center aisle; the family in those to the right. At a home
funeral it is customary to have the family in some secluded room near
the one where the coffin is placed and to have the clergyman stand in
the hall between, or at the entrance of the drawing-room, where he may
be readily heard by all.

If the service at the grave immediately follows the funeral the house
should meanwhile be aired, the shades lifted, the flowers all sent
away to some hospital, and the rooms arranged in the usual way.

Before a funeral at the home, it is necessary for some member of the
family to receive the relatives from the distance, and the very
intimate friends, and see that they are given necessary refreshment,
and their return to trains, if they must leave imme