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black sash for an infant the sash and ribbon are white some people use a black silk or white silk door sash it is richer than black or white crape but not so appropriate it is an art to give this part of our business an effective touch how is it about flowers at funerals they are either used in the greatest profusion or not at all some funeral notices are now published with the suggestion no flowers i attended a church funeral lately where the flowers were left in the church over night as they were to be photographed the next day when i opened the door in the morning the air was suffocating with sweetness it is not best to leave any flowers in the coffin as they create insects and mould the fashions in death do not change as frequently as the fashions in life they are regulated by them when ladies wore the neck ruffs and surplice waists we made our robes in that way now they have another style of lace and trimming and we follow that style some things i do not approve of i never like to see a corpse in gloves we never glove the hands now then you have often heard it said that shrouds have no pockets but we often bury people who have pockets and little keepsakes in them too such as a string of gold beads a new testament or a picture foolish not more so than many another idea we carry out with the dead there was a queer incident happened here that i have never seen in print a lady who is intensely aristocratic lost her father and he was buried with much state and style there were a great many relatives and the line was drawn very fine the lady called the undertaker to one side and said you will see that all the collaterals ride in coaches together collaterals yes collateral relatives not blood you know oh certainly said the undertaker your husband must come out of that carriage and take the fifth in the row he is a collateral now said the undertaker with a smile isn t that equal to the undertaker who said the second cousins of the corpse will please step this way the caldwell id tribune 23 august 1884 p 3 chris woodyard is the author of a is for arsenic an abc of victorian death the victorian book of the dead the ghost wore black the headless horror the face in the window and the 7 volume haunted ohio series she is also the chronicler of the adventures of that amiable murderess mrs daffodil in a spot of bother four macabre tales the books are available in paperback and for kindle indexes and fact sheets for all of these books may be found by searching hauntedohiobooks com join her on fb at haunted ohio by chris woodyard or the victorian book of the dead and on bluesky chriswoodyard bsky social and visit her newest blog the victorian book of the dead chriswoodyard children coffins floral tributes funerals news and announcements products for correct mourning shrouds and burial clothing undertakers april 15 2026 march 21 2026 4 minutes the doctor goes to the dogs 1864 https archives somme fr ark 58483 rb84flmqcw59 0bd6706f c87b 4a17 b630 bfe1d27af785 going to the dogs or the story of a bath medical man s success there was a few years ago and i have little doubt there is still in widcombe churchyard near bath a grave over which has been placed a broken pillar bearing the word annette without date or further name it is a tempting object for the conjectures of sentimentalists and as it may be supposed it has given rise to a good many guesses both in prose and poetry in the latter form there were some pretty lines in fraser s magazine twelve or fourteen years ago there stands beneath the chesnut sic shade a solitary tomb the wild flowers round it droop and fade and then renew their bloom the wind doth whisper through the grass its mournful wild regret the rolling seasons o er it pass but who wert thou annette it has been suggested that the question might have better been asked in the form what wert thou annette and acting on this hint one who professes to be a retired fashionable bath practitioner gives us the following solution of the sentimental riddle for obvious reasons he says he suppresses the names of all parties concerned including his own who wert thou annette i had been residing nearly two years in one of the small streets adjoining bath abbey with mr surgeon on a brass plate and a very legible direction as to the locality of the night and surgery bell on the door post but though our maid of all work polished both every morning until they rivalled the sun in splendour and made the moon envious they did not during that time attract a single patient it was in vain the one informed a city of invalids that i was in the healing art no one stopped to try my skill it was to no purpose the other invited the public to pull no one up to the period of my story had complied with the request upon these cheering prospects a wife a child a maid and myself depended and i need not say i had ample leisure to study the nature of hope deferred and to minister if to nobody else at least to one mind deseased with that malady which maketh the heart sick towards the close of the second year it was a vivid excitement to sit down and think what was to become of us and to watch the people as they passed the window with the hope that they would stop at the door and all this time the routine of breakfast and dinner and rent and rates going on as inexorably as if i were driving a roaring trade my black coat and patience were nearly worn out when one evening i sat down for the purpose of mentally deciding between the comparative merits of the river avon and swan river and in these ruminations i continued absorbed until the abbey clock struck eleven and even then i had not settled the question when my wife whose thoughts were not more lively than my own and who had been all this time occupying the opposite chair gazing with lack lustre eyes on the waning embers suggested the propriety of retiring to bed if it were only to save the long six that was most unprofitably burning away on the table i rose to comply the long six was extinguished but not before a very short one in a chamber candlestick was lit and giving a sigh which nearly extinguished it again i led the way to our mutually virtuous pillow as far as the hall when i noticed a slight agitation of the bell wire and immediately the night bell rang for the first time since it had been tried by the man who hung it it was the story of friar bacon s brass head all over i had waited in patience to hear its voice for two years and it had at length spoken what a rush of feelings came upon us as we heard its long looked for long hoped for tones at last i let the chamber candle stick fall my wife fumbled in her pockets for the key of the street door the maid of all work started from her sleep and rushed down stairs in breathless desperation tilting against me in the dark and sliding over the fallen candle there was another peal of the bell a loud impatient peal before the door was undone and with what mingled apprehension did i undo it it might be a runaway oh bitter mockery or a mistake or the watchman to tell me the coal slip was loose or the cellar door open but no my eyes blessed sight fell upon a veritable footman is not this a surgeon s said the man yes shouted my wife from inside yes sure sir echoed the maid of all work over her mistress s shoulder and yes said i lest he should mistake them and i miss my first chance then come with me sir said the footman a lady in the north parade wants to see you we have had a domestic affliction the maid of all work pulled my hat off the pin and put it on my head and my wife came running down stairs with my case of instruments large enough to have armed the college of surgeons in less than ten minutes i found myself in one of the best furnished drawing rooms in the north parade when the north parade was in its glory an old dowager was sobbing and clapping her hands and pacing distractedly around the room while two waiting women stooping over an object on the sofa were busy in bringing as i thought a baby to life oh mr surgeon said the old lady the moment i was announced tell me is there any hopes and she wrung her hands i rushed to my tender patient which proved to be a very pretty little blenheim spaniel my first impulse was to quit the room in indignation and disgust oh annette annette sobbed the old lady and fortunately drowned the rebuke that was rising on my lips there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune glorious will shakespere i am sure if no one else celebrated thy tercentenary i ought in common gratitude to do so for the sudden and fortunate thought of those two lines was the turning point in my life the making of my fortune they occurred to my recollection at the moment after living on hope for two years thought i am i now to reject my first patient even a blenheim spaniel may be the turning point in my professional destinies dash it dogs must live as well as christians i put aside the waiting women who unable to contain their laughter modulated their mirth into a kind of whine which was meant to resemble crying the dog was as sick as dog could be it seemed seized by a kind of lethargy from which however i partially revived it by artificial stimulants and the old dowager no sooner saw signs of improvement then she overwhelmed me with thanks and annette with kisses the spaniel got on very well for a day or two but then suffered a relapse and soon after went the way of all dogs notwithstanding my unremitting attention the old lady was disconsolate but not unreasonable she mourned annette as no annette was ever before mourned but she did not blame me she said i did my best for her darling pet and was grateful and promised in return to do her best for me could skill and attention have saved my annette you have preserved her she said and i shall never forget your kindness nor did she i had a good present and from the dog s medical attendant i became the mistress s she recommended me to others i began be in fashion and ended by making my fortune but to return to the defunct pet the first transport of grief over with the old dowager the next consideration was how to dispose of her deceased darling one of the waiting women all but lost her place by suggesting the propriety of consigning it to the current of the river avon and i proposed a sepulchre in the adjoining pleasure ground but the doating dowager recoiled from these the bare idea of her darling being ignorantly disturbed to make room for a rose bush or to furnish an area for a mignonette bed caused her to shudder could she not get a grave for it in some churchyard where its remains might be safe from molestation i shook my head and said something about consecrated ground to which she replied by shaking her purse and saying something about bribing a sexton the thought was a lucky one i knew a little about the gravedigger at widcombe the thing was settled a small coffin was provided and late on a summer evening when gloom was gathering on the surrounding tombs annette was consigned to its sleeping place i and its mistress being the chief mourners on the occasion the former insisted on a monument so not daring to be more explicit lest the poor pet should be ejected with ignominy from its grave in consecrated ground by the parish authorities we erected the column to which the contributor in fraser refers and inscribed on it the simple name annette upon this column i have since looked with interest it is the monument of the professional fortune upon which i have for so many years retired and am now living in comparative affluence by what accident the pillar was broken i cannot say though i know that such is the case the exeter flying post or trewman s plymouth and cornish advertiser exeter devon england 21 december 1864 p 6 chris woodyard is the author of a is for arsenic an abc of victorian death the victorian book of the dead the ghost wore black the headless horror the face in the window and the 7 volume haunted ohio series she is also the chronicler of the adventures of that amiable murderess mrs daffodil in a spot of bother four macabre tales the books are available in paperback and for kindle indexes and fact sheets for all of these books may be found by searching hauntedohiobooks com join her on fb at haunted ohio by chris woodyard or the victorian book of the dead and on bluesky chriswoodyard bsky social and visit her newest blog the victorian book of the dead chriswoodyard animal funerals animals burial cemeteries funerals humor mourning news and announcements tombstones and monuments april 8 2026 march 16 2026 7 minutes easter bonnet tragedies 1892 1914 reading fashion articles and journals of the past it is apparent that the easter bonnet was a vital part of every woman s wardrobe in some communities it might also be desirable to have new clothes for the holiday but an easter bonnet was a minimum requirement and it assumed an outsize importance becoming sometimes a matter of life and death easter bonnet causes suicide because she could not have a new spring bonnet for easter wear miss wilhelmina streckhan pretty and attractive threw herself a park pond at st louis mo thursday night her body was discovered yesterday and today the corpse was identified by her father who had been searching for his daughter and as a last resort visited the morgue on thursday the young girl quarreled with mother about the hat and left the house in a rage jackson mi citizen patriot 11 april 1900 p 6 two easter suicides despondent because he could not purchase easter finery for his wife william underhill a salesman 39 years old killed himself by taking carbolic acid yesterday at his home 275 reid avenue williamsburg annie rooney who lives at 495 pearl street and is employed as a waitress said bitterly to her landlady it s easter and i haven t a spring hat or a stitch of new clothes what s life worth to a woman without decent things to wear then she went to her room and drank carbolic acid dying soon after the baltimore md sun 1 april 1902 p 8 an easter tragedy annie rooney killed herself because she had no glad rags new york march 31 annie rooney committed suicide in her room at 495 pearl street by drinking carbolic acid she was employed as an extra hand in restaurants lately her work has been irregular so she had no new clothes for easter here s summer coming on said she bitterly to her landlady mrs sullivan and i haven t a rag to me back not even a hat fit to wear this blessed sunday later the sullivan family heard groans coming from her room and found her dying and an empty carbolic acid bottle beside her the indianapolis in news 31 march 1902 p 1 young bride a suicide her husband failed to admire her easter bonnet port jervis n y april 13 because her husband paid no attention to her easter hat mrs clarence bishop a young bride rushed from the house yesterday and drowned herself in the neversink river her body was recovered mrs bishop was only 17 years old and recentl...