MERRY FUNERALS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 71, 23 March 1912, Page 14

MERRY FUNERALS.

"If, I order an ordinary funeral, probably few will follow mo to my f grave, and fewer still will shod a tear ; whereas if I order a merry one, a crowd of poor devils will enjoy a pleasant time." With these reflections (writes the Milan correspondent of the Chroniole on sth ult.) Signor Übaldo Samori, a broker who lias died in Modigliana, left in his will £1000 to the local hospital aud instructions for all ecclesiastical ceremony to be dispensed with. At loast 600 pints of the boat wine wore to be doled out to alloomerd at his funeral. Along tho processional route to the cemetery the news quickly spread, aud Bov.eral, thousands of people flocked round the canteen wagon that followed immediately in tho .rear of a first-class hears© according to the deceased's wishes. . The pjocegeion halted every few minutes while drinks were served out all round. The mourners were -toasted and hurrahs were given- for th» departed benefactor. The crowd, sang;, Neapolitan comic songs and patriotic ditties, the cortege taking a. full half-day to reach the burial plaoe. Somewhat similar scones were witnessed a day or two later "in Turiu. Signor Luigi Rossi, postal o,lerk of Turin, decided that his obsequies bhould be of a secular character, with a hired brase band to play nothing but lively rnueio. All participants in the funeral cortege were not only to have drinks, but a couple of cigars apiece, to be smoked en route. ftoasi's instructions -were carried out punctiliously, thousands taking part in ; the propession through the streets of the Piedmontese capital. "Mourners" puffed their cigars and ahouted jolly tunes. The grotesque procession w^s headed by the widow, decked out' from head to foot m 6carlet attire, Sijnor Rossi having bequeathed her £1000 conditional upon her donning similar garments for twelve months. Another wealthy Turinese company promoter buried the same day left a large sum of money- for a grand banquet to all tho shareholders of his concerns, provided the feast took placo on the night of his funeral. .