FAMOUS FUNERALS.

Evening Star, Issue 12763, 16 March 1906, Page 4

FAMOUS FUNERALS.

So simple was the life of the late King of Denmark that there was not any very elaborate funeral. Public feeing, however, always demands a ceremony dignified by a certain State splendor when a monarch is laid to rest. It '.was the recognition of this, no doubt, which caused Queen Victoria so carefully to prepare the plan to be followed at her funeral. In a sealed packet which was opened at the Heme Office after her death it was found that she had taken into account every item of the great pageant. Her reason for selecting a military funeral was based upon the fact that she was a soldiers daughter, and the head of the army. All the minutest details of the ceremony were given, even-to the choice of music to be rendered. The apparel in. which she was to be arrayed for the last rites was not neglected, and the rings to be placed upon the Queen’s fingers were mentioned. The funeral of Queen Victoria Was the most impressive of our time, and no less than £35,000 was required to defray the cost. That, however, was less than half the amount expended over the obsequies of Wellington; while it cost £5,000 less than the sum disbursed for the burial of Nelson and of Pitt, for both of which eases £40,000 was required. Marlborough was interred at a. cost of £5,000; Gladstone’s funeral, sampler still, but- not less impressive, involved an expenditure of -only about half that figure. The Emperor William of Germany was laid to rest’at a cost of £25,000, a very prodigal outlay for one of a house which had been proverbially thrifty, however, was a modest funeral contrasted with that of the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, for whom obsequies a sum of £40,000 was , none too much. President Carnot went to his last resting place amid scenes of solemn splendor, over £6,000 being spent on flowers alone. Dean Stanley, reviewing, the funeral of Wellington, was led to comment upon historic scenes of a similar character, and ho placed them in this order: “First, Such honors Ilium, to her hero paid, And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade. ■ Secondly, 'the funeral of Camillas, who of Oil lives and characters scchis .to me the most like the Duke. Thirdly, that most a-pgust. mourning for Alexander the' Great. Fourthly, although deficient in solemnity, the burial of Cccsur. _ Fifthly, the Black Prince.” The funerals of AttiJa and Alaric Were, not considered bj the Dean, although

ior barbaric splendor they must hare beeii more wonderful even than Alexander's. 1 '• : Attfla .was buried in the midst'of a - vast champaign in' a coffin which was enclosed jin one df gold, one of and one Of iron. iWMv-.the body " werfr -interred, the ■ Historian,.; tells; us,. .all the, spoils .of the ’ embroidered with gold and studded with priceless .jewels, rich sSks, and whatever was most' precious in the palaces of the kings they bad pillaged. And that the place of his interment might for ever remain a, SOOret,; the. Hum slew all those who had assisted at.the burial. Simit lor . was the disposal ht the remains of Ala-ric. They turned aside the river Busento, and buried him in its bed with prodigious accumulation of riches. grave made and the river restored to its course, those who had done the work were slain there and then, that the site of the burial might for_ ever remain unknown. And it has to this day, despite many an attempt to find it. • . • * A Chinese deathbed presents features not generally known to the Western world. When the ettd of Li Sung Chang was seen to be approaching, he was. clad in the clothes of the dead, and in the courtyard men of distinction waited with a green official chair, with eight beaters and as many black horses, all made of paper and life-size, four outriders astride the horses in front of the chair, and four behind. When, by a signal from the window, the death of the statesman was announced; these figures were burned, that the flame might carry the spirit of the dead man to Heaven- This ceremony ended, a procession formed, bearing the nclily-la-cquered coffin of teakwood, with which Li had travelled ail round the world, and carried to the courts of kings and the mansions of nobles wherever he went.