SIGNS OF MOURNING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 6 May 1914, Page 3

SIGNS OF MOURNING

To tho announcement in the London "Times" the other day of the death »-f an eminent man there was appended the statement: "His wife and family will respect his urgent desire that no outward sign ic.f mourning shall be worn." The practice of wearing mourning has long been sliding into disuse, and probably the next twenty years will see it abandoned altogether, at any rate among the wealthier classes. The poor cling affectionately to old customs. We ("Times") mean nothing unkind when we say that to the poor a funeral, with its pomp and circumstance, its new clothes even the drive to the cemetery, is a treat. They frankly enjoy the seliimoortance of bareavement, and doubtless they will continue to wear mourning and in country villages, to maintain the ancient custom whereby the family, clad in complete black, attend in a body the -venino service on the Sunday following he funeral. At the opposite end o£ the scale, too,- Courts must show a ceremonious respect for the memory of rc-oentlv-deceased Primes; and suburban ladies, who have never seen a Court in heir lives, will long continue to takJ pride in evincing by their clothes their regret and sympathy. By the world i" general the motives that induce the shows of mourning are being brought to question. Funerals are daily becoming simpler. We have resolved that the memory of the deceased is no more honoured by extravagance in plumes and trappings than is his body by being Preserved in leaden shells and oaken offins from a swift and wholesome dissipation into its component flemjnito. Similarly the mourning of c»othes is much simple* and much sooner discarded Snan it was even 50 years ago when crape was worn, and. for a year at least There are few carriage horses left to iear black rosettes on their bridles and * bUck arm-strip would scarcely show on .he dark livery of a chaffeur A black cloth band concealing, the ribbon .on a silk hat has ceased to have any signini«e; everybody wears one Littto by little the outwards signs cf mouinir o ire passing away.