Show AN OLD DUTCH FUNERAL AT CATSKILL CAT-SKILL Until within a few weeks past one man Mr John Van Veen ten of Catakill was living who remembered the funeral of Domino Schuneman The ceremony was in accordance with the customs which the Dutch 170 years before had brought with them from the mother country A man especially deputed for tbe purpose met each male comer at the door and oflercd him a glass of f rum from a flask A woman waited in liko manner upon each female comer The relatives of the dead eat together around tbo corpse the friends and acquaintances took their seats in another part of the room or in an adjoining chamber When tbe services were over these were in Dutchthey who chcee went up to the coffin to take their last look at the deceased Tbe coffin was then closed put upon a bier and taken from the house to the grave the relatives following and after them all comers When the coffin had been laid in the ground tho proces sion returned to the bouse but in inverse order the relatives and the empty bier and its bearers coming last One room in the house was assigned as-signed to the bearers another to the assembled people In each room a table bas been set with bottles of rum a jar of tobacco and long clay pipe All the men drank and smoked talking in tile meanwhile of the character and virtues of tbeir dead pastor of their horses of the spring planting and of the weather One or two of the lower sort got tipsy and amused themselves by singing funereal ditties out ofdcora Harpers Magazine |