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Show V tM'ANNV IIMANIS " " Foreigners Who Come Here Long After ? They Are Bead A Ghastly t . Industry, IMFORTIHG - DEAD MEN'S 'BODIES.' Skeletons Are Strung Together Cheaper Abroad The Eise and Fall of Djad Men's Bodies. 'ry few men would care to die in tho knowledge that their skeletons, instead of decently crumbling into dust, would eventually be parading about in a world which their owners had quitted forever. Oeraflionally a man gives up the ghost, and at the same time gives up his bones, for professional or commercial uses; but such a man is invariably an abnormal creature, whom no ono loved while living liv-ing or mourned when dead. Through poverty ami crime many ! skeletons are available, but it is seldom that one is articulated in this country except by a clever surgeon, and then only for his own use. It is 'x fact not generally known that all skeletons used by secret; societies and in other ways in the United States are imported from Kurnpe. This uncanny traffic over tho sea is not due to any scarcity of skeletons here, but to an absence of the peculiar skilled labor necessary to the proper stringing of the bones together. No doubt tho industry in-dustry could be successfully introduced here were it protected by the tariff, but skeletons being on the freo list there is no encouragement to enter into competition competi-tion with tho cheaper labor of Europe. v A mistaken impression prevails in the popular mind that nearly all strictly secret societies ust! human skeletons in their ccrenionii?, tho fart being that , only a limited number among such organizations or-ganizations iisH them. For this reason no stock of this sort is kept on band, and articulated skeletons are imported on the receipt of orders. COST Of A KKM.KTON. The number of firms who import human hu-man skeletons in Now York is small probably not more than three and such importation forms but au insignificant branch of general business either ia surgical supplies or society paraphernalia. parapher-nalia. It is seldom, too, that tho members mem-bers of tt lodge or council, aside from its officers, know by what firm its skeleton is supplied. This fact is to bo accounted for by the reluctance of the importers to figure openly in such transactions. Thoypre- fer to conduct them quietly and unostentatiously. unos-tentatiously. A layman, unless an intimate inti-mate friend, can seldom get a mercluint to acknowledge plainly that he deals in skeletons. Ho will evade the question, and may compromiso on tho statement that ho once dealt in them, but no longer floeg so. Tho average cost of the skeleton of . a foreigner, properly articulated and mounted for use, is about $50, although they may run as high as $75, where more elaborate material is used, The same work, if turned out on this side of the water, would probably cost double the amount. Imported skeletons are always good , specimens, and most of them come from hYuice and Oemiauy, whero skilled labor la-bor of Ibis sort is most readily found and cultivated. They come as a rule in ordinary black casket, to one end of which the skull is hung, so that the bones may swing freely, and they pass the customs inspectors without exciting comment. TKEATKII WITH ItKVKNKNCR. A curious case of mistaken public excitement ex-citement will be recalled, where a .skeleton .skele-ton imported to onlerfor a secret society of Wultham, Mass., was duly shipped to ita destination, but owing to some error in the directions on the box was refused by the person to whom the express company com-pany delivered it. Tho box was thereupon there-upon opened at tho express office, and the discovery of its contents created a , positive sensation until tho shipper came forward and explained. While there is something ghastly at first sight in a man's bonus, thus being withheld from tho earth and traveling about the globe, it is certain that, having hav-ing started on their travels, they could not fall into better hands than those of a secret order. Instead of mooting with levity or neglect, they aro here treated with all tho reverence and care that would bo accorded the dead body in any assemblage. Their office, in convoying a sense of the littleness of human existence and the awfubiess of death, is too serious to admit of any other treatment; and a case is known to tho writer whero, somo years ago, a member of a lodge was suspended in disgrace fur displaying display-ing such a skeleton to a party of friends in the lodgo room during a facetious mood. If one must remain a skeleton, better be reverently bestowed in a secret lodge than on a surgeon's table. In some cases.diowever, where a lodge does not care to import a skeleton, a domestic do-mestic imitation, poorly and imperfectly articulated, can be obtained, and is easily easi-ly manufactured. Being symbolic it, of courso, serves tho purpose in a measure, meas-ure, but with a majority of men can scarcely bo expected to carry the same impression as the genuine an icle. New York News. j |