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Show Origin or The Hearse. The hearse was formerly a framework frame-work for setting candles as used at some offices of the church and particularly at funeral services, where hearses of great splendor were placed over tlie bodies of iilf-tlnguished iilf-tlnguished persons. Portable hearses for the reception of coffins, and Iiaving covers with fittings for candles, were used to carry corpses fromlhe house to the church where candles were lighted. They were the origin of the modern hearses. The number of candles being the great distinction of tlie funeral, the name of the frame which bore them came to be used for the whole fuueral ceremony or for tlie cenotaph at whose head It was placed, and finally for tho funeral carriage. The Cat.(l. |