Show THE r HE Ti TANGLE I LETTER LETTER FROM LESLIE PRESCOTT PRESCOTT PRES PRES- COTT TO RUTH BURKE Well VeIl its it's its all over dear lear Ruth With all the barbarous ceremony with which we wo surround our dead when we put them away from our sight forever dear old dad who loved and lived life so fully has I been laid to rest The pussy-footed pussy men from the undertakers undertaker's shop with their maddening maddening maddening mad mad- dening airs of ot sympathy the over over- powerful scent of ot tuberoses and lilies of the valley the stifling pall of crepe veils the harrowing notes of music and the long sermon wherein the minister drew a moral for the unregenerate from front the blameless life of my father gave gone Into oblivion Poor dear mother Never before did I 1 realize how terrible are our funeral ceremonies I sat beside her with her trembling hand in mine and felt her shrink and shudder when the hymn began I 1 heard her suppressed sobs as the minister referred to her as the widowed and forlorn I It seemed to me that all this was like sticking a knife into a aI ag I gaping g ping wound and turning ig it around 1 Then the great line lino of motors I filled tilled with business friends ds and acquaintances of my father the I marching men of the different t rent societies of which he was as a member member member mem mem- memI I ber and the automobiles filled with flowers Perhaps it all aU was sar sari sary Perhaps all this was paying respect to my fathers father's good deeds but to me it was ostentatious and unnecessary As we left the house mother whispered to me Have all aU the flow flowers rs possible sent to the hospital hospi hospi- tal tai dear so at least some Bome poor tortured tortured tortured tor tor- living being will be gladdened by the sight and odor of blossoms that were given to honor lifeless clay As we entered the cemetery we ve I I met another procession headed by bya i ia I Ia a band playing a funeral dirge Following 1 Fol Fot- lowing were vehicles with flowers j I then innumerable motors filled with j i imen men women and children All I I these were vere poorly dressed and John remarked What a pathetic thing I j Some poor giving all aU the insurance money to pa pay proper respect respect re- re I l I L to her man I Mother looked up with the first I gleam of interest she sh had shown in I anything outside of her grief and her own family since dads dad's death I and as we descended from the motor motor motor mo mo- mo- mo tor she glanced t ward toward the th cheaper part of the cemetery where about I an open grave stood a group of ot people people peo peo- pie evidently foreigners while the band still played dolefully I Then her own grief overpowered her and Karl had to fairly carry her to the place placa reserved for the thelast thelast I last rite of ot all I When hen it was sas all over and we returned re returned returned re- re turned to the house from which all signs of death and dissolution had already alread been banished mother went to her room I knew she wanted to be alone I IJohn IJohn John began to plan about getting j I j back to his business and nd how i j quickly he could move to take charge of fathers Just then mother moth moth- er came in and said Leslie Ive I've I been thinking of that other poor woman we saw at the cemetery to today today to- to day and I 1 want someone to go Immediately Immediately Im mi- to-I to mediately and find out if it It Is true that she has paid out all her little hoard to give her husband a grand grani I funeral I If that Is so have someone someone someone some- some one pay all alt those expenses for her I 1 I 1 cannot bear to have another SUffer suffer suf- suf fer ter more than Is necessary j I 1 took my dear mother In my arms and kissed her She ma may not be scientifically philanthropic Ruth I but she's a regular human being Copyright 1924 TEA EA Service Inc mc Tomorrow Tomorrow This This letter continued I |