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Show A CHILD'S FUNERAL. A pauper's funeral is a sad sight. The rough pine coffin carried to the grave in a springless wagon followed by no mourner, tells the story of one who died unmourned. But a French artist, traveling in Holland, saw a sadder sight. Pausing in a grassy cemetery to read the inscriptions on the tombs, he described two strange forms approaching the gate. They were those of two men clothed in black. In profound silence, with expressionless eyes, they entered God's acre. One was dressed like a peasant. The other wore a three-corner hat. Both had long hat-bands of black crepe. Over the shoulder of the man with a cocked hat was slung a broad strap in which he carried a box. They were hired mourners carrying the corpse of a child to the grave. Neither father, nor mother, not even a family friend, followed that small coffin. All was left to the hands of hirelings. The painter turned away, sad, and thinking, "Did not one tear fall on that little corpse?" |