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Show ! A TRADE SECRET. I vWhy the Kich Die in Winter and the Poor in Summer. : VThen asked by a reporter yesterday whether he had any funerals on hand, ! an Olive street undertaker answered in ! negative; adding . that he expected to I have some very good ones very soon. I " What makes you so confident? " queried the reporter. ! "Why," quoth the undertaker, "the j rich men die in winter and poor men in i summer. As winter is coming on, it fol- lows naturally that we will have the I remains of people belonging to rich fam-I fam-I ilies to bury. When I say that the rich l die in winter and the poor in summer, I am prepared to give my reasons for that assertion. In the summer time rich men, as a rule, take it easy, They keep in the shade and spend their time at summer resorts, where they get fresh air. Poor people, -on the other hand, remain at home. They work in the sun, live in basements and hot rooms, and . enervate themselves until they take sick and die. It is a well-known fact that poor people, as a rule, have more children- than rich people, and is also a well-known fact that the mortality among children is greater during the summer months than at any other season of the year. Men who work on brick walls, as brick-masons, men who clean the streets and teamsters, as well as others who are exposed to the hot rays of a midsummer sun, are poor men, as a rule, who are compelled to work the year round for their daily bread. Rich men die in winter becausa they are subjected sub-jected to dangers they take no precautions precau-tions to avoid. Poor men suffer from exposure, ex-posure, yet their very hardships fit them for the sudden changes of the weather, which are almost constantly occurring: Rich people, wearing furs and heavy overcoats, crowd into over-heated and badly ventilated theatres. When they come out they catch their death of cold. Rich people indulge in greater excesses in the winter than in summer. They attend more balls and wine parties and lose more sleep in cold than in warm weather. There are many other reasons for the fact stated to you, but it is hardly hard-ly worth while to enumerate them here. Suffice it to say that the undertakers have nearly all of their best paying funerals fun-erals during the winter months. St. Louis Republican. |