Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1911 — Burials Cheap in This Arizona Town [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Burials Cheap in This Arizona Town

PHOENIX, Ariz. —Come to Arizona to die and get buried cheaply. The Maricopa county board of supervisors has just closed a contract with a local undertaking firm whereby those who die in such circumstances as to necessitate burial by the county will be laid away decently at the expense of one mill per person. This includes an upholstered redwood coffin and full funeral service. Four firms bid for the county business. and none may be said to have Bought to exact an exorbitant stipend. The highest price asked per corpse was |4.25, while one firm offered to do the work for 10 cents each and another for one cent. The firm bidding one-tenth of a cent was the “lowtest responsible” bidder and got the business. It might be gathered from this that Maricopa county is such a healthy place that no one ever dies. But not only do persons die here, but they die by scores. , The county burial bill, even at one mill, will in the twelve months for

which the contract is made, run up into several dollars. This is due to the fact that Phoenix, the seat of Maricopa county, is a famed resort for tuberculosis victims. Behind the bid lies the reason. It is worth something for the undertaking firm to get its name in the local papers every time a pauper dies. At the same time, one can never tell by the appearance a living man presents what his estate will divulge. It has been demonstrated that not only do the undertakers who have the county contract not lose money, but actually make a good profit in addition to the advertising. It frequently happens that one case makes up for the losses on a whole year’s contract and leaves many other cases of supposed lndigents to create a handsome profit for the business. The contract at one mill per corpse means that the dead wagon must go for the body and remove it to the undertaking establishment. There it must be prepared for burial, the firm supplying all the essentials. It must then be transported to the cemetery and interred. There have been cases where undertakers have kept bodies for six months while they sought throughout the country for someone who would pay a fair expense bill for the funeral. In most of such cases they are ultimately successful.