Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1899 — CURIOSITY ABOUT THE DEAD. [ARTICLE]

CURIOSITY ABOUT THE DEAD.

“Please, missis, may I see the dfeladyT’ The speaker was the biggest of a group of three diminutive street girts, and the door bell which she had Just pulled vigorously was hung with crape. The reluctance with which, when finally convinced that the delight of “seeing the die-lady” was not for her, she led her little band of followers down the steps again was characteristic of a phase of public curiosity, but little known save to those who have personally experienced annoyance from it, but which is decidedly on the increase in Chicago. Whether from religious, superstitious or merely'curiosity-satisfying reasons, there are numbers of people In this city who make a practice of invading the houses in which death has entered, and pestering the mourners with requests to Inspect the. body. Up to the door of the darkened house just mentioned crept, that same afternoon, no less than half a dozen Individuals of this description, and of social grades and characteristics widely dissimilar. “I should like to pay my respects to the dead,” explained the solemn and obsequious colored man, who tiptoed thither In the gathering dusk. This man evidently had an idea of Indulging in a social ceremony of some kind, and was really hurt a* well as Indignant to find bls modestly preferred request refused. “It’s so lucky to say a prayer by a corpse,” pleaded the Italian vender, who also importuned for “just a peep at” the dead body, while the lame beggar who Insisted upon returning to the basement doorway again and again until threatened with arrest offered no reason whatever for his peculiar action. Nor are such incidents as these by any means confined to the class of individuals mentioned. There is a growing plague of the people who stream in at funerals, annoy and distress harassed mourners by their persistent petitions to be allowed to view the sacred dead, and who even make a practice, where this is possible, of taking the trip to the cemetery. Well-dressed and ill-dressed, old and young, rich and poor, alike, these people are. Their persistence is exceeded only by their numbers, and tiie only thing which will send them to the right-about is a stern “No.” Since the people whom they distress and torment are rarely in a condition to be stern and indignant, they are often enabled to satisfy their inexplicable desires.—Chicago Inter Ocean.