Life — November 15, 1883 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

244 THE OBITUARY OF AN UNDERTAKER. FROM THE WEEKLY BASKET AND COFFIN-PLATE, T is with unfeigned and unprofessional regret that we announce to our readers the untimely death of our late friend and colleague,Obadiah Coffin Graves. At the ripe age of seventy years, though still in the midst of his usefulness, he has been called away from among us ; and on the marble slab which marks his resting- place is inscribed already the simple but appropri- ate motto, UNDERTAKEN. Our departed friend was born on the 2gth of February, 1813, in a small cottage at Berryville, New Jersey. Even then the town was one of the deadest in the state, and the very room in which he first saw the light looked out upon the cemetery. From the first, influences were at work to control him in his choice of a profession. As a lad he played marbles on the prostrate gravestones of his ancestors, stole rides in the empty hearse as it jolted merrily along on its homeward journeys, and learned to view funerals with the critical eye of a connoisseur. At the pro- per age he entered regularly upon the duties of the pro- fession, with all the ad- vantages due to his long amateur experience; and from that time to the day of his death he was one of the brightest luminaries in our not too luminous brotherhood. Four children survive him ; three sons and a daughter. The oldest son inherits his father’s business ; the second entered the ministry ; the third is well-known among us as a practicing physician; and the daughter is of great service as a professional nurse. Thus has our friend’s family been reared to follow in his footsteps, and to coéperate most beautifully in the beneficent work of helping their fellow beings along the heavenly way. The mother of these children died some years ago, happy in the consciousness that her life work had been well done. It is hardly necessary to say that her obsequies were arranged in the very highest style of which our art is capable. She assisted her husband by the manufacture and sale of mourning millinery, and he keenly felt her loss. During his professional career, our late comrade assisted at more than five thousand funerals among our most prominent families. His official solemnity could > LIFE: not have been surpassed, and indeed it was seldom equalled ; in him grief was more than personified, and despair outdid itself. And yet his nature, among those who knew him best, was most warm and genial. Whoever has ridden home with him after a prosperous day’s work, will well remember his gaiety. He was the best comic singer we have ever known. As a business man Obadiah Graves was always thoroughly sound ; and in the Undertakers’ Conven- tions he was invariably on the right side. When some one proposed the admission of physicians to honorary membership in the Association of Undertakers, he wisely pointed out the suspicion which might be aroused in the public mind as to undue codperation between the two professions ; and the movement was defeated. Nevertheless he was always liberal in al- lowing trade discounts to physicians’ families, and with true breadth of mind he treated regular and homeeopath alike. Again; when Congress was me- morialized in behalf of a higher tariff upon coffins, so that the trade might form a syndicate and raise the price all round, he shrewdly argued that any measure which tended to increase the present cost of funerals would lead to dangerous competition on the part of the cremationists. Of course his point was carried. In public sanitary affairs our friend occupied broad middle ground. Although he objected to public extra- vagance in sewerage and street cleaning, he was op- posed to epidemics on the score of their wastefulness. Small-pox he especially despised as leading to small and cheap funerals, thereby defrauding the dead of due respect, and injuring at the same time the under- takers. In all ways he considered the welfare of the profession ; and even on his deathbed he seemed to delight in planning the details of his own obsequies. His wishes were carried out to the uttermost ; and we can easily fancy the pleasure with which his spirit, hovering near, enjoyed the expression of tender, broken- hearted hopefulness which was imparted to his casket. He is gone : gone to join his many clients, and never shall our mortal eyes behold him more. If we can but follow his example and strive to equal his marvellous technique, we too may at last depart with calm satis- faction to our torpedo-guarded graves. For the society belle—Miss-ery loves company. comicbooks.com