Coffin maker

“ If the coffin has not been previously prepared, a son buys one from a maker, who gives the buyer a couple of oranges or a package of confectionery, that the transfer of goods may not be an unmixed sadness to his customer. Some person, familiar with the route, must guide the bearers by the shortest road to the house of the purchaser, for an empty coffin imperils the welfare of the inmates of any dwelling to which it is taken, and a mistake in regard to its destination would bring rough treatment to those who carried it. ”

“ The dead bodies of this class are buried in the open earth, a trench only being dug in the ground. Suitable wood is so scarce and so valuable in the capital that coffins are very expensive. Those [Pg 204] designed for young children are seen exposed for sale decorated in the most fantastic manner. One narrow street near the general market and close to the plaza is almost wholly appropriated, on the street floor, to coffin-makers' shops. ”

“ Coffins are a dreadfully common sight. It is impossible to move a dozen steps in any direction without meeting one or very likely a procession of of them. One hundred of them were piled up in front of the Morgue this morning. Twice as many more were on the platform of the Pennsylvania station. Carloads of coffins were being unloaded from freight cars below town and carried along the roads. Almost every house has a coffin in it. Every boat that crosses the river carries one, and rows of them stood by the bank to receive the bodies. ”

“ Some persons have had a singular taste for providing their coffins long beforehand, and keeping them as objects pleasant to look at, or morally profitable as reminders of the fate of all, or useful for everyday purposes until the last and solemn use supervenes. A slater in Fifeshire, about forty years ago, made his own coffin, decorated it with shells, and displayed it among other fancy shell-work in a room he called his grotto. Another North Briton, a cartwright, made his own coffin, and used it for a long time to hold his working tools ”

“ It is said that a corpse has a small loaf of bread placed in one hand and a stick in the other. If attacked by a dog he may first feed it with the bread and then, if necessary, drive it away with the stick.
Coffins are of various prices, according to the wood and varnish used. It is common for elderly people to have their coffins lying ready in the house for many years. The provision of a good coffin and an expensive funeral gets over many a difficulty in family relationships. ”

“ The tanner, currier, shoemaker, the manufacturer, with his swift-flying shuttles, the operator tending his looms and spinning-jennies, the tailor with his sewing-machines, the gunsmith, the harness-maker, the blacksmith,—all trades and occupations have been employed. ”

“ The Lord hath decreed that the dead should be interred in coffins #128 In the Bayán, the Báb prescribed that the deceased should be interred in a coffin made of crystal or polished stone. Shoghi Effendi, in a letter written on his behalf, explained that the significance of this provision was to show respect for the human body which "was once exalted by the immortal soul of man". ”

“ The coffin, which fits the body, is made air-tight with wax, resin, or varnish, and is borne on a bier to the grave by men who make this their regular business. Often there are two coffins, one inside the other. Sons follow the body of their father on foot, relatives ride in palanquins or on horseback. ”

“ If the patient died, servants were kept beating on instruments of copper to keep away evil spirits, supposed to be hovering round the corpse. There was a belief that if an evil spirit passed over a dead body, the soul would return to the inanimate remains. At a funeral procession, men surrounded the coffin with drawn scimitars, to drive the devil away and help to confine him to his home of darkness. ”

“ They now put the pipe and tobacco-box of the deceased in the grave, as in ancient times they used to deposit his armor there. All the furniture is removed from the place before the dead man is taken from the house, so that the escaping soul shall not be held back by its attachment to the familiar arrangement of the room—a custom which in itself, and in the thought that suggests it, contrasts curiously with the Servian fashion. When the coffin is being borne out, it is set down upon the door-step, so that the walls of the house may know that one of its inmates has left it. ”

“ There was a man speaking now from the bottom of the hole to others in the churchyard, and then my eyes were led as by a loadstone to a great wooden coffin that lay by itself on the top shelf, a full six feet from the ground. When I saw the coffin I knew that I was respited, for, as I judged, there was space between it and the wall behind enough to contain my little carcass; and in a second I had put out the candle, scrambled up the shelves, half-stunned my senses with dashing my head against the roof, and squeezed my body betwixt wall and coffin. ”

“ As they only have this last visit to make, you'd think they'd make it a point to be on time and not delay the funeral. But about the way I fasten a coffin. If any grave-robber tackles one of my coffins without knowing the trick, he'd be astonished, I tell you. I often think of it and laugh. You see, there's a dozen screws and they look just like ordinary screws. But if you work them all out with a screw-driver, your coffin lid is just as tight as ever. You see, it's this way. The real screw works with a reverse thread, and is hollow on the top. Now I have a screw-driver that is really a screw. ”

“ In such cases, where the friends are able, every care is taken of them, incense being daily burned before them. It was no uncommon thing for Mrs. Bishop, on her journey in Sze Chuan, to have to sleep in a room where a coffin was stored, waiting the day of its interment, incense burning and other religious rites being daily performed in front of it. To prevent mischief owing to the retention of bodies above ground for so long a time, the coffins are built of very thick wood, the bodies are placed in lime, the joints of the coffin are cemented, and the whole covered with varnish. ”

“ As soon as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he passed along a narrow passage way between two rows of open coffins, placed close together side by side, and in each coffin was a dead man, his flesh dried to a mummy, his clothes all in tatters, and his face, though shrivelled and dried up, still preserving enough of the human expression to make the spectacle perfectly horrid. ”

“ The coffins of France and Germany and the continent generally, usually differ from those of England in not being of the ordinary hexagonal shape but having sides and ends parallel. Coffins used in cremation throughout the civilized world are of some light material easily consumed and yielding little ash. Ordinary thin deal and papier mâché are the favourite materials. Coffins for what is known as Earth to Earth Burial are made of wicker-work covered with a thin layer of papier mâché over cloth. ”

“ The process of preparing a body for cremation requires a brief notice. The plan generally adopted is to place it (in the usual shroud) in a light pine shell, discarding all heavy oak or other coffin, and to introduce it into the furnace in that manner. Thus there is no handling or exposure of the body after it reaches the crematorium. The type of furnace in general use is on the reverberatory principle, the body being consumed in a separate chamber heated to over 2000° Fahr. by a coke fire. In a few instances a furnace burning ordinary illuminating gas instead of coke is in use. ”

“ We throw the earth aside and finally lay bare a coffin. A coffin? Something that must have been one in the remote past. A sickening odor greets us. We step back to draw a breath of pure air. At last we muster up sufficient courage to return to the grave. A touch of the spade causes the top-board of the box to fall to pieces, and there is revealed to the sight a spectacle that is horrible. The ground around the body has been moist and non-porous; what has remained of the corpse is only a mass of foul flesh in a state of putrefaction. ”

“ It consists of (1) a gasometer for the manufacture of the gas necessary to heat the furnace; (2) the furnace itself, with a regulator and a space for burning; (3) a chimney to take away the smoke &c. We may conceive a large, beautiful dead-house built for the purposes of cremation. In the midst, but invisible to those present, is a furnace. The funeral procession arrives at the house, and enters it the same as the churchyard is now entered. When the coffin has been placed on the tressel, and the usual ceremony ended, it is let down into the grave and disappears. ”

“ Inasmuch as the coffin must remain in the hall for forty-nine days, naturally they are prepared with a great deal of care. Very thick planks are used in its construction, cut from the hardest trees, caulked on the outside and cemented on the inside, and finally varnished or lacquered. Sometimes a coffin containing a body is kept in the house for a considerable length of time after the forty-nine days have expired, while arrangements are being made for a burying place and other preliminaries are attended to. ”

“ I hardly thought you would——”
“I would—for Shelagh. But you don't understand. That coffin will be opened by the police at St. Heliers to-morrow, and——”
“I do understand. It's you who do not. Every one on board knows that the coffin was floating in the sea, that we came on it by accident. You could have had nothing to do with its being where it was. If you had, you wouldn't have taken it on board! The body found in that coffin to-morrow won't be associated with you. She must have altered horribly since old days. And she has changed her name many times. ”

“ This morning you saw me slit the lining and remove some of the padding. There was no wart in the floor of the coffin, Wigan."
"You mean the coffins were changed?" said Zena.
"I do. One with the body in it was removed, and another with lead in it was placed on the trestles in its stead. The plainer the coffin the easier it would be to duplicate it by description. The makers of the second coffin would not have the original before them to copy, you must remember."
"But only Lady Rusholm and her son could possess the necessary knowledge to give such a duplicate order," I said. ”

“ A few days later a second coffin was found, lying parallel to the first, 5-ft. 7-in. in length, the bones of the skeleton within being larger and evidently those of a male. Subsequently fragments of decayed wood and long iron nails and clamps were found, showing that the leaden coffins had originally been enclosed in wooden cases. Both these coffins lay east and west. A description was sent to a well-known antiquarian, the late Mr. John Bellows of Gloucester, and he stated that if the lead had an admixture of tin they were Roman, if no tin, post-Roman. ”

“ Evils arising in this source are unknown to the rich. Soldered in its leaden coffin, on tressels in some separate and spacious room, a corpse may await the convenience of survivors with little detriment to their atmosphere.
Not so in the poor man’s dwelling. The sides of a wooden coffin, often imperfectly joined, are at best all that divide the decomposition of the dead from the respiration of the living. A room, tenanted night and day by the family [302] of mourners, likewise contains the remains of the dead. For some days the coffin is unclosed. The bare corpse lies there amid the living ”

“ The wish for extra coffins is in many a dread of the dreadful co-tenants of the grave, and those who have shrunk from rats and worms during their lifetime, cannot endure that such intruders should visit their remains unchecked. When such precautions are assured they die easier. Thus it was that the late Sir Philip Crampton—Sir Walter Scott's Crampton—who died only a few years ago, left directions that his coffin should be filled up with plaster of Paris "to keep away the rats," which was accordingly done. ”

“ The coffin is covered with a particular design in red and black and white, and is placed in the gallery on a low platform, surrounded by the most valuable personal property of the dead man, whose family will take pains to make the display of property as imposing as possible. A fire is kept burning near the coffin, and small packets of cooked rice and of tobacco are placed upon it for the use of the dead man's soul. ”

“ The lid rose slowly on the one side, and as it lifted the dark space between it and the coffin grew gently charged with light. At that moment my feeble candle, which had been gradually diminishing, guttered and flickered. I seemed to catch a glimpse of something, as it were, of white and shining raiment inside the coffin; and then came a rush of wings and a whirring sound within the vault. I gave a cry, and stepping back missed my foothold; the guttering candle was jerked from my grasp, and I fell prone to the floor in darkness. ”

“ He was buried in Keighley Churchyard on the 7th of March, amidst crowds who had come from all parts of the neighbourhood to witness the scene. The coffin excited considerable attention from its extraordinary shape, as his body could not be straightened, the muscles of the knees and thighs being contracted. It was an oak chest, two feet four inches in depth. The weight was so great that it required eight men with strong ropes to lower it into the grave. ”

“ The man died; the widow packed the contents of both coffins into one; while the body was deposited in the other. By some mishap, the coffin full of eatables was lowered into the grave. Next day the widow opening the lid of the (supposed) cupboard, was scared at finding the dead body of her husband. Of course the interment had to be done all over again, with an interchange of coffins.
The custom of being buried in an erect position has been frequently carried out. ”