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THE MOCKERY OF MOURNING

Thoughts Upon Outward Signs of Inward Grief Prescribed by Convention.

They Will Disappear Only When Superstition Disappears and We Have More Culture

Why do women wear mourning?

They will reply, without a doubt, in order to make some outward evidence of their inner grief.

But the question arises, if this is so, why do not men also wear it? No one will maintain that they suffer loss than women. Their hearts wear black much oftener than their hat bands do. They used, it is true, to wear it much more in former years than they do now. But at present, mourning is almost exclusively a feminine demonstration, and it is rather interesting, psychologically speaking, to inquire why women should still cling to this ancient custom, while men have almost abjured it.

Anyone who stops to think on the subject for a moment or two, will perceive that men have been the ones always to make progress toward greater spirituality in matters concerning death and burial. For example, it is the men, almost without exception, who are in favor of cremation, that hygienic and economical method of disposing of the dead. But women will have no crematories. They want a grave to weep over. They want a palpable, cold, long, grass-grown grave to put wreaths on, and at which they may sit and remember the virtues of the deceased.

It may be that this is not materialism, but it looks very much like it. Men seldom vein graves, except in the novels of Mrs Augusta Evans.