Word: mortician
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Titles make a difference in such up & coming trades as undertaking, press-agenting, real estate, beautifying. Self-conscious pride has enriched the language with the fancy names "mortician," "public relations counsel," "realtor," "beautician." A profession which has never needed a prop to elegance and dignity is Music, yet last week there came a musician's lament. A letter to proud Conductor Leopold Stokowski of the Philadelphia Orchestra from sensitive Conductor Ossip Gabrilowitsch of the Detroit Symphony was published. Excerpt...
Christ was buried at night, so the Omaha mortician who put away the remains of Franklyn R. Rees after dark had excellent authority for his ceremony (TIME, April 27). Matthew records (XXVIII-57) that the "even was come" when Joseph of Arimathaea begged the body of Jesus from Pilate, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb. John records (XIX-39) that Nicodemus came to the body of Jesus ''by night" with myrrh and aloes and only thereafter was it buried in the sepulchre...
...Mortician Hoffman put up a canopy at the grave, at each corner a blue floodlight operated by storage batteries. (Few cemeteries have electric light wires through them.) The 400 mourners rode up in 93 automobiles and four sets of headlights were aimed to give further illumination...
...Mortician Hoffman afterward announced: "Undoubtedly it was one of the most beautiful and impressive burials ever held in Omaha." Hot weather, he pointed out, adds to the discomfort of the bereaved, cool night services would be "of a comforting nature" to them. Moreover, as a matter of convenience, friends and relatives would not have to leave their work during the day if people were buried at night...
...were a little afraid that the procedure might be 'spooky,' but it wasn't at all," said Mortician Hoffman. "Everything was very beautiful, and there was much favorable comment afterwards...