The Violet

376 IMPROVEMENT ERA, goods. He has never heard of embalming, and does not care how rapidly the disease germs spread their terror, so long as they don't take their abode with him. Over his business is hung the sign, "Articles Necessary for Buddhist and Shinto Funerals Fur- nished." On the top of a certain undertaking firm's place, there is a clock made in the shape of a Buddhist bier, and the people who pass along the street, hearing the bell that tolls the hours, wonder How long, ere such a knell Shall summon them to heaven or hell. Corresponding to the Undertakers' associations in America, are the Funeral Reform societies of Japan. These aim at uni- formity, and are striving to provide dresses and other articles made according to the latest and most convenient styles for the funerals of the dead. Often one of these societies actually per- forms the work of an undertaker, providing everything required to carry out a business properly. With the spirit of reform work- ing within, and the powerful influence of Western thought and method, in connection with the steady but conquering march of Christianity exerting itself on the outside, the present system of burial is destined to be engulfed by the more enlightened means employed in the foremost of all civilized lands—America. THE VIOLET. Dainty, pure, the violet, Grows in sylvan shades; Under moss and grasses wet. In lone-sequestered glades. Wild-wood air sweet fragrance breathes. Ne'er exposed to sun; Shadowed by o'erhanging leaves, Where babbling brooklets run.—Lydia D. Alder.