In a small house where flowers would be overpowering, it is customary to insert in the death notice:  “It is requested that no flowers be sent,” or “Kindly omit flowers.”

Arrangement for the service is usually made in the drawing-room, and the coffin is placed in front of the mantel, or between the windows, but always at a distance from the door, usually on stands brought by the funeral director, who also brings enough camp chairs to fill the room without crowding.  A friend, or a member of the family, collects the cards and arranges the flowers behind and at the side and against the stands of the coffin.  If there is to be a blanket or pall of smilax or other leaves with or without flowers, fastened to a frame, or sewed on thin material and made into a covering, it is always ordered by the family.  Otherwise, the wreaths to be placed on the coffin are chosen from among those sent by the family.

=THE SERVICE=

As friends arrive, they are shown to the room where the ceremony is to be held, but they take their own places.  A room must be apportioned to the minister in which to put on his vestments.  At the hour set for the funeral the immediate family, if they feel like being present, take their places in the front row of chairs.  The women wear small hats or toques and long crepe veils over their faces, so that their countenances may be hidden.  The minister takes his stand at the head of the coffin and reads the service.

At its conclusion the coffin is carried out to the hearse, which, followed by a small number of carriages, proceeds to the cemetery.

It is very rare nowadays for any but a small group of relatives and intimate men friends to go to the cemetery, and it is not thought unloving or slighting of the dead for no women at all to be at the graveside.  If any women are to be present and the interment is to be in the ground, some one should order the grave lined with boughs and green branches—­to lessen the impression of bare earth.

=DISTANT COUNTRY FUNERAL=

In the country where relatives and friends arrive by train, carriages or motors must be provided to convey them to the house or church or cemetery.  If the clergyman has no conveyance of his own, he must always be sent for, and if the funeral is in a house, a room must be set apart for him in which to change his clothes.

It is unusual for a family to provide a “special car.”  Sometimes the hour of the funeral is announced in the papers as taking place on the arrival of a certain train, but everyone who attends is expected to pay his own railway fare and make, if necessary, his own arrangements for lunch.

Only when the country place where the funeral is held is at a distance from town and a long drive from the railway station, a light repast of bouillon, rolls and tea and sandwiches may be spread on the dining-room table.  Otherwise refreshments are never offered—­except to those of the family, of course, who are staying in the house.