The Funeral Faux Pas
A daughter’s confusion during a somber Seattle funeral creates a moment of awkward levity in the midst of mourning.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A local girl who is not thoroughly versed in funeral etiquette recently attended a funeral. Seeing the funeral orchestra playing, she leaned over to her mother and whispered: 'What a beautiful piece the orchestra is playing now!' Her mother, shocked, whispered back: 'Do hush, dear; you shouldn't talk here.' The daughter, abashed, replied: 'Yes, mamma, but when the funeral took place I had no idea that dear departed papa would be there, too.'
“Yes, mamma, but when the funeral took place I had no idea that dear departed papa would be there, too.”
Funeral etiquette remains a social minefield, though perhaps today we are less likely to mistake a somber processional for a concert performance. This snippet offers a rare, humanizing glimpse into the domestic life of 1888 Seattle, moving beyond the political and maritime news that dominated the era's papers.
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