I wander from my proper subject to observe that one hundred of these notices in a single journal must make that journal a sorrow to the eye and a shock to the taste, even among the Germans themselves, who are bred to endure and perhaps enjoy a style of “display ads” which far surpasses even the vilest American attempts, for insane and outrageous ugliness. Sometimes a death notice is as large as a foolscap page, has big black display lines, and is bordered all around with a coarse mourning border as thick as your finger. The notices are of all sizes from foolscap down to a humble two-inch square, and they suggest lamentation of all degrees, from the hundred-dollar hurricane of grief to the two-shilling sigh of a composed and modest regret. A newspaper page blocked out with mourning compartments of fifty different sizes flung together without regard to order or system or size must be a spectacle to see. +--------------------------------------------------------+ |                                                        | |                     Todes-Anzeige.                     | |                     -------------                      | |                                                        | |      Theilnehmenden Freunden und Bekannten hierdurch   | |   die schmerzliche Nachricht, daß mein lieber Freund   | |   und langjähriger, treuer Mitarbeiter           | |                                                        | |                      Rudolf Beck                       | |                                                        | |gestern Abend an einem Herzschlag plötzlich verschieden | |ist.                                                    | |                                                        | |             =Langen=, den 5. September 1892.           | |                                                        | |                  Otto Steingoetter                     | |                                                        | |            Firma =Beck & Steingoetter=.                | |                                                        | |    Die Beerdigung findet Dienstag, den 6. Sept.,       | |    Nachmittags 3½ Uhr, statt.                          | |                                                 25958  | +--------------------------------------------------------+ The notice copied above is modest and straightforward. The advertiser informs sympathizing friends and acquaintances that his dear friend and old and faithful fellow laborer has been suddenly smitten with death; then signs his name and adds “of the firm of Beck & Steingoetter,” which is perhaps another way of saying that the business will be continued as usual at the old stand. The average notice is often refreshed with a whiff of business at the end.