Taphologist

Walton G. Roberts, Taphologist.

Every day I pass a wall, some five hundred square feet of which a gentleman has taken to declare that he is ‘out’ to break the Undertakers’ Trust. Half the advertisement is a coloured photograph of himself. The rest is, “See what I give you for 75 dols.!” and a list of what he does give. He gives everything that the most morbid taphologist could suggest, beginning with “splendidly carved full-size oak casket, with black ivory handles. Four draped Flambeaux …” and going on to funereal ingenuities that would have overwhelmed Mausolus, and make death impossible for a refined man.

At the same time, taphologists need the preservation and recovery of their sacred places, something that, often, only archaeologists can properly provide.