HOSPITALS AND MEMORIAL DONATIONS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—TO at least one other practical spirit besides your norrespondent, Major Oppenheim, it occurred that the desire to render "unavailing service," the futile expense and waste of flowers at funerals, might prove, if rightly directed, to be a valuable financial opportunity for the hospitals.
In 1913 a comparatively young and talented Jewish lady, whose remarkable and pathetic letters were published in 1919 under the title of Words in Pain, found herself con- demned to death by a cruel disease. With undaunted faith in the value of her friendships, and with a charming candour, she invited her friends, of whom she had many, to send the amount they were proposing to expend on flowers at her funeral to herself instead. The appeal was responded to ; and thus she derived before the death overtook her much satisfaction in sending a substantial sum to a London hospital.
But to advocate a general adoption of the idea, it is to be feared, is the offering a counsel of perfection. The mourner's resort to the consolation of flowers is a very ancient one. It was not yesterday that the great poet exclaimed out of a full heart, "Manibu.s date lilia plenis, purpureos spargam
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