Somebody has said that in order to know a community, one must observe the style of its funerals and know what manner of men they bury with most ceremony.

I cannot say which class we buried with most eclat in our "flush times," the distinguished public benefactor or the distinguished rough--possibly the two chief grades or grand divisions of society honored their illustrious dead about equally; and hence, no doubt the philosopher I have quoted from would have needed to see two representative funerals in Virginia before forming his estimate of the people.
There was a grand time over Buck Fanshaw when he died.

He was a representative citizen.

He had "killed his man"-- not in his own quarrel, it is true, but in defence of a stranger unfairly beset by numbers.
He had kept a sumptuous saloon.

He had been the proprietor of a dashing helpmeet whom he could have discarded without the formality of a divorce.
He had held a high position in the fire department and been a very Warwick in politics.