Wynnum White's Wickedness Author: J. D. Hennessey

The old and well known name of White had been first painted over the
shop in Chester-street twenty years before; but as young Wynnum looked
up and read it by the light of the street gas-lamp he had to choke down
a bit of a sigh, for he knew that it would soon be painted out.

The name had been done in black and gold block letters, and displayed on
either side was the further information--Cabinetmaker, Upholsterer, and
Undertaker. The last branch of the business, it may be said, however,
was a sinecure, for there had not been a single funeral conducted during
the whole of the twenty years.

It was painted up originally, and had been re-painted and gilded, once
every five years or so, because it looked well, and savoured of older
days, for it was regarded as being the privilege only of very
old-established London firms thus to designate themselves--firms which
dated their origin from a time previous to undertaking being carried on
as a distinct and separate business.

No one was deceived, however. There was a proper undertaker's
establishment a few doors down the street, where one might have a cheap,
shabby genteel 'Reform funeral,' or be buried with all the pageantry and
pomp of crape and tossing plumes, and mutes, and velvet pall, and other
accessories of fashionable grief. In fact, for money, you might have
purchased tears! But, notwithstanding all this, the Whites clung to the
assumption that they were undertakers, and felt themselves to be raised
above the common herd of furniture-dealers in Chester-street by the
appellation.