Debauchery presently usurped the place of innocent enjoyment and these assemblages were converted into orgies. Consequently, on December 1, 1655, the Council proclaimed " that from this time forth, on the New Year and May-days, there shall be no firing or May-poles planted ; nor shall there be any beating of the drum ; nor shall there be on the occasion any wines, brandywines or beer dealt out" under a fine of twelve guilders for the first ofl^ense, twenty-four for the second and corporal correction for the third.

The colonial funeral deserved to rank as a festive occasion -- a time of much eating and drinking. Whole pipes of Madeira, with several hogsheads of beer, were drunk at single funerals in New York, to say nothing of the food eaten and the tobacco smoked by friends who made a day -- and sometimes a night -- of it in honor of the departed. Legislative interference was more than once invoked to prevent the friends of the deceased from eating and drinking his widow and children out of house and home, and sensitive men were known on their death-beds to forbid the distribution of liquors at their obsequies. The precaution was well-timed, for funerals sometimes became the occasions of drunkenness and riot. There was an early custom of firing volleys over the graves of persons of rank and distinction, even though the one interred might be a woman.

There were many other sources of expense. The " underbearers " who carried the cofiin, walking with their heads and shoulders covered Avith the pallcloth, wore plain gloves; but the pall-bearers, the minister and many of the friends were presented with costly gloves of silk or leather. So many gloves were received by persons of wide social connections that a considerable revenue was derived from the sale of them.