A lady of Hilversum tells me that she was once formally the recipient of the message, "Please, ma'am, the baker's compliments, and he's dead," the time and place of the interment following.

I said draped in black, but the aanspreker is not so monotonous an official as that.

He has his subtleties, his nuances.

If the deceased is a child, he adds a white rosette; if a bachelor or a maid, he intimates the fact by degrees of trimming.
The aanspreker was once occasionally assisted by the huilebalk, but I am afraid his day is over.

The huilebalk accompanied the aansprekers from house to house and wept on the completion of their sad message.