All dead bodies shall be properly interred in some authorized cemetery or burying ground, except as herein otherwise provided. The city council is hereby authorized to cause a contract or contracts to be executed by the city with some competent undertaker or undertakers, on such terms and conditions as may be satisfactory to the city council, binding such undertaker or undertakers to properly and legally bury and inter all human dead bodies of paupers which are identified or for the expense of the burial of which no means, financial or otherwise, can be found or furnished, and to bury and inter such bodies under the direction of the city council and of the director of public health and to their satisfaction.
Such contract shall, among other things, provide that:
(a) All work shall be handled in a sanitary manner and in strict compliance with the rules as set forth by the board of health of the state and the city.
(b) All bodies shall be washed and arterially embalmed, and males shall be shaved.
(c) All bodies shall be clothed in a complete suit of underwear, hose and burial shroud.
(d) For adults, the contractor shall furnish a casket covered with black cloth upholstered with a good grade of domestic wood and wool and lined with a good grade of embossed lining. The casket shall be trimmed and ornamented with six handles, name plate, crucifix or lodge emblem.
(e) For children, the contractor shall furnish a casket covered with white plush and trimmed as set out above.
(f) The contractor shall furnish with each casket an outside box.
(g) In case of death from a contagious disease, there must be compliance with the rules and regulations of the board of health of the state and the city.
(h) The contractor shall use every effort possible to locate relatives and friends of the deceased and shall hold unknown bodies until they are satisfied that identification of such body is impossible.
(i) The contractor shall keep a complete record of all cases handled by him, for the information of the police department, or any person seeking to locate lost relatives or friends. (Code 1941, Art. 15-17)