1882 Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings Vo 1 015

2

A CREMATORY FOR NEW-YORK.
The New-York Cremation Company, limited, has
bought fourteen lots, about one and a quarter acres,
in East Williamsburg, Long Island, upon which it
will build a stone crematory. The building will
be of the Grecian style of architecture and will cost
about $50,000. It will contain the incinerating
furnace, a chapel for religious ceremonies and a
columbarium, or memorial hall for the re-
ception of the urns containing ashes of the
bodies incinerated. Plans are now being prepared
and work will begin in about two weeks. The
crematory can be reached in thirty minutes from
the prinicipal ferries and will stand on an elevation
that overlooks the harbor, New-York and Brook-
lyn. The grounds will be made as attractive as
flowers and shrubs will make them, and there will
be nothing dreary in the surroundings. The cost
of incineration will be from $20 to $25, and the
time occupied will not be over fifty minutes. The
process is thus described:
As the door of the retort is opened the in-rushing air
cools it from white to red heat, and the whole interior
is filled with beautiful rosy light, that is fascinating to
the eye. The body, decently clad as for burial, is laid in
a crib, which is covered with a clean white sheet soaked
in alum. The crib is then put into the retort. The sheet
retains its original position and conceals the form until
nothing but the bones are left, and these gently
crumble into the dust as under the mystic touch
of an invisible agent. There is nothing repulsive
or painful about it. There is nothing which
need shock the most refined tastes nor offend the most
delicate sensibilities. No flame touches the flesh or bones
from the beginning to the end of the process.

Charles Putzel, of No. 140 Nassau-st., counsel for
the company, said yesterday:

We are daily in receipt of letters urging us on. The
Washington, Penn., crematory shuts down August 1
to all who do not live in the county in which it is situated,
and that impels us to hasten our work. Societies are
being formed in many cities throughout the country and
the general interest in the subject is increasing.

"BETON BURIAL."
Cementation of the Dead Instead of
Cremation.

While cremation as a means of disposal
of the dead has its advocates, on sanitary
grounds, the dread which the idea of incinera-
tion carries to the minds of living relatives
must for a long time prevent this mode
of disposal. It may no doubt in time be-
come more popular in large cities, but
as progress must be slow at best
even there, while among people in gen-
eral who cling with tenacity to old
usages and traditions it may take centuries to
have it adopted. In the mean time, as popu-
lation becomes more dense, and it is more and
more seen that consequences prejudicial to
the health of the living come from the present
mode of burial, something must be done to
avert such danger, and as everything that may
tend to throw light on this subject must be of
interest, attention is called to a suggestion of
a correspondent of the Sanitary Engineer,
who writes from Kansas City, Mo., that the
use of cement offers a mode of burial useful as
a sanitary measure, and at the same time free
from some of the objections to incineration.
Some of the modes in which cement may be
used are mentioned. In burial by inter-
ment, dry cement is laid in the casket
as a bed for the body to rest on, the amount
being as much as will allow a similar amount
of thickness for covering. This will not add
greatly to the weight borne to the grave.
Lowered to its place, without the cover, the
casket is filled entirely full with dry cement,
thus entirely surrounding the body, the cover
replaced, and the grave filled. The cement
will gradually absorb from the earth the
moisture, which will transform it to
a solid rock, in which every lineament
will remain impressed forever, as ashes
of Pompeii have retained for ages the forms
of the victims of that great burial. Nothing
in this is repugnant to the senses of the
mourner, nor does it require skill. The legend
of the body roughly cut in the wood of the
box or artistically placed on it in relief, is
transferred to the enduring stone, and in
the future identifies it beyond doubt. Some-
times it may be feared that the remains will
not be allowed to slumber in quiet; then, by
moistening the cement slightly - not making
it offensively wet - the process of induration
or hardening will take but a few hours. In
all cases care is needed to see that the ma-
terial is closely compacted. Where reasons
exist that whatever is done should be done
quickly, it would be hard to find a means by
which sanitary and other considerations
could be made to agree. Again, where
for any reason interment is impractible,
the body now being but the interior of a great
stone, can be left forever above ground. The
gases of decomposition, being hermetically
sealed, can be allowed to escape by a single
minute opening, and, passed through the
flame of a lamp, are thereby deprived of all
noxious qualities; but the many modes avail-
able, and the many sanitary and other con
siderations involved, cannot be mentioned
here. Any of us so minded may thus prepare
himself to be a stone in some future temple.

Boston Herald Mch. 14, '85.

LECTURE ON CREMATION
John Storer Cobb Discusses the "Dis-
posal of the Dead.

The Home Club of East Boston held its
regular meeting last night at Knights of
Honor Hall, No. 144 Meridian street. Presi-
dent Mrs. Smith being indisposed, Mrs.
Spaulding assumed the duties of that position.
The feature of the evening was a lecture by
Mr. John Storer Cobb, president of the
New England Cremation Society, on "The
Disposal of the Dead." Mr. Cobb said: One
of the most important questions that can en-
gage the attention of people, without regard to
the particular portion of the globe which they
may inhabit, is the manner in which the re-
mains of the dead shall be disposed of.
It is a subject which has been dis-
cussed in all ages of the world, but
the present exigencies of the older coun-
tries, and the fast approaching future de-
mands of the newer, have caused the theme to
be today one which is demanding and obtain-
ing a very large amount of interest and scru-
tiny, Cremation societies have been formed
in many cities of this country, as well as
those of Europe. The great case of Incinera-
tion versus Inhumation is at the bar of public
opinion. The advocates of the plaintiff are
making a gallant fight for the rights which
have been usurped and so long maintained by
the defendant. The agitation of this matter
is nothing new. Indeed, from time imme-
morial the question of what to do with the
dead has occupied the minds of the living. The
different methods of disposing of the dead by
the savage peoples of the earth were here de-
tailed by the lecturer.

The method of burial as practised in
Christian countries was contrasted in its ef-
fects with those of cremation. "There can be
no doubt," added the speaker, "that in dis-
posing of the dead we should be guided
mainly by a regard to the welfare of the liv-
ing. Whether the dissolution of the body be
accomplished by cremation or burial - or, in
other words, by quick or by slow burning -
the process is the same and the re-
sult is the same. The only difference
that there is consists in the length of time
which is consumed in the accomplishment of
the result. So also would process and result
be similar if we were today to do as we have
seen some savage nations doing - leave the
body uncovered upon the surface of the
ground, in the limbs of the trees, or the
rooms in which death took place.
So disastrous have become the effects
of burial in crowded countries that one can
scarcely take up a guide book to any European
city without finding repeated warnings against
the indiscretion of drinking the water of the
wells. In almost all the nations of Europe,
indeed, it has been found neessary to regu-
late by legislative enactments the distances
from graveyards at which wells may be dug.

At a hygienic council held in Brussels in
1852, it was decided that the protective dis
tance ought not to be less than 400 yards.
This, however, must vary with the nature of
the soil, the respective positions of the ceme-
tery and the surrounding land and other cir-
cumstances which will tend to modify the con-
ditions. The water of wells and springs in the
vicinity of burial grounds is of a remarka-
bly sparkling brilliancy, due to the very large
proportion of nitrate therein contained, the
products of the decomposition of the dead.
About 85 per cent of the human body is
water; and the low grounds in the vicinity of
cemeteries, if not artificially drained, are
always springy, and wells sunk therein
are unfailing. Seven large cemeteries of
Philadelphia are drained into Fairmont
dam, which is the source of the city's water
supply. Thus Philadelphians prove their
claim to the title of brotherly love by drinking
the soakings from the graves of their dead.
So the neighboring city of Cambridge derives
its water supply from Fresh pond,
into which is drained Boston's great
Roman Catholic cemetery, which is over-
crowded with the dead to such an extent as to
have, in many instances, three or more bodies
in a grave. Thus free-thinking Cambridge, no-
lens volens, is compelled to swallow Roman
Catholicism, or make history repeat itself and
throw its tea into Boston harbor.

The diseases prevalent among those who
dwell in proximity to graveyards are, notably,
diarrhoea, dysentery, fevers, and diseases of
the throat. By cremation - the rapid reduc-
tion of the body by means of heat,
which purifies every exhalation and
leaves in a few minutes but a
handful of absolutely innoxious ashes, which,
if the survivors choose, can be preserved in
elegance, where they can be visited at any
time or season - all danger to the living
is avoided. The lecturer here re-
ferred to the only furnace at
present in operation in this country, Dr. Le-
moyne's at Washington, Pa., and described
the process of incineration. He closed by
saying: "It will thus be seen that economy
- an element of consideration in disposing
of the dead - is also served by cre-
mation. By this means, one who is poor can
decently dispose of his dead, without hypothe-
cating his income and his peace of mind for
years to come, in paying exorbitant demands
levied upon his urgent necessity and his vital-
ized sentiment, which at such a time revolts
against the haggling about the dollar and the
cent.

Boston Herald, Mch.10, '85

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, April 10, 1885.

The Committee on the Judiciary, who were instructed
(under an order of the House recommitted) to consider the
expediency of legislation relative to the right of a widow in
the family burial lot of her deceased husband, report the ac-
companying Bill.

For the Committee,

JOSEPH MASON.
[*82] Section 1. Chapter * eighty of the Public
Statutes is amended by striking out the third sec-
tion thereof and inserting in place thereof the
following: Lots in such cemeteries shall be held
indivisible, and upon the decease of a proprietor
of such lot the title thereto shall descend to his
heirs at law or devisees, subject, however, to the
following limitations and conditions: If he leaves
a widow and children, they shall have in com-
mon the possession, care and control of said lot
during her life. If he leaves a widow and no
children, she shall have the possession, care and
control of such lot during her life. If he leaves
children and no widow they, or the survivor of
them, shall in common have the possession, care
and control of such lot during the life of the sur-
vivor of them.

The parties having such possession, care and
control of such lot during the term thereof may
erect a monument and make other permanent im-
provements thereon. The widow shall have a
right of interment for her own body in such lot or
in a tomb in such lot, and a right to have her
body remain permanently interred or entombed
therein.

At any time when more than one person is en-
titled to the possession, care and control of such
lot, the persons so entitled thereto shall designate
in writing to the clerk of the corporation which
of their number shall represent the lot, and on
their failure so to designate, the board of trustees
or directors of the corporation shall enter of re-
cord which of said parties shall represent the lot
while such failure continues. The widow may,
at any time, release her right in such lot, but no
conveyance or devise by any other person shall
deprive her of such right.

Sect. 2 Chapter two hundred and sixty-
two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and
eighty-three is hereby repealed.