The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-19

present agitates the public mind. few gen-
tlemen, who have never yet been warm
enough, are determined that some ono shall
try the tropical atmosphere of bakers
oven after death. They are extremely
anxious to have their assertions
concerning cremation practically exem-
pliAed, and are quite willing to sacrifice all
at present, on the very tiptoe of excitement,
and looking hopefully towards the death OF
one of their own number, who will be imme-
diately subjected to the ordeal and reduced
to fine white powder. They have examined
the mortuary tables of our life insur-
ance companies through gold-bowed
spectacles, and then looked over the
rim inquiringly at the Oldest members OF the
Cinder Society. severe case of neuralgia or
chronic rheumatism would be regarded just
now with uncommon interest, and possibly
fatal case of dyspepsia would be looked upon
with calm resignation if not with suppressed
g!ee.
One enthusiast has already kindled his fire.
Finding all his neighbors in good health. ne
chased mouse several times round ten-acre
lot, and at last CALAMITY and perspiringly ran
him down. He invited him to die for the
good of his country, and in few hours
triumphantly exhibited him, properly calcned
and ready to add his weight in ashes to the
agricultural interests of America. Not content
with this act of prowess, and bent on mightier
deeds of valor, his eye fell on the family cat
He enticed her to his side by friendly and
treacherous words, and at the very moment
when her confding purr and lovingly arched
back bore witness to her trust in human kind
he struck the fatal blow in the interest Of
science and stretched her dead at his feet. He
then hurried with his trophy to the cellar
where the kissing furnace gave him warm
welcome, and promised to hide the crime
from the children, whose pet had been basely
murdered. Silently he watched the fire, fit
ting only from the woodpile to the
furnace, and from the furnace back to
hun that five ounces and quarter Of ashes
composed the gross residuum of what was
once six-pound Tabby. Who will say, after
this, that the heroic days are gone, or that
the spirit of martyrdom has died out?
Such deeds as these have reused the ad-
miration OF all the HERALD's contemporaries.
They are imbedded in oratory, like wasp in
amber, and sung in verse oil over the coun-
try Indeed, we have of late been so flooded
and drenched with the literature of
death that it has become almost i'm
possible to look even at ones poor
relations without making rough guess
as to the avoirdupois OF bone dust the dear
people will make when it shall be our un-
happy fate to put them on the blazing pile.
One would think, to hear these cremationists
talk, that the burial of the dead is one of our
modern eccentricities, and that in the golden
age of history fire and death were twins.
According to our reading, however, the burn
ing Of the dead was an exceptional custom,
lasting at best only few generations and
even then rebelled against as profane and I'M
worthy. The Greeks people who delighted
in new sensation, borrowed the custom from
the East, and inurned their dead in costly
vases. 1t was by no means universal practice,
for in the palmiest days of incineration the
noble as well as the humble were laid in tombs
As matter of course the Romans, who were
coffin to an earring, brought from Athens
was en- reqle, initiated their neighbors, their
captives and their teachers. Both these peo-
pies yielded at length to the pressure OF COM
mon instinct and gave up the custom. They
did not care to change
The two-oared boat, the S:ygian barge,
into steamer, and supply the frewood that
hurried their demigods over the sluggish river.
If white bearded Charon insisted upon his full
list of passengers he must pull them across
with the laborious oar. The Romans
ne yer dreamed of funeral pyre until cor
rupt court and people came to regard fire as
the only efectual purgation. When the State
was at its lowest political ebb. and its FREE
quent quarrels strewed every plain with un-
numbered and unburied dead, then the burn
ing OF the slain became the cross road to
forgetfulness of historic defeats; but when
the sun OF q new religion and better patriot
ism shone on the seven hills the fires died in
their ashes and the bodies of the departed
we're reverently buried. The scorn with which
the people OF Athens and Rome would have
greeted the proposition to use the cinders Of
their generals, their heroes and their philoso-
pliers to raise corn crop withal can be
better imagined than described.
These newborn theorists must 90 TO less
NJ, ltiyated nations and tribac Tn find n y,arallal
for their audacious economy. The Parsees
were accustomed to expose their dead to be
dcvoured by vultures and wild beasts. They
had no sentimental notions about funeral
fires and urns, but economical the defunct
after a fashion which it would be well for
these cremationists to initiate II the end is
to utilize the dead the way to do SO is sug-