Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-04-17
CREMATION.

CRE1MA TION.
C Bury my dead out of my sight. -
Old Patriarch.
The press of the United States is agita-
ting the question whether we shall burn,
or still bury our dead. We can hardly
hope for such reformation in a commu-
nifty where, in Difference to the prejudice of
custom, condemned criminals are still exc
cuted in the most brutal way, and any sug-
gestions on the side Of humanity are re-
ceived with ridicule. It has not been very
long since Parsee, living in Wisconsin,
when attempting to burn the body of his
wife, after the custom of their country, as
her ying wish, was mobbed by theignorant
populace. 1t is estimated that 100000
persons die every year on the Earth, and
that it would be great addition to the
health of the planet, if this number OF de-
caying bodies were consumed, instead Of
rotted away. This is the opinion of dis
tinguished physician but, as some ''distin-
guished physician" OF other, always give
a contrary opinion, some time in the year,
and as we but lately read a dissertation
from one, showing how greatly advantaged
the world was, in having such happy fer
tilizer as the human body, we are doubt
full about using this as an argument. Still
it is undeniable that, in the immediate Vi
entity of cities, health would be improved
by the removal of the tens of thousands of
decaying human frames. In the country
I, I'm 70 fyon, II
Perhaps the strongest ground of opposition
will be the violation of the sentiment about
the dead We never think of our dead as
worm eaten corpses, horrible to the view.
A tender love clothes them with the ap-
pearance of life, and when we look at their
pictures, craven on our hearts, we see them
as we saw them before they died orperhaps
resting in placid beauty, prepared for the
grave. But we never go farther than that.
Our thoughts never attempt to penetrate
the green turf that covers them, where our
idea is that they are resting. We invest
them with sort of sensitive life, as it were,
so much so that we shudder when we bury
them on snowy evening, OF when after the
funeral we hear the cold dripping of the
winters rain. This is the sentiment that
we cherish, and that we will find hard to
slay. We don't follow them through the
process of decay it would tear our hearts
to do it. And so when common sense
comes to us, and proposes to take our dead,
fresh out of our hearts, and before death
has altered feature, and thrust them into
a furnace Of fire we are appalled,. But af-
ter all it is but sentiment, and the world
is thrusting away those sentiments that
stand tearfully in the path of Expediency.
In Europe the process has begun, more
notably among the Germans, the foremost
nation on earth, and a Berlin firm is adj
vertising improved furnaces for burning
the dead. 1t will reduce a man weighing
267 pounds, to five pounds OF ashes in four
hours. At Zurich, in Switzerland, 1000 per-
sons have subscribed towards an establish
ment for burning the dead. In New York
a public meeting has been held to discuss
it.
The new plan will bring about changes
of the most unlocked for character. Our
poets and 1lovelists will lose their most
touching SMILES. The "silent toomb, :"
which has long been a poetic terror, will
have to give place TO something else, and
Romeo may no longer appeal to be buried
by the side of his Juliet. The historic
grave digger, upon whom so many ghostly
stories have been founded, will give place
to y coal stoker, and the elegies in church
yards will be among the things that were.
To lovers, the change will be a serious one.
The affecting appeals Of discarded men to
sometimes visit my grave" will be in
vain, seeing that he will have no grave to
visit, and will be more probably found in
the public ash-bank which no man of prop
er sensibilities would invite a lady to visit.
Altogether the outlook for sentiment is
DEPRESSING