The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-04-30
A Way to Dispense With Cemeteries

A Way to Dispense With Cemeteries
DR.. Frank Richardson, writing to the
London Times. gives the following ex-
traordinary account of a village in the
north of England "The interesting
letters which have appeared in your
columns during the last week or two
upon the mode of committing Earth TO
Earth tempt me to send you the fol-
lowing instance of a district in which
that unpleasant process is postponed in
sIngularly unusual manner. The
large parish of Alwinton- with HoIystone
IS situated on the southern slopes OF
the CheviOts, includes the upper vale
of the Coquet, and extends about twenty
miles IN length and several in breadth,
comprising 4,472 acres. Its popUla-
ton has decreased from l, 1896 at the
census of 1861 to 1922 at that of 1871.
The occupations of its inhabitants are
almost equally divided between the
tending of sheep and the cultivation OF
cereals upon lands which rest IN nearly
similar proportions upon free stone and
pOrphyry. During the year 1874 six
deaths occurred in this parish, being at
the rate of At per thOusand-One of
those deaths being that of an unfOrtu-
nate young shepherd who perished in
the recent snow-storm. This mortality
was lower than usual during the pre-
viOu5 ten years the number was 1O6-an
annual average of 10 per thousand.
Of these JOG deaths there were Is be-
tween seventy ant eighty years of age,
and, curiously, % above eighty years,
considerably more than one quarter OF
the total deaths thus occurring IN peO-
pie above eighty years old, or 273.6 per
thousand. Now, is there anything ex-
ceptional in the ages of the inhabitants
to account for this low death-rate? The
aged and very young, among whom
prOportiOnally the mortality is highest,
exist in large numbers. Within two
miles of my house I know nine OctO-
genarians, and a tenth-Our parish clerk
died last week at the age of eighty
three. In this village of HarbOttle,
with 120 Inhabitants, there are 81 chill
dren under fourteen years of age, and
during the last twenty years no child
has died, and for nearly four years no
one until the case Just mentioned. 1
may add another instance of the large
proportion of children existing and
their immunity from death. a farmer
in this parish and his three shepherds,
who have occupied their present situa-
tions nearly thirty years, have among
them AZ children, and net a single
death has occurred in these families.
! The inhabitants have abundance of
plain, substantial food, excellent water,
good residences as a rule, and regular
/ but not severe work in a pure, bracing
atmosphere, and are highly intelligent
and generally abstemious. 1 am IN
| debted to the Rev. A. Proctor, who has
been upwards of forty years the es-
| teemed vicar, for the confederation of
the statistics of the parish, which l
have now given you.
Exposure of Psyche, the English Mys-
terry.
| The correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial writes from London: The
mystery of " Psyche" has been dis
covered. You may remember that
''Pyscho" is the wonderful aUtomatOn
exhibited by Maskelyne, the conjuror,
which, for a long time, has been pUz-
! cling the brain of scientific men by its
accurate playing of whist. That 'Psy-
| cho" was in some way connected with
and guided by human brain was, for
a long time, certain, but as it was COM
pletely isolated on the top of a simple
glass cylinder, and no possible cOnnec-
ton with any one behind the curtain
/ conceivable, it grew to be our greatest
mystery. The great men of the royal
society went to examine it, but were all
beaten. But, finally, young Ameri-
can-W. II. Coffin, son of DR.. @. W.
Coffin, a celebrated American dentist in
London-after five visits, hit upon the
secret. Maskelyne himself being una
BILE to submit his figure to the test pro-
posed. The solution is that So Pyscho"
is worked by the condensation and
diminutiOn of the column of air in the
glass cylinder on the top of which he
sits. Beneath the carpet at the bottom
of this cylinder is a perforated plate
of zinc, connected with the operator be-
hind the scenes, who, at his will, may
increase or decrease the column of air,
the figure moving one way or another
in accordance with the pressure put
upon it. The coniurOr was at first dis
posed to deny the explanation, but Cot
fin told the audience that it could easily
be tested by Maskelyne allowing him to
put newspaper between the figure and
the cylinder. This the copiuror de-
clined, and then followed great APP,
pIaUse, when it became recognized that
Psyche" as a mystery was at last
dead, or at least had fairly reached his
Coffin.