The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-28

Auoxc 40 1doulOu III tu0 FoBo4lcS VI eaOo8AAs
as there is in the cut of garments and .
fashion somewhat in favor now is for men or
women to exhibit their courage by . declara-
ton of independence as to what shall be
done with their bodies when they can no
longer be personally distressed by it Some
men will their bodies for dissection-a dis
position of them which we would recommend
to people about to die, since it has in its
favor the fact that they who were never Of
the least benefit to humanity before may
still be useful in the article of death.
Not distinguished from others in their
and, as some memorable trees that figure in
gold headed canes and snuff boxes and SINH
lar mementoes, they may shine in the pages
of medical writers and in the cases of medi-
cal museums like trinkets on the neck Of
science. Others lately have given their
bodies over to the stoker for cremation. In
thickly populated countries of comparatively
narrow area this also may be regarded as
public service England, for instance, is
little bit of a country, and people have been
dying there for two or three thousand years
in such numbers that there is probably not
an atom of the soil of Britain to
depth of ten feet that has not fig
ured in the persons Of hundreds Of
Englishmen; not a bit of wood grown in the
island but has been in the heads of the ma
tives. 1t is probable that the wonderful
prevalence of fever in that country is due to
this fact that the whole soil is human or at
least animal detritus. 1t may therefore, be
called benevolent, humane, patriotic, for an
Englishman to get himself burned not that
few individuals further contaminate the
soil, but the example may be followed, and
IN the course Of a thousand years, as fashions
spread in England, this one may prevail,
and the general health may be the better
for it.
But the latest of these scraps of post
norton vanity has been shown here, and is
the exhibition of q desire on the part of O
certain Baron de Palm to confound himself
with the Egyptians. Perhaps there is even
public service in this. 1t stirs the hilarity
of the judicious, and it furnishes ideas to
the lunatics of mild type who get up socie-
ties and sadly need ideas to base them upon.
An Egyption funeral would be q sensation if
we could have an out and outer; but q
compromise Egyptian funeral that is
not Egyptian-cannot but prove as fat
as stale soda water. If, for instance,
there were to be true Egyptian rite the
Baron should already have been dead sew
enty-one days, and his primary error was,
therefore, in dying nearly seventy days too
late He should by this time have been hand
somely embalmed. That, we fear, has
been omitted, and it may prove i'm
portant If the rite is taken up
faithfully from that point it may still be
quaint; for the Baron must be dragged on
a sled to pond. The pond is an indispen-
sable accessory in the Egyptian rite, and
the nearest one that will answer.
is in Central Park. The procession
thither will, therefore, be rare sight,
for the coffin must be accompanied by
female mourners, whose toilet would aston
ish even the Black Crookers, and these
women must do the ssululation"-tha is
they must howl the virtues of the deceased
in the ears of the multitude. At the edge of
the pond must be organized the Judgment
Day apparatus. The coffin must be put in
q boat and forty-two judges must stand in
semicircle on the shore, and then if any
person has any accusation to make
against the accused he must make
it. If any landlord or tailor or washer
woman is unpaid then is the time
to hand in the bill. If any accusation
is made the case must be tried before the
judges, and if it goes against the Baron he
will be sent home again to be kept by his
friends till the accuser is satisfied. They
will then see how important was the omis-
sion of the embalming process for when the
thermometer goes to one hundred and five
in August the Baron will become offensive.
But if the case goes in the Baron's favor
he will then be rowed over the pond, which
we will call the Styx, by our classical friend
Charon, and will be deposited with the
blessed. This however, is his mere Egyp-
tian body, and it is to. be presumed
that tho Baron did not heedlessly
become on Egyptian without consideration
of his SOUL If the god Osiris, upon critical
examination of the soul, is not satisfied that
it shall become part of himself, down it will
come again. Then it will circulate through
whole cyclopmdia of natural history. 1t
will appear in the eel. the oyster> and the
clam, in the ring-tailed monkey and the
pensive sloth, nay, even in the bowling
gyascuticus Then, in theyear 4,S76, it will
again get the form of humanity, and try it all
oyer again. Perhaps the time will come
When the Baron may regret his revival of the
Egyptian system
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