New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-11-28
RURNTNG AND BURIAL.

The public are beginning to look forward
with n good deal of interested curiosity to the
cremation which is to take place next week in
Washington, Penn. The parties are all notable
in their way. DR.. lie MOyne, the owner OF the
furnace, is well known as a philanthroplst,
and a man who has defended his plans for
tine help of humanity with great intellectual
force and gallantry Col. OlcOtt, in his differ
ent roles OF army officer, colleague OF mate
IialIzed spirits, and TheosOphic hlgh-priest,
has always kept himself on the top wave OF
notoriety; while the Baron has been princi-
pally famous IA a corpse. Scarcely has his
dead body disappeared behind burning tripods
and the serpent with its tail in its mouth in
Steinway Hail. when it whisks into sight
again upon the hills of Washington, prepared
to vanish from among the true-blue Presby-
terrain population of that ilk in flames With as
fine dramatic effect as Don Juan going to his
own place. "Thus, at last" cried the Indian
to the Athenians, lying down upon the pyre,
81 make myself immortal" De Palm has
borrowed the idea.
We can see no reason, however, in the inn
portance attached to this particular expert
ment. The fact is already proved that body
in scientifically constructed furnace can be
reduced to ashes without Olfense to the health
or even the senses Of the public. DR.. lie Moynes
furnace has been tested with ANIMALS, ana Is
indisputably constructed upon the best prlnci-
pies. The arguments in favor of cremation
are well known to even the most lhterate
casses-the advantage to the public health by
the stop put to the aggregation OF an enormous
mass of decaying matter short distance below
the surface of the ground the return of the
body TO the elements by a clean, swift, worm
less passage the sanction of it's use in an
tiauity in almost every nation, and not least,
its superior cheapness. The public Is not
going to be won by argument in this
matter in which it's unroasoning feeling Is
profoundly interested, and will always
have the loudcst word. Do arguments prevail
ON the American public to ventilate Its
churches, cars, or seeping-r0Omsf The air
it breathes is more poisonous than the eX-
halatiOns from any grave, yet from habit IL
PERSISTS in breathing it. Habit as well as feel
ing pleads for burial. 1t may be fact that
crowded cemeteries are breedlng-places OF
malaria and typhus, and that the drainage OF
death goes on in them necessarily; but In the
public eve they are valleys of peace, Gods
acre. IN which sleeps the sacred dust OF our
beloved awaiting blessed resurrection
Poetry, the noblest imagination, all the ten
derness of those who weep for the dead, have
for ages combined to make the grave seem to
us totally different from its grim reality.
1t will require more than the reports of the few
scientific gentlemen and the mob of curiosity
hunters who will witness this cremation to in
duce men-and especially women-to give up
all this sacred pageantry with its tender images,
and to meet the future through the untried
way Of DIR. lie Moyne's brand-new furnace
Familiarity with the idea is the only chance
for its success IL one or two cremations should
take place instead of, and at the time for
ordinary burials, without charlatanry, but with
impressive and solemn ceremonies, they would
do much to soften the public prejudice. DR.. lie
Moyne has doubtless the wisdom to perceive
that human nature will insist upon shrOuding its
last state with some kind of poetic pOmp and
meaning; and he will therefore not give to his
experiment too much of the air of an ordinary
baking.