Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-01
DIR. LIE MONIES CREMATORY
Verted into a Fertilizer Factory
Fragments Of BarOn Won Palm
Found.

New York World: lowing to the lack
Of patronage by an unappreciative COM
munity, DIR. LIE Moyne's crematorium, at
Washington, Pennsylvania, is, we believe, to
be converted INTO fertilizer factory. This
news will be the less regretted by the Theo-
sophists when they learn that at least two
fragments of the much-interred Baron Won
Palm and two handfuls, more or less small,
of his ashes were eloigned from the Washing
ton crematory and passed into the hands of
people who never put body into CRATE or
the division of furnace no more than q
sexton. By these wretches the precious re-
mains have been placed ON exhibition in a
loan collection. 1t is a gruesome reflection
that after having been embalmed and buried
and cremated and dispersed on the waters of
New York bay at midnight, there should still
be lett appreciable fragments of the baron,
and that those fragments should be in
the custody of untheosophic folk who
will neither hire hall for another
| ceremony nor import Hindoo to violate the
harbor ordinances by dumping ashes in the
bay. Whether this imperfect gathering to-
| Gether and scattering abroad Of the baron
Will have any effect when the great Pralaya
comes we cannot say, but the presumption is
to the contrary. The principal point is, Does
cremation cremate? If man is not to find in
the blast furnace and the fue that rest de-
| MED to his remains by the body-snatcher and
| the medical student, what argument Is there
IN favor of cremation? 1t is within the
bounds of possibility, though without the
province Of proof, however, that toe ashes
on exhibition at Pittsburg are not those of
the baron at all. In the sweet by and by
when cremation comes into vogue, what
guarantee will there be that whomsoever a
man burneth that person also shall he heap
In hls-cinerary urn? Mistakes will happen
in~She besSregulated crematories, and there
are things more difficult to conceive than
St,ok, 10 - i A.
and a man cherish on his mantelplece
and bedew with frequent tears the
vase containing the ashes of his
neighbours mother-in-law, under the mis-
taken impression that it contains the re-
siduum Of his own beloved wife. The public
as well as private individuals may suffer by
the possibilities of accident or fraud In the
future, force, enterprise and craft will be re-
sorted to by enthusiastic or speculative col
lectors whenever an eminent criminal, states
man or HterdteuT is pulverjZed In order to
secure a portion of his residuum Baffied by
precautlon or the greater skill of rivals, what
will there be to hinder unsuccessful folk from
throwing fraudulently famous dust-that is,
ashes-ln the eyes of the public? Every
museum, every collection will have on exhi-
bltIon every body's dust, and the proprietor or
collector will hold the sceptic at a disadvan-
tage when he replies to him as Mr.. Ward
did to the critic of the statue Of Sir Edmund
dead, L al them the ashes of MIR. Blaine;
you can call them what you darn please -
The inevitable result will be to breed addi-
tIonal historic doubts as to the existence of
any given person. About five and a halt
pounds of ashes the average man yields, we
believe, when thoroughly incinerated when,
therefore, some statistical sceptic a few thou
sand years hence figures up that half ton of
the reslduum Of any popular man, all war
ranted genuine, exists in the various galleries
and museums of the world, he will have no
option but to declare ~ that there WASH t
never no such person, or ~ that his fighting
weight must have been in the neighborhood of
thirty thousand pounds. In view of all the
confusion and Inconvenience that may arise,
would 1t not be well for congress, which is
going into every sort of business, to take some
action in this matter? The legislation on the
subject OF the regulation of interstate COM
merce affords ample precedent for the enact
ment of a code of laws providing that each
and every proprietor of a crematorium shall
be bound to return to every bereayed crs-
toner so much per cent. of ashes. and to give
bonds for the faithful performance of his
duty. An inspector general, with a large
staff OF local assistants and resident keeper
at each crematory, will materially increase
the patronage Of our intelligent legislators,
Unless some step of this kind is taken there
will be no security whatever for the ashes of |
anybody or of MS sisters or his cousins or his |
auntS,"