The Osceola times., 1884-07-05
ABOUT CREMATION.
The Process Of Burning the Dea
Described.
Some Information that may Re-
move a Great Amount of Preju-
dice Against Inclneration.

The following graphic account OF
burning the dead was written by one
who witnessed the process. He had be-
fore regarded the custom with repug.
nance. Having seen it, he was convert
ed, and is now an earnest advocate.
"A furnace fire is built and kept burn
ing for twenty or thirty hours before the
cremation is to take place. Immediately
above the fire is placed in horizontal
position a cylinder of clay called the in.
cubator, three feet in diameter by seven
long. This fire clay incinerator, the walls
of which are from one to two inches
Thick, receives to itself the intense heat
of the fire below, bat does not admit the
flames. The consequence is that the
body when placed in the incinerator is
not, in the proper sense of the word
burned. 1t is reduced to ashes by the
chemical application of intense heat.
Gases are driven off or absorbed and
being carried down into the fire from
the incinerator and led back and forth
Twenty-Five feet through its flames, are
utterly consumed. Even the smoke of
the fire is consumed, and nothing can be
seen issuing from the chimney but the
culver of the heat. The process might
be called, as we have said, the spiritu-
alization, of the body, the etherealiza-
ton or sublimation of its material parts.
"Nhen the inciDerator has been
raised to white hea it is ready for the
reception of the remains. AS the cover
is removed from its mouth, the inrtish-
ing air cools it from a white heat TO red
heat, and the whole inner surface is filled
with beautiful rosy light, which is tas-
cination 10 the eye. II looks like the
blush of dawn upon the sky, or like the
exquisite tints which sometim mes flicker
along the aurora borealis. There is
nothing repulsive about 1t, and nothing
as has been said, 10 suggest the idea OF
fire except the intense heat.
"The body, being decently clad for
burial. and tenderly laid in the crib for
the purpose, is wholly covered with a
clean white sheet, which has been
dipped it solution Of alum. The effect
of this is entirely to prevent smoke or
fume or liame, which would otherwise
arise from putting anything intlamma-
BILE into the midst of such heat; but un-
der its protection, even the eXtraordin-
ary heat of the incinerator does not pro-
duce upon the body the appearance of
scorching or smoking or anything of the
sort. There is no such imprcs sion as
that of burning made upon the eve, The
sheet, saturated with alum, retains its
A
ceals the entire form until nothing but
the bones are Left and when the eye
first rests upon the remains after they
are left in the rosy light of the cylinder,
it sees nothing but those bones gently
crumbling away into dust, under the
mystic touch OF an invisible agent, whose
only appearance TO the eye is like the
tremor of the northern lights in the sky;
or, more exactly, the radiation of the
heat from tie earth beneath the sum
mer's sun. You have laid white-robed
form within the rosy cylinder, and have
turned away to think with gratitude
that all il well. You have let your
imagination dwell y'ngly upon the
pleasing sentiment tt..,, whatever may
be lcft-bcside tn ta led bones, most
pure and clean-have gone to mingle
with the upper air AMI dwell with sun
shine, birds and flowers. The darkness
and the dampness of the earth have e.
capped, and so have the perils Of grave
snatching, the indecencies of q possible
dissecting-room, and the nameless nor
rors of putreiaction. You have pleasant
memories to cherish of the last sad hour
which. instead of '5reathless darkness
and the narrow house and the dreadful
thud of falling earth upon the coffin,
present to mind lovely bed Of rosy
light, and peaceful form, clad in virgin
purity, resting within its soft embrace.
If a lilly had been laid up bed of pinks
or roses in summer, and YOU had seen
its fragrance and its beauty all exhale
amid the shimmering beams of radiated
heat beneath the toucn of some invisi-
BILE and gentle agency, you would have
had not dissimllar experience. And
tins is neither painful to the eye, nor
distr, ssing to the sensibllities, nor un-
gra tetul to the memory"