Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-01-20


Society 20 the effect that there are hve
thousand persons in this country
pledged to have their bodies burned
Whether this statement be accurate vi
not, IL is easy to believe that puoiic AZ
t,ntion In being directed toward IN
cinern,ion As a means of disposing OF
Of the dead with degree Of force that
must. within q few years, make the
cremstory an institution in every Guy
of considerable size. In rural cou''
munitles earth burial will continue 10
he practiced, aud there is no good rea'
son why II should not, indefinitely
The crematory will be a peculiarly city
adjunct, as the electric light and such
things are. Intelligent people are
coming to understand that inciners-
lion Ia not the revolving process de-
picted by those who oppose the sys-
tenn. The fires that are lighted from
time to time in the lie Moyne crema'
tory, in this country, aud at dothA
and Milan, in Europe, have efiectu-
ally dispelled the misconceptions AS
a matter of fact the crematory is par
crccHepce the esthetlc method OF re-
turning the matter that enters into
the composition of the human BODY 10
space. there to be resolved
into other forms and shapes
playing its part to All
eternity in the grand economy oil ma
ture. Asa matter of sentiment the
prejudice against the crematory and
irs white heat will grow less year by
wear. And, sentiment aside, educa-
ton will do it's work in preparing
society for gradual abandonment OF
earth burial. Sanitary science VIII
prove one of the most potent au1lii-
aries Of the crematory. 1t Is already
directing attention to the multifarlous
dangers that Turk around every dead
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. subtle, but power
ful. Within the past year 1t has been
conclusively demonstrated that the
yellow fever germ finds q secure haoi-
tat aud wurking-place in the very SOIL
that envelops the victims of that dis
case. And a distinguished French
scientist, NJ. Pastenr, shows that dead
bodies are productive OF breeding other
fearful diseases after burial; that mi
croscopic forms of life exist especially,
that they work their way up through
the soil to the surface; are taken into
the intestines OF grazing cattle or are
distributed by the winds, and so, 1t
would seem probable, propagate u
whole school of diseascs-such AS small |
pox, scarletina typhoid and typhus
fevers, diphtheria, tubercular con
pneumonia, erysil elias and |
certaiL ly yellow fever. We remember,
last year, an article in the Century
to this state of things, more
fully illustrated by NJ. Pasteur's
Ii was declared that il ought
To be- the business of scientific men to
show the relation of these facts-if
they can be accepted us facts-to our
present method fdisposing the dead
al" argued this writer, "the breezes
that blow from the cemeteries are
laden with germs that propagate the
diseases that have already slain our
kindred, then the most expensive |
features of those cities Of the dead al Q !
not their costly monuments. 1t is
worth while to ask yourselves if the
disciples of cremation have not
truth on their side, and whether
some amendment il not needed in
the modes of burial which, in this
country especially, seem designed to
resist the operations of nature As long
as possible, and 80 to make a dead
body n source of indefinite evil AS
"a sanitary regulation then, il On no
other account, We believe that our bur
lal customs will undergo revision
and that the modern rtmatory will
tie the outcome. The coffin and the
charnel house will 90. We shall not
shudder as we think OF corrupton.
the creeping worm aud decay. The
grinning skull will cease to be The
emblem Of death. Clad in spo,less
white our dead will rest within the
inclncrator. No tongue Of flame will
touch the body-only the breath of the
lire that consumes, purities ana scat
tiers. The roseute hues that come from
heat maintained at 10000. FahIen-
heit, will inrircle and play aroand the
firm for brief while and nature will
have claimed her own, as pure ard
fire from corruption n when the atoms
tirst reso lived themselves into the hui
man form The crematory will come.
Many of us may not live to see it, but
many who read these lines wilmer
haps right here In Fort Worth. 1t il
only question OF time and educa-
ton.
Throwing Of the Yoke.
From Austin come the echoes of
the clipping of the wires, but no pas
ture is laid bare and no proper,v de-