Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-06-21
ABOUT CREMATION.
The Process Of Burning the Dea
Described.
Some Information that may Re-
move a Great Amount of Preju-
dice Against Incineration.

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
ell, 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, but 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.
"When the incinerator has been
raised to white heal, it is ready for the
reception of the remains. As the cover
is removed from its mouth, the inrush-
ing air cools il from white heat to a red
heat, and the whole inner surface is filled
with beautiful rosy light, which is fas-
cination to the eye. 1t looks like the
blush of dawn upon the sky, or like the
exquisite tints which sometimes flicker
along the aurora borealis. There is
nothing repulsive about 1t, and nothing
as has been said, to 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 a solution of alum. The effect
of this is entirely to prevent smoke or
fume or flame, which would otherwise
arise from putting anything infamma-
der its protection, even the extraordin-
airy 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 impression as
that of burning made upon the eye. The
sheet, saturated with alum, retains its
original position over the crib, and con-
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 appearances. to the eye is like the
tremor of the northern lights in the sky;
or, more exactly, the radiation of the
heat from the 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 is well. You have let your
imagination dwell lovingly upon the
pleasing sentiment, that whatever may
be left-beside the calcined bones, most
pure and clean-have gone to mingle
with the upper air and dwell with sun
shine, birds and flowers. The darkness
and the dampHess of the earth have es-
capped, and SO have the perils of grave
snatching, the indecencies of q possible |
dissecting-room. and the nameless hor-
rors of putrefaction. You have pleasant
memories to cherish of the last sad hour
which, instead of 'breathless darkness
and the marrow house and the dreadful
thud Of falling earth upon the coffin,
present to mind a lovely bed of rosy
light, and peaceful form, clad in virgin
purity, resting within its soft embrace.
III 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 Deans of radiated
heat beneath the touch of some invisi-
BILE and gentle agency, you would have
had not dissimilar experience. And
this is neither painful to the eye, nor
distressing TO the sensibilities, nor I'M
gra tetul to the memory"