Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-03-19
TO BURN Oh BURY.
DEBATiss ere pUEs rroNs or CRE-
~ NATION or BUREAL
The saoject Discussed Before the Nineteenth
Century Club of New York--The Old Ar
gument for and Against Crcn,atios ~
by Well Known savants.

Cremation versus Inhumation" was the
subject considered at the meeting of the |
Nineteenth Century club Mt the residence Of
Mr. Cotirtlandt Palmer, No. III East One
Hundred and Seventeenth street. New York,
Tuesday evening. The Rov. DIR. John ID.
Beuglcss, chaplain Of the brooklyn navy
yard and president Of the United States
Cremation company, which has a crema-
tory under way, read carefully prepared
paper advocating. cremation. He was re.
piled to by the Rev. DR.. n. Maynard, rec
tor of st Panl's church, Brooklyn, who ad-
vocated iDhumation. Mr.. Andrew Carne-
gle spoke of the poetical and sentimental
characteristics of both systems.
The subject was, said DIR. Beugless, one
which must of necessity be in some sense an
unpleasant one from every view point Ad-
yocates of cremation were trying to take
away as much of its unplcasantness ~ pos.
sible. II was no idle conceit when Sir
Henry Thompson represented the nobility
| of England as dining from tables of ma
| hogany made of San Domingo slaves. Gre.
| nation was rapid burning. Illumination re-
| suited in burning well described by Lie
| big as "slow desolate burning" Living
| or dead in the incinerating chamber or the
grave, i'm light and purity or gloom and Of
fensiveness, the burning process must go on
to completion. When the burning process
|
| whether in the grave or inclosed in an urn.
| In the modern method all offensive gases
| were passed back I'm the fire and rendered
innocnous. II the burning went on In the
earth the air was filled with the noxious
gases
"Let ms consider cremation a. sanitary
| REFORM" said DIR. Beugless. "Few know
what our cemeteries really arc. Formerly
the dead were buried In churchyards,
Gods acres In many places the law had
to step in to prevent burials in populous
localities So came about the beautiful park
like suburban cemeteries-sleeping places of
the dead, as they are illusvely called Would
that sense of duty might leave this dream
untouched. So beautifui have they become
that they are regular resorts and attract
tourists, so that on Sundays there are more OF
them than of those who have All interest in
the dead who lie in loathsomeness below"
DIR. Benglcss then described the cemetery
of kensal Green, in London, where Leigh
Hunt, Thackeray, and others famous In Eng
lish history were said to be buried. They
were not there. They had once lain there,
but they had been resurrected, and the ash
alone remained. Seven acres of the cemetery
were set apart for the burial of London's
poor. The directors of the cemetery In a
country which Lard more stress on burial
then any other in the world said that there
were in acres l33,5O0 graves. Each grave
held 10 collins, making "a total of 1.835, ,OOt
bodies poor people buried there. 1t was
figured that by burying over the same
Rfouiiu once every lu years the acres WOulu
last indefinitely. This gave % feet o.
surface space 10 each body for one day only
The Rev. DR.. Maynard said that cremation
was not natures way. Burial wa. The pre-
sent mode followed delayed burial until cor
rupton set in. THIS was grossly unphiloso
phical simply to crafty a sentiment. tn,
earth stood at our feet To il we must al
: return. The true idea of inhumation was Il
bury directly to mother earth. Then ther,
, was no danger. The practice as carried OF
, with the poor was infamous. Mr.. Carnegi'
, said that natures way was simply matte
! of education. BY the poets death was locke,
| upon as sleep. He quoted FROM difleren
, authors ut length, pointing out that poems re
, lating to burning were always of q heroic
i eXnlting character. t.