Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1885-01-10
A NEW CREMATORY TEMPLE.
The Cornerstone Laid and the Build
ing TO be Ready i'm February.

The Cornerstone Laid and the Build.
ing 10 be Ready I'm February.
Thirty men aud two wcmen climbed
the muddy slopes of Mount o ivet, L. | :,
the other day, to lay the corner stone of
the new crematory temple. The struct-
ure was already finished to the ground
level. On the occasion Professor Felix
Adler, one of the directors in the new
company spoke of the sanitary benefits of
incineratioh. Every time he went to
the cemetery, he SAID, lie was more and
more impressed with the loathsome
unhealthiness and decay consequent
upon earth burial. 1t was productive Of
disease and pestilence. Professor Alder
thought that poetic inager7 had much
to do With the tenacity with which men
clung to the custom of putting their dead
into the ground Poets and singers re-
ferred 20 the grave as an abode of rest, a
bed of final repose, place of shelter.
thus throwing false glamor over the
hideous reality. Nowadays, ne said, an
aesthetic sense revolt against earth
burial. Our bodies are the garments of
intelligence, the hcmes of the spirit, and
should not be permitted to gradually
putrefy.
Speaking Of tie expressed fear that
people might be cremated wien life was
in the body. he advised thatan autopsy
be held before cineratioL to satisfy
doubling lawyers and physicians. For
his part he had rather die under the
knife than Saken under ground. TAX
iny moral view of fcremation, he thought
it would be well to have tie ashes of
departed ones before us in churches,
either in inches along the wills, or in
receptacle behind the altar, to remind
us of the trusts we have inherited from
past generations" Cremation would do
away with Ill the gloomy Hackness of
the pail which now surrounds death.
With coed luck the comp.nv ex pects
to cremate its first body mex February
in the largest retort in America. l: is
improved i'll many respects ever the lie
Moyne furnace in Pennsylvania. Twenty
dead bodies are now awaiting its com
pletion to be reduced to ashes. The
cost of cremation in each case will be
from $40 to S25. The cost of the build
ing will be about 81 900. The land cost
$500.
The edifice is designed as . mo ifed
Grecian temple of brick and marble,
forty by seventy two feet. The base
ment will contain, in the RAJ, the fur
mace, which will be constructed chiefly
of fir brick, and will he adapted to coke
with q regeue rator. The ipeinerating
chamber will consist of retorts, whIcn
will exc ude all fuel and flame from con
tact with the body, and from which tie
volatile products of the incineration will
lie carried into the furnace for recombus
lion. 1ncineIation will take place at a
temperature of about $500 degrees
Fahrenheit. it will require about forty
minutes per 100 pounds of the subject,
and VIII leave about 4 per cent. in
weight of pure peahy ash. No smoke
will be visible and no odor perceptible
during incineTation. The basement will
also contain a refrridarium, where
bodies may be hept Wien desired await
ing the arrival OF friends from distance
also calIdarium for cases of possibly
susl ended animation. the high tempera-
tue of which will induce speedy evil
dences of life or death, as the case may
be. There will be, alsD, in the basement
an &c licularium, or urn room, and au
a.e!icr. This last viii be used also fol
making autOpsles, which will be requir
ed in all cases wherein it is not clear
that death is not the result of natural
causes.
the body of the building, or the ground
floor, will be fitte1 up as a chapel, where
any service desired may be held. In
tie central aisle of this chapel, directly
in front of the iectorn, will DO per-
manent catafalque, within which the
body will be placed, and hidden from
view by pail falling from a frame above
Thence the body will cescend by an
elevator 10 the incinerating room. and
the service and iacireration will proceed
simultaneously. The nffice and recent
ion rooms will be on the main floor, in
front of the auditorium ana on either
side of the vestibule.