Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-10
THE cREMAroa,uM At MuAn.


~
q Description of thesMeei.ed Of xncaner.t
ton EaploJca TAsre.
The crematorium stands. at tho fat
end Of the grounds, a building not
large or high. but with its crescent
shaped open atytum of white marble
sufficiently handsome and imposing-
On the frieze is this inscription: Teml
pto Crematorso per volonta del Alberto
Keller eretto e donate ALA ci!ta d Milanoj
On the wall facing the entrance is q
handsome medallion of Albert Keller
who was duly cremated in the temple
of his own providing. Many portions
of the wall are marked off in small
tablets inscribed with the IN of the
persons whose bodies have undergone
cremation, and whose ashes, in many
cases. repose in an urn or small vessel
in a niche behind the tablet. Ashes
they are not, properly speaking.
was shown about a couple of handfuls
of white bleached bone, in bits notlargsr
than ones inger-all that remained, as
/ learned, after the cremation of the
body of a man some ten stones in
weight Other spaces have been ap-
propriated by intending cremators, and
have the word .'Assegnato" inscribed
on them. Through a small door you
pass from the atrSuau into what 1 may
describe as the operating room, in the
middle of which stands the enclosed
furnace, looking like IN enlarged
edition of the family lanndry copper!
The fire is kindled at the back Of the
furnace, and when at the proper mo.
ment released by the uplifting of iron
Shutters comes roaring through two
large orifices, and quickly. fills the
whole of the space where lies its preyl
The body-I cadavero, as the attend
ant called it, seeming to take
great delight in repeating the
or wooden shroud or rather costume,
is taken from the shell in which it has
been brought, and laid on a marble
slab. thence transferred to q large iron
tray, which is borne to the mouth Of
the furnace and laid ON q frame,
which, by the action of a winch, is
wound into the interior with its burden.
The iron door is then closed, the shut
tiers, as described above, are raisedj
and the furnace, to use an American
expression, is literally in full blast At
the end of two hours the operation is
complete, and all that there remains of
what was once a man, full of s'blood.
bones, marrow, passion, feeling" ara
1.-TWO handfuls of white dust shut in an urn
The system at present in usa is that
of Paofa Gorini; it takes, Is l have
said, W hours and the consumption of
three hundred kilogrammes of wood
and twenty-five kilogrammes Of char
coal. The cost of everything. includ!
ing the mural tablet, is ninety-four'
francs. A new method, known as the
iSysteme Venini, under which the incin-
Grafton will be effected by gas. was
then Immediately about to be tried,-l
saw the furnace just completed,-and ia
no doubt now in operation. Under
this system the whole affair will be-
completed in fifty minutes.
In this place, which was perfectly
sweet, clean and wholesome, without
the ~faintest s,trace of anything calcu-
lated to offend the sense of sight or
smell. there are about eighteen or
twenty cases of cremation every month.
They are, the attendant told me, de-
cidedly on the increase, and were the
cholera scare again to appear, he had
no doubt, from what he had heard,
that ~thepractice would have large num-
bers of adherents. Already bodies for
cremation are sent from distant parts
of Italy, and on the next day one was.
expected from Paris. And, indeed.
when l thought of all the horrors Of
our ordinary ''buryings,"I could hot
wonder at the desire to be quit Of
them, no matter at what amount of
trouble or expense.-Lomdon World.