Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-10-07
CREMATION In GOTHAM.

Dividends In Prospect.
New York Poet
The earliest American advocate of Gre
nation who believed in practice as well
as preaching seems to have been Col
Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, whose
body was formally burned, in accordance
with his directions, in 1894. From that
time until the building of the La Moyne
crematory at Washington, Pa, there are
records of the burning of eight persons,
the most notable incarceration of the list
being that of the body of Dr. Charles F.
Winslow, at Salt Lake City, in 1876. The
New York Cremation society, which was
organized and incorporated in March,
1881, had for its original object the dis
semination of the correct knowledge re-
specting the disposal of the dead by in
cineration. 1t was an outgrowth of the
popular discussion of the subj ect, which
began in 1874, and enlisted the co-opera-
tiOn of such men as COurtlandt Palmer,
Rev. John d. Bengliss of the United States
navy, Felix Adler, and James b. Brown.
At the time the society was. organized
there were only four crematorfes IN exist
ence-one at Milan, one at Padua, one at
Gotha, and one at Washington, Pa.
The total number of incinerations
in these four crematories did not
exceed $780, of which 80 had
been at Milan. The growth of the move
ment since then is evidence that, not
outstanding opposition, the arguments
used by the theoretic cremationists of
1874 have found as wide favor here as
those of the earlier advocates of the prac-
tice in the old world. In Europe to day
there are more than dozen crematories
Copenhagen, Paris, Florence, Rome,
Pr11cc al al ipr pIt
having societies which have put theory
into practice. In this country there are
active cremation societies in Newark,
Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadel-
phia, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but
as yet only four crematories for pub
lie use have been built-thOse at Fresh
Pond EAST New York;, Buffalo, Lancas-
ter, Pa, and Washington, Pa. The cost
of properly built cr9matOry is consider
able, that at Fresh Pond, East New York
having cost more than $4,000 and as in
small cities the number OF persons ready
to embark in the movement is never large
it has been no easy matter to find money
for what must for years be an unproduc-
tive investment.
Although the real work of the New
York crematory began Dec. f, 1885 when
the body of Eugence Lievre, a German
was burned, experiments in burning ami
mails began in September. Since the in
cineration of Lievre, last December, sixty
one persons have been cremated at Fresh
Pond, nine of the number were women
and the ages varied from months to 81
years. There were 30 Germans, 21 Amer
cans, 2 Englishmen, L Scotchman, l Irish
man, | Swiss, Frenchmen, Austrian
and l Hungarian. During the first month
that the cematory was open to the public
there were 5 incinerations during the sec
Ond month s, the third Z, the fourth IL
the fifth 9, the sixth month 10, and the
seventh (August) 6. The method adopt
ed at Fresh Pond as already frequently
described, is TO placesthe body in a retort
which is then heated to white heat run
n inrr f. ., zoe ! A-4-~h A~-.,H
does not touch the body, which gradually
gives off its combustible part in the shape
of gases that burn upon reaching the fire
The agent of the society in this city re-
Gently said to the writer: "We have as
yet met with no criticism which need
cause anxiety. The objections now urg-
ed more and more family against the new
practice are the old ones brought forth
before we began.
They are (frst) that in cases where
death has resulted from poison all trace
of the agent is removed; (second) that
cremation is heathenish and barbarian
(third) that it will be impossible to dis
pose of all the dead by cremation
(fourth) that the practice is incompatible
with belief in the resurrection.
The first objection is the only one to
which we feel called upon to answer. II
Is true that traces of poison will be de-
stroyed, but the argument is not against
cremation, but in favor of careful au-
topsy before cremation in any doubtful
case. All non-yolatile mineral poison
such as arsenic, however, would remain in
the ashes, and would be more readily de-
tected than in the body itself. We Gre
mate no body without the regular permit
of the board of health, and in addition
the certificate of death from a reputable
physician. Those who hold that crema-
ton is irreligious have surely never real
lied that 1T Is simply doing in two hours
by fire what nature does in in the course
of years by decomposition. One is quick
combustion the other slow.
The more constantly a crematory is in
use the cheaper is the process, and Paris
upon sanitary and economic grounds.
has just finished four crematories in the
Pere la Chaise cemetery for the burning
of all paupers' bodies. The furnaces
constructed upoa plans of NJ. M. Barrett
and Formice-have the appearance of
very elegant ovens; they cost $4,000
The system of incarceration is that adopt
ed at Milan, and the charge for persons
who wish to pay is Is francs. Sculptors
and art-workers are already engaged up
on designs for urns in marble, bronze,
silver, zinc, or lead, which can be taken
away by friends of the dead person or
placed in vaults, which Paris is to erect
for the purpose.
''The charge of $50 made for incinerat-
ing body at Fresh Pond does not, of
course, cover the expense we are now in;
when two cremations are made one after
another, the cost is reduced one-third and
with several cremations a day the work
would be self-sustaining. Our directors
and stockholders are content to pay for
comforting what they deem a great bless
ing upon the community. So long as
earth burial remains IN vogue there will
be the same senseless funeral expenses.
we have as yet no place for preserving