Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-06
AN ABSURD SCHEME.

1t is reported that New York scientist
is about to erect in Washington and in
New York "safe-deposit' buildings for the
storage of bodies of the dead. His idea Is
to construct a large building on the safe
deposit plan, with long corridors, to be
used as vaults. In these are to be placed
the remains of the dead. The building is
to be absolutely freproof, and as durable
as modern science can make it. This
storage house may contain from a thousand
to ten thousand storage vaults and may
be from three to six stories high. 1t is to
be so arranged that it may be indefi-
nitely extended. The materials will be of
the concrete and practically indestructible
except by dynamite. The originator of
the scheme claims that in such building
bodies cannot be stolen, and friends can
view them whenever 50 disposed. Pro-
vision is to be made for detecting prema-
ture interment by an electrical apparatus
so adjusted that slight movement in a
casket will cause an alarm.
If there is any likelihood that the pro-
jector of the structures described will at
tempt to carry out his plans, there should
be such interference by municipal author
ity as will effectually check his activity.
The erection of these tombs can serve
no good end. 1t might respond to fune-
real sentiment, but beyond that would be
absolutely offensive, besides being danger
Gus to the living. The day for catacombs
of the dead has passed forever The stor-
age of human bodies, no matter by what
process preservation from decay may be
attempted, will not prevent the flesh from
crumbling at last into dust. The Egyp-
tians practiced the embalming and en-
tombing art more successfully than any
other people have or will; yet even the
mummies after thousands of years at last
enter upon the stage Of decay that resolves
them into the primal condition of their
constituents
Such storage houses would menace pub
lie health, not perhaps so much as does the
system of burial, but they would cast off
noxious gases and be liable to disseminate
disease. Even if it is conceded that for
long series1 of years bodies might be pre-
served in these vast cold storage rooms,
the time would come when those remains
for which storage rental was no longer
paid--because of its burdensomeness upon
families, the cost increasing enormously
with each generation, and because of the
extinctionof families-must be taken from
the storage vault and buried or crenlated.
Failure would. at best, therefore, be but a
matter of time. and the measure of that
would be the vitality of the sentiment that
employed the new-fangled device.
Itis in sentimental sense without value:
for the desire to view decaying or wither-
ing, and therefore pepulsiye remains, is but
short-lived, even where most profoundly
entertained; whereas the sentiment that
inclines the mourner to linger about the
grave, is due largely to the fact that it ia
impossible to view the body, and the
imagination is therefore left free to repro
duce mental images of our lost as we loved
to see them best. Whenever disposal of
the remains of our dear ones is of such a
character that We may, if We choose, look
upon the dead, the privilege IS very rarely
ayailed of because OF the responsiveness of
the necessary disclosure, and the horror of
the inevitable shock to the sensitive and
sore-hearted. In whatever light the new
idea of the storage and preservation of
human oorpses is viewed, il presents itself
as unnecessary, uneconomic, and as SO alto
gether Objectionable as to justify authori-
tative interference to prevent it, if the
protector should make the attempt to carry
out his absurd scheme, and since it has in
it the promise of financial profit he may
endeavor to do so.