Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-04
BARBARoUs FUNERAL CUSTOMS.

The recent incineration of the remains
of distinguished citizen of New York
brings the question of our funeral customs
again to the front. 1t may be accepted
that the defense Of burial is losing its
force and that cremation is looked upon
with very much more favor now than it
was even three years ago. Crematories
have been erected in communities, without
protest, where but few months since the
bare proposition to do so would have been
deemed intolorable.
In the August Forum Rev. John Snyder
takes occasion to sharply criticisc our
funeral customs, pronouncing some of them
about which cluster tenderest sentiments,
as nothing less than barbarous He makes
the point that the hired mutes and mourn
ers of the past were but parts of barbaric
funeral ceremonies of a remote past, but
the companion customs of which remain
with us, and that this fact is inconsistent
with the progress we have made in other
directions in moving away FROM and above
the lower planes of civilization. Thus,
what we Sin unconscious satire term
Christian burial" is by our customs placed
at enmity with sanitary science, and is, as
Mr.. Snyder sharply puts it, condemned by
sane religion. Thus, while Christianity
teaches the Immortality of the soul, and
that death is departure of the believer
into a better state, and means dwelling in
peace and JOY forever, that same Christi
anity, by It's customs, Condemns Paups ex-
ultant cutlery of victory over the grave by
mufiing his glad music with the raven
feathers Of funeral plumes"
lie protests that in the interest of con
sistency the black standard of death should
not wave at the household door nor the
undertakers art be availed of to express en-
Dramatically " the lowest depths of hope
less bereavment." He concludes that who
ever calmly and impartially compares our
funeral customs with those Of savage and
barbaric races, Will find the balance of
credit against us. The Withholding of the
body from the grave until it becomes a
menace to health is very justly condemned,
while the inclosure in a costly casket is
pronounced uneconomic and useless ex
pense. The extravaganza of funeral dis
play, from floral decoration to inhumation.
rs hurtful in its effect upon those who are
ambitious to make an equal showing with
the rich, but can do so only by seriously
erippling their domestic economy.
A number of other specific customs are
condemned without mercy as, the closing
of the house of the mourner for year, as
long prevailed in Philadelphia, and per-
haps still does; the dramatic and agoniz-
ing prolongation of the scene at the grave;
the exposure of the health in Difference to
the etiquette of funerals; the wearing of
deep mourning, and the adoption of the
symbols of woe even in ones stationery,
visiting cards and iewelry; the symbolic
ing of the passage through various stages
of grief by the gradual abandonment of
the somber black for bright colors, etc.
But while Mr. Snyder finds SO much to
condemn in our adherence to funeral Gus
to4as that ought to be abandoned, at least
by those who profess : living faith
that should shrink from the SYM
bels of despair and hopeless DEATH"
he has -not one wosd to say
against the most abhorrent, senseless and
uneeoRemic of all our funeral customs
that Cd burial. His flashing blade is
turned, edge forward, against ahnses and
indefensible customs incidental to ira
ditionai method of .disposing of the dead
but he has no condemnation for the. chief
Evil which consigns the bodies of our
loved to decay in its most repulsive form.
It is difficult to understand how Rev. Mr..
snyder escaped the logical leading of his
hesis up to iReisezation. 1t follows ire
istibly and must ke abandoned contenpo- |
sneously with most, if not all, of the su-
,szstitious and depressing aad demoraliz-
ng customs he has arrzigned a& the bar Of
eason- 1t is inevitable that the seques-
ration of ground for human burial shall
ease tist the menace OF cemeteries to
he living shall be removed thai the
pread of infectious and contagious dis
ases shall not be promoted by cultivat-
ig their germs 8, burial of victims of
,eh diseases; that tiie extravagant cost of
'a9aa,seis under the bunSl system must