Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-22

WAY IT oPERArEs-How THE rooTHLKss ARE
rAxED-PokER IN THk cLuBS
Correspondents Of TIE EVENING srAR:
Boston, June 20.
company is now being organized in this
city which proposes to introduce and carry
into practice a new system for disposing OF the
dead It has already become recognized that,
IN this generation at least. cremation will never
be adopted to any extent as a substitute for in
terment. Popular prejudice, backed by the
Christian church, is too strong against it. Burn
ing il thought to be as barbarous in these days
as burial underground was considered by the
highly-civilized peoples of ancient Greece and
Rome. A method superior to either as it is
claimed, and entirely doing away with the OBJ
jectionable features of both, will soon be
offered here for the acceptance Of cultivated
Bostonians who may be anxious to have their
post norton remains scientifically cared for.
Inc process TO be employed makes use of the
cleansing and purifying properties of fire,
without permitting that element to attack the
body. Dry air is the only other agent called
into service. Already plans are being drawn
Tor an enormous mausoleum-like structure of
massive materials, to be erected as quickly as
possible after incorporation papers have been
secured by the company aforesaid. One por-
ton of the building will be designed somewhat
from 200 to 300 small compartments, adapted
for accommodation of a single corpse each.
These compartments will be SO arranged
as to be continually swept by pow
siau currents ed Of dry ay. an =. from %a
treatment will be wrapped simply in winding
sheets and laid upon marble slabs in the COM
partments. They will not be embalmed, nor
will they be placed in cofius to retard and pro-
long decomposition. On the contrary, this
ntrnv, ~ @alr1 &c,
course, the gases and liquids developed by it
being absorbed by the dry-air currents and
swept upward to a chamber above, where the
noxious vapors are passed through fire and de-
stroyed. In this way. after time, the corpse
itself is reduced to the condition of a mummy,
retaining an appearance natural though not
hfeiike, and susceptible Of preservation for
centuries.
SAFE DEPOSIT FOR coRpsEs.
1t is then ready for storing away, if the rela-
tives so desire, in one of the 10000 vaults,
which will take up the major part of the MAUI
solemn. These vaults can be rented or pur-
chased outright for family use, in a ceme-
terry, metal door plates rendering confusion
impossible, so that the surviving patron will
enjoy the privilege of ready access to his dear
departed at all hours. Each of the mummify-
ing compartments previously referred to will
probably communicate by a wire with an cleo
trio annuncator in an Office on the first floor,
where gentlemanly clerk will always be in
readiness to respond to any call from a guest
who may chance to have been registered pre-
matureiy. If this new system is found success
full here it will be introduced by the same COM
rany in other large cities by the building of
similar mausoleums on an even bigger scale.
DENTAL TRUST.
With the possible exception Of the monopoly
in undertakers' supplies, there is no organiza-
ton Of business capital in this country which
directs its own branch Of industry with such
absolute high-handedness as does the dental
trust. The Iniquity OF this autocratic institu-
ton excited prolonged howls of disgust in the
convention Of Massachusetts, Dental Surgeons
just held here. But, all the same, acknowledge
ment was made with humiliating unanimity
that the tooth-doctoring profession in the
United States is practically at the mercy of the
tyrants who manufacture its instruments and
working materials. For these oppressive per-
sons 1t would seem, are banded together in a J
league to hold up the prices, and, having con-
troll of nearly all the goods produced, they are
in position to dictate whatever terms they
like to the dealers who are not allowed to sell
anything below certain exorbitant sched-
ule rates. Of course the result is that the I'M
fortunate practitioner is charged excessively for
everything that is necessary to the carrying on
of his business, from the chair his patients use
to the gold filling for their teeth.
The result is achieved in a manner at once
simple and pleasing. The trust includes all
the important manufacturers, who own nearly
every patent worth having on dental instru-
ments, engines, furniture, &c. Whenever a
new continuance makes its appearance, they
gobble it at once by purchase and bring it out,
or, as is frequently the case, store away the
models, in order that the improvements they
represent shall not interfere with the sale Of
less desirable mechanical devices already in
use. In this way they have acquired proprie-
tary rights in many most valuable inventions
which dentists would be glad to employ only that
the monopoly has cabbaged them, and will not
produce them for the public benefit because to
do so would cost money. These manufacturers
too, have enormously expensive plants, with
out which no rival could possibly compete
with them. Take the matter Of tooth-making
for instance. To make a start in this little
trade one must have, for a single item, at least
fifty molds representing different sizes Of
brass SO laboriously that s250 apiece is tho
ordinary price for good ones. There you have
an investment Of $l2, 800 right off. Other suit
able apparatus is approximately dear. Thus
it comes about that, if you want q set OF false
teeth, you are compelled to buy them of the
trust, through your dentist, for the reason that
no outsider has good ones to SELL
TAX ON THE TooTHLEss.
Furthermore, you must pay for your teeth
Just as much as the trust chooses to charge
you-that is to say about four times what would
be reasonable price. II this demand were
quadrupled, you would have to "ante up" all
the same, unless you made up your mind to
forego chewing, or we're content with grinders
of painfully inferior quality. The monopoly
has special processes Of its own for turning out
the rubber in little red parallelograms, from
which the pilates are made, while the molars
and incisors themselves, with the artificial gums
they fit in, have to be cast in porcelain with
most exquisite care, and colored by expert
hands. There is the delicate pink of the gum
and the yellowish tint of the tooth toward the
root, both to be combined with the very sub
stance Of the material, as the set, upper or
lower, takes shape from the mold cast BY q
model in wax of the patients mouth. And
When the finished product comes forth from the
intense heat to which it is for the COM
bining In proper shape Of the rubber plate with
the porcelain parts, You can hardly realize that
the teeth are not real ones. Years ago il was
the fashion to make artificial teeth so perfect
that their very Wilderness and straightness were
calculated to excite suspicion as to their
But nowadays the art il better
and all sorts Of little defects and
crookednesses are introduced so ingeniousiy as
to greatly enhance the deception. Teeth are
furnished ready-made in all styles for dentists'
use in pairs and threes, attached to sections of
imitation gum, and likewise singly in long
strings Of 81 each, for full sets. At the exhibit
ton given here by the Massachusetts, dental
surgeons the other day, nearly one quarter of
the big hall was devoted to grewsoms display
of many hundreds Of Thousands of grinders.
They looked 50 natural that one could not help
imagining them actual teeth, reft with unim-
aginable howls from . myriad reluctant jaws,
to make . holiday show for society Of re-