The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-25
CREMATION IN PARIS.
how BODIES ARE BURNED IN
PERE LA CHASE

Yet Popular Opposition OF the
Church to the Practice.
From the Ne,o York Star. -
The French Cremation society, which
was founded in f1SS2 for the purpose of
familiarizing people with the idea Of the new
method for disposiDg OF the dead, has fOc
its president 81. Koechha-Schwarz, mayor
of the Eighth Paris ward, where periodical
meetings are held, and among the members
who make up its committee are goolly
number of deputies, municipal coulcilor,,
engineers and doctors. In order to become
a titular member Of the society a minimum
sum of 81 must be paid tbs first year, aud
81 for each succe sive year sitter ward.
Donation members are expected to con-
tribute at least a su n of $50 on entering
The st report shows that the body num-
bsrs at the present moment upward Of
loo members. The receipts for the first
year of it's existence we o 500.
Pendi a law re derilg the practice of
burning or burning the dead optic al,
which mas since been passed, the Paris
municipal cou Gil vo Ell a era t Of money
for the erection OF a ere ma orium, which is
now in part built on ground at the Pore Ia
Chaise cemetery Tle monument, as you
enter the gate way, is TO be seen at the
opp site extremity of the cemetery
near the Jewish burial ground a d
facing the Mussulman section, whicl is
rendered CONSPICUOUS by the tomb OF the
Queen of OIde 1t looks something Ike a
mosque, with two high cAimneys, which an
swer the purpose Of beacons. There are
three domes, corresponding with the rec
halls inside where AS many furnaces are to
be- eS ablsned. The g Is a separate room
in which the bodies are placed while await
ing inciuerstion.
The buildi g. as it now stands, forms
only portion of hat thu ere natorium is
t be. The fac lde. which is t. have alter
nate layers of black and white m rbe, and
| the cinerarium for prese wing the ashes Of
the dead, have not yet beei begun. A hail
and rece ,ItiOn room for funeral parties will
also ltinately be added. It is computed
that the whole building, when finished, will
cost Sl20, 600. A~f8
When tested for the first time, Oct. %.
1887, the apparatus used did not meet the
expectations of tle authorities as to It's
capaci y for disposinG quickly and cheaply
Of man remains. Defects had to be
remediei before proper working could be
obtained. The hea5 from beechwood logs
was found inadequate, aud the flames
char-ed the body to an ugly brown con-
poun1. The C st OF the operation was too
nigh, amounting in each case to S24. The
ashes of the first two corpses reduced by
this insufficient process have been lodged in
the Carnavalet Museum, in this city.
The present arrangement is perfect. As
| only one furnace is no y in use, the bod les
| awaiting cremation are brought up in rOta.
| ton from n separate ON in the building.
| was present the other day while two dead
todies were consumed, a d folio we'd the
! process throughout The first of the was
he corpse OF a pauper patielt VINO had
| died of smallpox In one of Paris 10 e
J pitfalls. The body was placed, in it's deal
wood shell, up)l two fiat iron ba s, e1cl
about three inches wide and six feet long,
| hxe1 to a Kind OF truck.
When tie retort door was opened and the
| corpse run in, a glow of heat so candle
burst forth from the oven that it was al
IN st impossible 10 look inside. Tne wooden
| shell split up, and the dead DO ty fell be-
| tween he two II IL bars / the incandesce
| floor, " here gas and coke combine to keeu
up bright red, roaring heat, ranging be-
! tween 200 and 800 degrees ce Upgrade
| The hair and beard caught fire i'm nedi-
ately, and the body itself reg IN to blister.
| On the doc being closed there was a
slight emission of SMOKE ana a smell OF
| charred flesh, which was due, the stoker
| aid, to the fact tlat the coke furnace in the
| fiue mad been excessively charged before 1t
ha time to burr up properly; it therefore
| acted as tercepter in the fl Ie TIE owe
| is fed with coke ii the unde ground portion
of the bu lding, and the fire is kept up day
| and night.
l was allowed to ascertain the state of the
b dy every half hour thrugh the ret ri
door. When the door fl st opAnei the sig /
was one / shall never forget. A strong red
fire blazed around the corpse whose limbs
were already consi lera ly shrunk su. Thsre
WIS nothing II the hldeous sp ,ctacie had
expected. No fame, no smoke was TO be
seen. Only bright, intsnss, liquid bath of
fire, in which the poor, dead paper patient
| lay quietly, stretc led out as if as eep. A
| kind of nimbus surrounded the head. Toe
kneecaps appeared almost white; the bones
of the lower part appeared cilcined, tie
| abdominal cavity hat consumed.
AT the end Of ths first hour the head
appeared half incinerated; the hips stood
| out, and ths ribs stuck up, though still
| attached to the spinal column; the viscera
were whitening, the b mes of the legs were
detached and appeared consumed; a little
halo still played rou d the head and shou :
ders At the end of an hour and half all
| the bones had crumb,e1, the skull was gone
and the outline of the form was lost. Moth
ing remained on the fl lor of tse oven but
two small knobs fro the hips of the skele-
ton, ready to dissolve into a white ASA.
The second corpse to be incin rated was
that of a man who had exp essed in his will
the desire to be burned after death, and
| whose relatives had paid the $40 fee charged
| by the city authorities in every suca case.
| The process for the rich is much the same
as that for the poor except that on the twl
parallel bars a metallic plate a I'd an ashes
t IS cloth are s)read uader the corp of c
| former to receive the ashes. The BODY
therefore, burns on the plate instead If fall.
iig to the Il )or of the oven.
AS on the first occa aston, I was allowed to
ascertain the results of the process every
thirty minutes. The eff cts of the hea
when tie body was run in wee rather
star ling, for the legs OF the rich man al
once spread out t the extent of touc inc
the sides of the red-hot Chamber
These, however, resumed their naura
pNsiti n on the pl te, but bent up be-
fore they were Insumed, toge her with he
ribs in an hours time. In less than min tx
minute the whole body had fallen in an
begun to whiten. The oper ton is ther
deemed finished. When tie metal plat,
was dawn out. the body appeared mou
thoroughly cons imed than the first; tn,
asles were white, an weig ed little oval
four pounds. They were carefully coll cteC
with brush into a silver shovel. ami place.
in an urn provided for that purpose.
NJ. Charles Moonen, the author of "Pari
in Four Days" and the only commits one,
c lnductor and guild at Pere la Chaise, t,
whom am indebted for admission to tn
crematorlum during the double pro ,ess o
ncineration above described, took me owe
the monument and vouchSafed the follow