The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-11-15

to find a convenient shoot for them, Such changes are not unknown in New York Under cremation, urn-burlal could be carried on for hundreds of years without the slightest offence to the living, and the opportunities for improvement in all that concerns the beauty or even the sentiment of the matter, would be secured by the condi- ton of permanence. Long duration is not possible under our present system, but with urn-buial the simplest stone inscription may be In as good order thousand years hence as to-day. With it also there would be a satisfactory re- alization of the meaning conveyed by the word cemetery-a resting-place, or place of sleep, for the dead,
 By burying the urns containing the ashes of the dead, all that relates to the artistic establishment of cemete- " would be at once placed on a very different footing. One of the large bur ial grounds, now closed perforce in a less time than an ordinary life, would accommodate a like number of burials on an improved system for many ages. The neglect and desecration of the resting-place of the dead inherent to the present system, would give place to unremitting and loving care, for the simple reason that each living genera tion would be as much interested in the preservation of the cemetery as those that had gone before were at any pre- vious time in it's history. We should at once have-what is so much to be desired from artistic and other points of view-a permanent resting-place for our dead. With this would come the certainty that any memorials erected to their memory would be carefully preserved in the coming years, and free form the sacrilege and neglect so often seen. Hence an incentive to art which might be not unworthy of such places, The knowledge that our cemeteries would be sacred-would be sacred to all, and jealously preserved by all. through the coming generations would effect much in this new field fer artistic effort In days when careful attention is bestowed upon the designs of trifling details of our houses, 1t is to be hoped that we shall soon be ashamed of the present state of what should be the beautiful and unpolluted rest-garden of all that remains of those whom we have known, or loved, or honored in life, or heard of in death as having lived not unworthy of their kind.
 When we come to the ceremony of urn burial itself we find 1t one that needs by no means be repulsive. The simplest urn ever made for the ashes of a Roman soldier is far more beauti- ful than the costly funeral trappings used in the most imposing burial pa geant of modern times. Of urns of a more ambitious kind, the variety and the beauty are often remarkable, as may be seen in our national and in va rious private collections, There is a marble urn in the Woburn collection, with simple carving of the shoots of the common ivy over it, which is more suggestive of all that is beautiful in memorial than any elaborate effort in a modern cemetery. No doubt slmplc- | ity is possible, and is sometimes prac- tised as far as may be, with the present 1 system; but with urn-burial certain main causes of expenditure and show may be abolished altogether-great diff faculties of transport being one of them. Given crematorium near the town, and transport to the cemetery, howeV- CT distant, involves little trouble To a people scattered over the world like our own, the ease with which remains could be brought from any distant country, without inconvenience and at little cost, to their final resting place at home, deserves consideration.
 | Families who had for generations | been buried in city ehurchyards have now to take their dead without the walls. Urn-burial would change all
 this. Establish this system, and peo- pie who have family tombs in our neg lected city graveyards would begin to take a renewed interest in them, an in- terest that might save them from the | dissertation so often mentioned. 1t would tend to make our churches more | interesting and even our cities, for there is a certain fitness in men rest l ing in death near the scene of their life and labors. The ashes of those who had deserved we'll of their country, might be brought home from any dis tant place where they had perished, and receive place of honor in our na- | tional churches or buildings. But you cannot long have a place of horror and place of honor, too; and therefore urn-burial makes this public honor of the memory of the great dead to any extent, and for all time, not only possi- | ble but easy.
 Until some better system is devised, cremation is the only method which will rapidly resolve the body into it's harmless clements, by a process which cannot offend the living, and which shall render the remains of the dead innocuous. This system is also that which gives us the amplest opportunity | for making a cemetery beautiful, a blessing instead of a danger to it's neighborhood; by it's means we may have memorials preserved from decay; grounds from sacrilege; soil and water from impurity; art not unworthy of it's aim; church burial for all who desire it; space for gardens and groves in our cemeteries; the mindfulness and care of each successive generation; many precious open spaces in cities free from dread and danger; age-enduring ceme- teries, in which efforts toward 'perpet- uating' the memory of the dead need not be so illusory as they now are; qui- ct places, where the ashes of the dead