The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-10
.4sHEs TO ASHES.
What Is Cremation? From the Urn.l

or pOlleS lIoli tiiS pS6iiiAiAA6 'S '4-
 end of the process, It is properly ant
 strictly incineration or reduction Of
 the human frame to ashes, and absorp
 ton of all the gaseous clements, carried
 on inside a flre-clay retort, three feel in diameter and seven in length
 An eyewitness describes the process
 as follows: "As the door of the retor | is opened the fn-rushing air cools il | from white to red heat, and the whole interior is filled with beautiful rosy
 light that is fascinating to the eye | The body, deoently clad for burial, IS | laid in a crib, which Is covered with
 a clean, white sheet soaked in alum l The crib is then put into the retort The sheet retains its original position and conceals the form until nothing
 but the bones are left, and these gently
 crumble into dust as under the mystic touch of an invisible agent, There is nothing repulsive or painful about It.
 there is nothing which need shock the
 most refined tastes, nor offend the most
 delicate sensibilties."
 OPINIONS OF CLERGYMEN.
 In our February Columbarium we
 mentioned the names of three Man.
 chester, N. IT., clergymen, who abreast
 of the times, spoke favorably upon
 cremation. We are glad to find that
 there were four, and their opinions,
 as elicited by the American, are well
 worth a place in these columns.
 Rev. w. H. Morrison, pastor of the Jiak o1N, interviewed on the subject: q am a firm believer in cremation and always
 have been. believe in it for sanitary
 reasons, and I can see no possible ob-
 jections to this method of disposing of the bodies of our dead from a re- ligious point of view"
 Rev. w. c. McAllester, pastor of the First Baptist church, said: q am favor of this mode of disposing of dead bodies, and I believe that it is only a question of time before cremation will be adopted as the best and most prac- ticable way of solving difficult ques- ton. It shocks the senstbilities of the people, I know, to have the bodies of their friends burned, but 1t is like other great innovations, the people will over- come their prejudices in time"
 Rev. Francis s. Bacon, of the Peoples Tabernacle, said: T can see no objec- tions to cremation, and am in favor of 1t for many reasons. From religious standpoint I believe it makes no differ what becomes of the body, whether it is burned or drowned or is left to de- compose in the ground"
 Rev. w. H. Ramsay, of the Unitarian church, said: q believe cremation is the only rational and scientific method of the disposal of dead bodies, and believe that in time the civilized people of the world will come to view the mat ter in this light. If the work is done in the proper manner, without any bungling, do not see anything in it which should shock sensible people, It has always been my wish that my body should be disposed of in this manner after my death, and as I said, my opinion is that this is the only rational and scientific method of disposing of the body after the soul has departed from it."
 The Rev. R. Heber Newton, D. D., New York, said: T am glad of an opportunity of expressing my interest in the work of the Cremation society. For many years heve thoroughly be- lieved in oremation-on q variety of grounds. Having tried to make my life one of usefulness to my fellows, I ob- ject to the possibility of injurlng any one after I am dead. The thought that what cannot take with me to higher form of life is to be left as a means of poisoning life, is abhorred to me. I prefer that my body shall be so dis posed of as to put this out of the ques- tion. The religious objection has al- ways been nonsensical to my mind.
 Believing thoroughly in a life to come, I have not the slightest notion of that higher life being conditioned in any possible way by the way in which we get into it, Nothing but the stupid prejudice of a blind orthodoxy could allow any notion of this kind to have weight. In so far as it does have weight, 1t ought to be exposed and ridiculed. I have also, for years, had the intensest horror of thinking any one dear to me undergoing the noxious process of decomposition, as we have made sure that it shall be made noxious " OuI WHOleI HHOQe OI 1nLeTn6nL. | | want those love to pass from this life | to higher life without any such ab- 1 horrent decomposition of the form once lear to me, On every hand cremation | has commended itself to my judgment, | md I am sure that it is destined to | prevail in the future. expect to be | disposed of thus myself, and do not | snow of any expression of opinion | which I could offer that would have nore weight than this"
 Rev. Moncure D. Conway of New York said: I regard the wholesale pois- ming of the earth and it's fountains y dead bodies as the survival of a 3rossly materialistic conception of the uture life. Surely our New World civ lization should replace the loathsome -ault with the pure urn.
 The Rev. John l.. scudder, pastor first Congregational church. Jersey fty, said: I believe in cremation with II my heart, and consider it the only roper method of disposing of the dead. 'he arguments in it's favor are over- and those who read up upof his subject are almost always convert 1 d flo the new idea. am glad to see hat prejudice and blind conserva tism re rapidly giving way to nineteenth entury common sense. I prophecy hat inside of twenty-five years, crema-