The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-05-30
ASHES TO ASHES.
Is Cremation Necessarily
from the Urn.1

In Europe and the United States
there is a constant push from the coun-
try into the city Populations are
massed as never before in small areas,
and the room necessary for expanding
commerce is demanding more and more
attention. Old grave yards in the hearts
of cities become of immense value, and
the graves are often disturbed and re-
| interment effected. The privilege of an
undlsturbd grave then can scarcely be
assured except for a few decades after
death. There is the question, too, as
to the continued right of ownership.
A person has right to his own while
he lives and when he dies, but does he
have rights to q place of sepulchre
eternally and because he has put 1t in
his viii, has he a right to hold the
ground that covers him against the
need and convenience Of the living?
More graves of those long dead are an
nually disturbed than we have any idea
If the eternal right of property is to be
abrogated and made time right for the
sake of the needs of the greater num-
Der, then the Individual will be less par
ticular about the disposition which is
made of his eartly remains. We used
to think that a person who had done
well In this life had earned right to
the ground that covered him; after all
that may be a burden to humanity,
and too great tribute Of respect for
the living to pay the dead. To have
right to standing room in the fitful
lurid glare of this earth's sunlight, on
which to make a struggle for bread,
is perhaps all man may ask of his
brother before he goes up to God for
eternal judgment
Commercial consideration would push
the cemetery further and further into
the outskirts of the large towns, but
more important than commercial needs
is the sanitary necessity which is more
than ever coming to the front The
living are more or less exposed to in
feetion derived from newly made graves
particularly when the poor are hastily
and often brutally inferred, and when
infectious diseases are raging, the
corpses from which are peculiarly liable
to spread contagion. This is the real
basis Of the modern movement in favor
OF cremation. II is said to be possible
to make burial safe by selecting a soil |
that is dry, close and porous, by careful |
drainage and by rigid enforcement of |
the rules prescribing certain depth of |
eight to ten feet and width Of three
yards square. But this rule is hardly |
ever lived up to. And even when 1t is,
a certain amount of contamination of |
water supply or conduction of poisonous |
gas to surrounding tenements will en-
sue. Headache, liberated sore throat |
and other diseases are often traceable |
to the vicinage of cemeteries where in |
terments are still maintained.
This Is the question of weight: How |
long shall crowded populations be sub
jeet to disease from this source? For
this reason many persons who are de-
vout Christians are to-day in favor of
cremation as means of disposlng of
the dead. For by this means not only
is the body consumed, but its noxious
gases are likewise burned, and the
earth in its fruitful part is left altogeth-
er for the uses of the living.-Rev. 70. ].
Odlin.