The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-19
Jackets, Capesy tic.
Il STEEAH r. IN Seventh and Minnesota
EHE a. MERV 49, OUH5 Streets.

literally reduced to ashes by this mod
ern method. Robert Robinson, Of Chi
cago, who is the contractor in charge,
and also the inventor of this particular
apparatus, will remain here for the
purpose of conducting the first few
cremationS.
By this apparatus the furnace is
heated to a high temperature by the
burning of oil, and at the end of ten
or fifteen minutes the body is placed
within the furnace on a slab, still in
it's casket as though for burial, the
massive door is closed upon it for
ever, and then by means of a power
full blower operated by a gasoline en-
CINE, a draft of air is forced within
the furnace and the temperature is
forced up from 1,200 to 2,200 degrees.
The coffin and clothing vanish in a
burst of flame and slowly the body is
reduced to a hundful of flaky gray
ashes, weighing from five to seven
pounds. These are from the bones and
are found lying on the slab in the out
line of the skeleton, every bone being
perfectly delineated. The entire pro-
cess takes about an hour, whereas for
merly, by the original crude apparatus
and use of wood as fuel. it required
twenty-four hours.
The ashes are delivered to the family
of the deceased in a small urn, and
the cost of the cremation, including the
urn, will be $25. The urns are buried
or stored away, in many larger cities
a columbarian being provided for them
This is building with inches or vault
w ha CT 90
Francisco has one costing 100000, and
some of the doors are of thick plate
glass, through which may be seen ele-
CANT urnS, engraved with the names
of the deceased.
'The great objection to overcome
with reference to cremation" said Mr.
Robinson to a Glob e reporter, is
the superstition of many of the people,
practically those who believe that at
the resurrection the dead will rise III
their grave clothes, just as they were
buried. Those people are hard to con-
vince that there is as much substance
to few pounds of ashes as in a grin
ming skull and hideous skeleton, lying
in a worm-eaten casket. AS they be-
come familiar with the process, how
ever, they realize the utility and SAM
| tary benefits of it. Chicago now has
| six crematories. The one at Milwaukee
! was built a year ago, and there have
been sixty incinerations during that
| time.
1T has been said that after a body
| had been cremated it would be impoS-
| sible to detect afterwards whether any
foul play had been committed 1 VIII
! state this, however, that, if a person
| is poisoned, the poison will be shown
! by an analysis of the bones.
In cremation there can be no fear
| of being buried alive-no turning over
| in the coffin Sometimes during the
| incarceration there will be a curious
and startling movement of the corpse,
! the twitching of an arm, the lifting
! of a leg or a general contortion of the
| body. This is caused by the contrac-
ton of the tendons by the heat. You
see this glass door at the back of the
| furnace? That is where the operator
| watches the process Of cremation, but
we never allow the family back here
| because of that reason.
In Washington City, Pa, a man
| by her wish expressed before her
death. He insisted on@ watching the
| process through the glass door, and, as
| the blazing fragments of the coffin
| fell away from the corpse, the body
| suddenly sat upright in the furnace
| looking at him, an effect produced by
| the contraction of the tendons | al
| luded to. With a cry of horror the
| man rushed out of the building, his
| mind unbalanced by the grueSome APP
| partition, and he was never seen after
| WardS''