Evening journal., 1897-08-06
TO MAKE MUMMIES.
a New York Association to Go
Into That Business.
The object Is 20 Preserve the Entire
Population for Future Reference
"A simple and Thorough
Process.


To a great many people the most hor-
rible thing about death is the idea of
decomposition in the dark gloom of the
grave The thought of the finish of a
human career is not delicate one in
any of its aspects. But now comes the
Sanitary Mausoleum association, and
offers for the paltry sum of $40 to pre-
serve your physical being for all time,
and give you o home in a marble build
ing where you may be on view for your
friends and relatives as long as any of
them are left to look.
If you are a millionaire, you may ar
range it so that your grateful heirs may
see you after death. If you are pub
lie benefactor there is no need to perpet-
uate you in carven image of stone. You
may have a resting place on the edge OF
the town where all who come may see
what manner Of man you were. 1tm may
even come about that in after years
your tangible person will be an exhibit
in an art museum. Time may make
anything Of you, but it cannot change.
That is what the newly-organized as
sociation guarantees.
In other words, the association Of
fers to New York citizens an oppor-.
tunity to initiate the enduring Pna-
roahs and become mummies.
There is nothing about the proposed
process to offend the most refined mind.
1T has an advantage over the lost Egyp-
tian art in that the Egyptian dead were
wrapped from head to foot in grass
cloths, and in many cases the human
form looked like a bale of cloth, not even
the features being visible. The, Amer
lean mummy will be created without re-
moving the burial clothes from the
body, and except for the discoloration
of the face, the mummy will look just
as did the subject when arrayed for the
final services.
Curiously enough, an American cli-
matte condition suggested the process.
Out west there are torrid deserts over
which sweep hot, dry winds. Men die in
these deserts, and months after death
the body lying exposed upon the sands
will remain almost perfect, decomposi-
tion being delayed by the preserving
quality of the dry air. Cattle die on the
trails from thirst and lie in the sun
through countless weeks before there
is any appearance of decay.
The medical student murderer, Theo-
dore Durrant, of San Francisco, knew.
something of the value of dry air as q
preservative. When he killed his first
victim, Blanch Lamont, in a church, he
carried tho body high up into the
belfry. The belfry windows were Stats
like those of an ordinary window blind,
and the wind swept through almost un-
impeded. Durrant stripped the body
and composed it carefully on the floor
and left it there. Two weeks later
when It was found, there were small
evidences of decay.
The new association will mummify
by the dry-air process. 1t is simplicity
itself. The mausoleum is the first
thing to be built. The plans for it are
drawn. 1t is an immense building cap
able Of giving room to $4,000 bodies. 1t
Is to be conctructed in the form OF a
cross. When the funeral services are
over the body is taken, directly to the
mausoleum and placed in an individual
vault. There is no disturbance of the
remains.
A small hole is bored in the head of
the coffin, and similar one in the foot.
AT the head is inserted rubber tube.
This tube connects with a fan ma
chine. The machine is set going, and
creates a blast of air, which is blown
over an open vat of sulphuric ucid
The chemical action of the acid upon
the air is to remove all moisture from
it, and the air is conveyed perfectly dry
into the tube and through the tube tc
the interior OF the coffin.
The tube at the foot is to carry the
air of. After leaving the coffin the ali
passes throught n hot furnace and re
turns to the world through a tall chin
ney. The object of the furnace is L
kill any infectious germs which tn,
air might have caught up in passing
through the coffin.
For 80 days the human body lies il
breeze; then the fan stops, the tube
are removed; the coffin is sealed, an,
there you are, and there you win sta,
as long as time lasts. Each coffin /
assigned to vault that is sealed or no
as the relatives wish. You may have
vault with glass doors, so that if you de
sire it you may be on view to solicitor
friends. That is entirely a matter o
taste.
The cost for an ordinary vault wit
the air process will not be more tha
$40. There viii be richer vaults fo
richer occupants, but the rich man get
no more mummy than the poor one
N. Y. Journal.
Bows and sRshes.