The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-01
The celebrated painting by Fra Angelica

ton, and we have seemed to have
nothing left but to IMMUNE the natives
in their native plains.
Earth burial remains an unsatis-
factory and unsanitary presence as
well as relic. Incineration continues
repulsive to all the finer feelings of
nature and we seek relief from all
these in the truly sanitary. beautiful
ly sentimental and forever efficient
disposal of our dead in the depth and
vastness of the abyssal area of old
ocean, illmitable and itself symbolic
of the infinite in time and space, bride
of the sun and vassal of the moon.
Nothing in nature renders back to
man the full and instant sympathy
which is accorded by the mighty seas
who thus repose mildly in the gener-
Gus grandeur Of their glorious power.
* The deception that proximity
to graveyards is harmless cannot be
longer maintained by corporations
who own them or municipalities that
are supposed to control them. The
study of bacteriology and the toxins,
life in all conditions; the penetrability
Of their gases to remote distances
through previous qualities and strata
of soil; their escape and ascent into
the atmosphere, all impress the DAN
ger of such acres-though sacredly
and sentimenally named-On chosen
picturesque hillsides, near ravines
draining the water courses, or inclin-
ing to wells from which the inhab-
tants of villages and cities derive their
water supplies and inhale the poison
charged air
"A perusal Of the daily papers fur
nishes a surfeit of CHASTITY recital Of
graveyard dissertations of resurrection
and demolition of skeletons ruthlessly
thrown about by workmen's pick and
shovel within or adjoining hamlet or
city, to make way for cable or con-
duit of commerce or deep foundation
for towering tenement, The category
of horrors associated with our crude
plan of earth inhumation and attempt
ed body concealment, despite all pre-
cautions, is neither in harmony with
wholesome sentiment, economy nor in
any sense approximate modern sani-
tary requirements.
Every other phase Of economics has
advanced along progressive lines;
ancient and modern plaques have been
stopped; pain has been robbed of its
terrors; time and distance have been
annihlated, but suitable and sani-
tary repository for our dead has not
yet been secured. The abyssal prov
ince of the ocean, embracing 100000
900 square miles, more than three
times that of the earth's surface, and
100 times that of the available area
of earth, unfolds her limitless and
aseptic bosom to envelop us; no actual
bounds of length, BREADTH height or
depth circumscrihe her receptive ca
pacity; the diversion of her shore
lines are insignificant when compared
with her area, and her perturbations
are only on the surface: her deeper
strata are scarcely moved in ages.
Imagination naturally revolts at
the memorable chemistry of decay that
must take place in vault and subsoil
burial Putrescence at the bottom of
the sea is unknown. Ferrugnous mat
ter does not find its way beyond the
extreme 300-mile shore line, but here
and beyond all is carpeted with pei
agic deposits, crumbling remains of
the inhabitants of the upper strata,
feeding bathybius and the datum,
medusae and the crinoideae. Here
disintegration will some time sooner
or later, proceed by an alchemy I'M
known to the present denizens of the
earth. Ships go down along the paths
of commerce, but deep sea dredgings
find no relic of the myriads that have
sunk in her tracks. Iron ships soon
corrode and wooden ships are easily
comminuted; ocean cables enveloped
in heavy vulcanite remain long unfair
nished; gold. glass and heavy porce-
lain survive: all else soon dsinIe-
CRATES and sleeps forever-a slow &C
erection to the solid diameter of the
globe. Over all is constantly descend
ing through the waters like = snow
cloud showers of microscopic SHELLS,
product of the higher strata. At these
depths there are no real or chimerical
sea monsters" animal diminishes in
the sea as the depths become extreme.
The Investigations of Professor Agas-
siz in the Pacific ocean show conclu-
sively that there are but few living
forms below depth of 1880 or 1000
feet; only minute and peculiarly form
ed and encrusted animal life survive
at this pressure.
THAT change must come in the mat
ter of the disposal of the dead is cer-
tain; that cremation during a third
of century of education and argu-
ment is far from acceptance and adop-
| ton is patent. Fire is the natural foe
! ana dread of man, incineration cannot
by any force or play of the magma
ton surround itself with as pleasing
| sentiment as ocean burial can. Reso-
| luton by fire is repulsive to all cur
| nature; no one can come near a nat
ural gas or fuel oil furnace, much IL SIS
| look into its glowing. roaring caverns
without being terrorized in its pres
! ence, and no persuasion could urge
one to remain while the body of their
| friend dissolved and disappeared in
! its fury, or even while preparation
was going on therefor. At
the cremation of the body of the late
Frances Willard the body was left