The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-03
CREMATION-A NECESSITY.

This community should face prompt
ly and courageously the question OF the
disposition Of the dead. Neglect OF
this vital matter is crime against
the living This is not sentiment
bs,t a fact. Science opens our eyes,
and we see not the knife OF the as
sassin but the deadly poison OF the
microbe facing US at every turn. IL
foot-pads infested the streets, the people
would be up in arms. Yet the 1ooC-
pads of disease are lurking about our
homes, and when they cruelty XIII the
children, we are apt to say in ignor-
ant resignation. ..it is the act of Pro-
whence"
The health and protection OF the Nv
ing is now the main duty. Distressing
as it may be, temporarily, the sentl-
ment in favor Of the present metnod
of burial must be changed. Even re-
parding the matter of sentiment, the
statistics show less reverence for the
care of the dead than might be expect
ed. In the old Calvary Cemetery or
New York City, only IL out OF l3,ooo
graves are now cared for. More than
100 cemeteries in that city have been
abandoned. and the grave stones are
in confusion 1t is a fact, not very
creditable perhaps, that the memory
of the dead disappears more quickly
than the flesh upon their bodies.
The danger to the living from the
prevalent method of burial increases as
the land becomes more occupied.
The French Academy recently locat-
ed the source of lung troubles in Paris,
in the effiuvia from the cemetery OF
Pere la Chaise. The old cemetery OF
the 'Lnnocents'' in the same city mas
been breeding disease for centuries,
while the people failed to realize 1t
In the Crimean War the drainage from
the grave yards was said to nave Kill
ed more men than war itself. The con.
slant presence of typhoid fever in Phi
ladelphia is said to be due to the ex'
istence OF the old cemeteries. In Den
mark recently COS out of $50 grav
wards were condemned by the authorl
ties. The city of London now require:
an annual area of twenty-three acre.
tn proyide for the burials Of the dead
Regarding the merits of question
involving sentiment, and religious
opinions, it is to be regretted that tn
pulpit has not judiciously discusse'
them More powerful than reasonin.
however is an impending calamity.
Cremation is the only solution OF tn
difficulty. It should be compelled %.
the State. AT present, however, publ
opinion against the process will no
force the State to act, excepting in thu
cases of paupers and Asiatic 1mml
grants at the quarantine station. The
Japanese will readily accept it, be
cause it is almost universally practicet
in Japan.
The cost of cremation is slight. Ii
Japan it is done for 50 per body. Ii
India it is done for fifty cents. =
pauper in Paris, is cremated for sixt.
cents.
1t is conceded that the influence an
sentiment of women is necessary to es
tablish the general practice of crema
ton. A poll taken one evening at TN
University Club of New York CIT.
showed that eighteen out OF INVENT
men who were asked for their opinion
on the subject preferred cremation, bl
it was generally said that the wlVf
and mothers would not permit 1t, III
less it became fashionable practlc
The Anglo-SaXon SO far, adheres
the ancient Jewish method OF Durla
although the race has not been friend
to the Jews. 1t has never accepted ti
practice of the Greeks, the Romans
the Hindoos. Therefore the practice
due more to the force of racial habl
than to any intellectual conviction