The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-02

a change to the body we all admit. |
How that change shall take place and /
in how long a time, becomes a matter |
of difference of opinion, and reasons |
which might have been good against |
cremation as practiced in the early |
ages do not apply to the modern prac- |
tice. 4
Welfare of the living and due con-
sideration of love and respect for the
departed are what should decide US on
this subject. 1t is not pleasant mat
ter to refer to the many points which
present themselves, showing this Gus
tom, earth burial, to be one of danger
TO the community and anything but 4
a matter of respect to the dead when
we consider the results.
At once commences the process of !
decomposition and what can be more
narrowing than to consider this process
going on through a long, slow period?
Some advocates of the new order of
things have gone so far as to have
pictures taken of the contents OF cof-
fins at different periods of time after
burial and such could have been shown
to you this evening, but mention OF
them is sufficient. During the process
of decomposition, aside from its asso-
citation with the departed, what takes
place? Gases arise and the surround
ings are polluted to a greater or less
extent In the case of an isolated
burial it is not likely that evil results
would follow; but how about custom!
We find cemeteries in the midst OF
thickly inhabited districts often, on or
near waterways which furnish towns
and even cities with their supply OF
pure CD water. What is the tendency
in the modern cemetery, particularly
where the poorer classes are buried? !?
Is it not to extreme overcrowding?
What are some of the conditions at
taching to many of these places, espe--
cially from a sanitary standpoint?
From a renort made to the Board OF
Health of the town of Newtown, one
of the places of burial near New York.
in 1886. the following extracts are TAX
en-. Speaking of the free ground in
Calvary Cemetery it says:
"a trench is dug, beginning at the
sidewalk, about ten feet wide and tlf-
+ teen feet deep. In this the bodies are
deposited one above the other, until
near the surface of the ground, when a
little earth is thrown over it; after this,
| the same process is continued, one tier
| after another, until the plot is taken
up. Consequently the open end of TINS
| trench is at no time covered, or only
| slightly covered, if at all, until sueh
| trench is filed, when it is claimed that
| three and one-half feet of earth IS
| thrown over the whole trench. the cor
| rectness of which we are unable to as
| certain. on account of the frozen
| ground In our belief there are de-
| posted in a trench at this cemetery
| such as was being operated upon at
| the time of our visit, at least 1900 bod
les in a space ten feet by zoo; calculaF
| ing that there are deposited 10 bodies
| in each tier, which we understand u
| be a fact. This method should be
| condemned at once. We then visited
| the new part of said cemetery, ant
first inspected the ground which we
understand is called temporary.
There we found ten men shoVelllns
dirt in a trench similar to the one
above described only deeper The
same method was here pursued, Will
the exception that the trench oeins
considerably deeper, there could be more
bodies crowded in a space equal to tn
size of the above mentioned. Boti
| of the above methods your committe
considers, and is convinced, are ex
Continued on page 3D.