The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-05-13

space of time. How vastly superior TO
natures unwholesome way of slow de-
composition with the attendant posi-
bility of soil and air infection and
water contamination!
The process of cremation does not
consist, as IS enormously believed. of
the burning of a corpse. 1t is a mere
incarceration or reduction of the tody
to asnes by means of dry heat. neither
ire nor flames ever coming in contact
with the corpse All the smoke and
volatile substances resulting from COM
bustion pass through a heated retort
ana are immediately consumed. The
process is as follows: The body is
borne into the chapel and placed upon
catafalque in front of the altar. The
section of the chapel floor upon which
the catafalQue rests constitutes the
floor of an elevator. AS the funeral
services proceed the elevator noiseless-
ly descends bearing the body into the
basement in front of the incinerator.
AS the door of the moderator is
opened to receive the body the inrush-
ing cold air causes the temporal ure to
fall a little and gives to the interior a
beautiful rosy tinge
The corpse wrapped in a sheet sat
urated in a solution Of alum or asbestos
and placed upon metallic bed, passes
over rollers into bath of rosy light
The sheet delineates the form of the
human body until incineration is COM
pleted, and the bones crumble to ashes
by the mystic touch, as il were of
some invisible agent. This process may
be called the etherization or spirit
1Ia jzaf inn of h.
pounds of clean white ashes are
dropped by means of a lever into the
ash chamber below and are drawn
thence into an urn of terra Gotta
bronze, marble Or some other suiCab e
material and returned by means of the
elevator to the catafaIque. The ser
vices being now over the friends of
the deceased find the ashes just where
they last saw the body of the depart
ed and may bear them away The
process is accomplished without per-
Ceptible sound, odor or smoke and
presents absolutely nothing that can
offend the susceptibilities of the most
fastidious.''
What can be heater, cleaner. more
thoroughly refined and pure than this -?
Rev. DR.. Bengless says: Scarcely
an instance is known of anyone having
witnessed the process as thus conduct
ed who has not at once become a pro-
nounced convert to cremation, what
ever may have been his pre-existing
prejudices.''
AS Prof. Gross, says: 1T is a truly
beautiful way of disposing of the
dead.
This description of a modern crema-
ton makes it unnecessary to enlarge
upon the sanitary Or aesthetic aspect
of the subject but in this utilitarian
age we are justified in looking at it
from an economical point of view and
if we do we will see that it has many
advantages over earth burials. first, in
actual cost and second, in the area of
land required.
Statistics shows that the sums an
nually expended in the United States
for funerals exceed the value of the
total annual output of all the gold and
silver mines in the country. The aver
age funeral is an expensive function
that most poor families can i'll afford.
The enbalming or preserving of the
lot run the cost up into the hundreds
of dollars.
How much more simple, direct and
inexpensive it can be made by hav-
ing the body conveyed to the mortuary
chapel of a crematory where the rela-
tives and friends may gather at the
hour appointed for the funeral SER
vices during which the body is reduc-
ed to ashes!
But the great saving will be in the |
- II,
dead which under the new scientific
poses.
The cemetery question has been an |
important one in this community for |!
many years. Ten years ago the Cath |
ollie and Kawaiahao Cemeteries were |
and We're condemned by |
the Board of Health as unfit for fur |
Their use. In fact intra-urban buriais |
were tabooed as unsanitary and out of |
time with modern ideas, but the taboo |
has been ignored and burials have con- |
tinued in these cemeteries to this day |
until it has now become a crying dis |
grace. Think Of opening as many al
four graves in digging onei Not |
very reverential way to treat the dead. |
Think of burying a coffin in ground |
water because the soil lacks depth, |
Yet these conditions obtain in Homo
ulu today, because some of the cene- |
-eries are over-crowded and unsuitably |
located.
There are twenty cemeteries in Ho-
nolulu, the acreage of which is about
10 acres. Assuming that the surface
area needed for the average grave in
,luding walks and driveways to be
;x10ft and an acre and a half of land
Will be required annually to bury Ho-
lolulu's dead, or fifteen acres every
decade, unless the same ground is
Used over again.
For years the health authorities have
studied the problem of providing sat
sfactory land for cemeteries but thus
TAR have failed to solve it. 1t is
iifficult thing to do. The land must
,e readily accessible yet removed
rom the residence districts.
The soil must be suitable, and not |
Train into any water supply The diff
iculty of finding the right locality has