Looking forward : $b a dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999Bird, Arthur
Science
Looking forward : $b a dream of the United States of the Americas in 1999
Bird, Arthur
Twentieth century -- Forecasts; United States -- Civilization
There was everything about cremation to appeal to loftier ideals. The
light, portable character of the little cremation cases became more
popular than the heavy casket. The heart-rending accidents that too
often occurred under the old system of burials, became impossible
in the brighter and better days of cremation. In 1899 it sometimes
happened that in lowering a body into the grave the bottom of the
casket gave way. The rest can better be imagined than described. It
sometimes happened that [Sample Horrors of 1899.] while a funeral
procession was on its way to the cemetery, the hearse team got
frightened. In the thrilling runaway that followed the casket fell
out of the hearse and breaking open the corpse rolled out on the
ground. The horror-stricken relatives and friends would remember the
sad scene through life, mentioning it only in whispers.
These horrors of the old-style, so-called Christian burials, were
rendered impossible in the cremation regime. Not that alone, but
cremation removed from earth the most horrible experience that can be
endured by mortal man and that is premature burial. The practice of
burying bodies is a relic of barbarism. Its horrors and possibilities
are without limit. No civilized community should tolerate it. Custom
and tradition are the forces that maintain it. It does not possess a
single point in its favor, while, on the other hand, there are scores
of sound arguments against it.
No person who ever spent a minute in the fierce temperature of
a crematory ever [Can't Bury them Alive.] lived to tell the
tale. The ancient method of burial is not so certain--many cases
have come to light where people, supposed to be dead, revived
after interment. Imagine the horror of the situation. Can any human
experience be more dreadful than this one? Many cases have come to
light in the nineteenth century proving beyond a shadow of doubt that
unfortunate men and women had been buried alive. In graves opened many
weeks after burial the scratched face, torn hair and imprint of terror
upon the features told only too plainly what had happened and of the
final anguish of the unfortunate one. Such horrors were not possible
in the cremation process. If there is anything the world appreciates
it's a "sure thing"--and that salient feature of cremation did not
escape its attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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