“If all people were to choose the most beautiful among the customs, they would after close examination select their own, because every nation believes that its own customs are the best and the most beautiful. One therefore cannot imagine that anybody but a madman would ridicule such matters. When Darius reigned he summoned the Greeks then in his land, and when they came, he requested them to name the price they would take to eat their deceased parents. They replied they would not commit such a crime for all the gold in his empire. Then he caused the Kalatians (natives of India), who were in the habit of eating their parental dead, to appear before him; when they arrived, he questioned them (in presence of the Greeks, to whom every word was interpreted) how much remuneration they would want to burn their dead. They cried aloud, and bade him not to think of such a sacrilege. Thus custom rules. I believe Pindar to be right when he asserts in one of his poems that custom is the king of all.” CHAPTER VII. ECONOMY OF CREMATING THE DEAD.—THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CREMATION QUESTION. Dr. F. Julius le Moyne, speaking of the great expense often lavished on funerals, says:— “The aggregate of such questionable expenditures over the United States would amount to billions of dollars, a sum truly alarming in size; and this criminal expenditure has been an important factor in conducing to the monetary panic[1] still prevailing. This is one of the many extravagances which account in a great degree for national financial difficulties. The average expenditure for each body by the system of inhumation may be placed at $100. The average expense by the cremation plan would not exceed $20,—showing what an immense national saving would be gained by substituting cremation for interment.” Footnote 1: Dr. Le Moyne’s paper was written in 1878. It must be kept in mind that the expense of a modern funeral consists of the purchase of a lot in the graveyard, the funeral expenditure, and the outlay for the customary tombstone or monument. The cost of a cemetery to the community is tremendous. The cost of a plain furnace with a columbarium does not exceed $5000, a mere trifle when compared with the price of a burial ground. Imagine what a lot of valuable land—the best soil is always selected for cemeteries—is lost by our present method of disposing of the dead. I firmly believe that graveyards are often a hindrance to the growth of a city; but progress cannot be stopped forever; it may be delayed for a short time, but finally it will overcome all obstacles, the dead are carted away, and a world of activity takes their place.