Show t < > X < > > T < > 6 l C i CEMETERY OF THE FUTURE M M 1 A Proposition That Means Ruin to the Undertakers Mrt w WJWv < > < + + < + 4 < > t < < > > < > > < < > < New York June 25 There is little j doubt that the cemetery of the future j will be a great modern building 1111 i which the dead of large cities will be filed away like books on a shelf The j innovation wont come right away anti it will never come if that essential I body of men to every communitythe undertakerscan prevent it The scheme has been presented for 1 the consideration of the city officials here and the undertakers Immediately rats d a protest as fierce as the harangue har-angue of a campaign orator It meant > f ruination to them they said and I would be the first step toward the j formation of a monopoly which Would eventually control the funerals of the nation No trust root was ever formed would be so commercially despotic as I this The Sugar trust the Tobacco I j trust the Rubber trust and all other trusts would be insignificant pigmies i they declare compared with the Goliath Burial trust And there is some reason for the calamity howl i 1 raised by the doleful ones The originators of the new cemetery I r Ma I I 1 J tit ti i I t q t jV a 1 4a 1 i rl t ONE OF THE CORRIDORS OF THS PROPOSED PAI TITAL HOUSE f OF THE DEAD re in the scheme simply for the del l II jars and rents It is a regularly organized or-ganized comparfy with bundles of I wealth hehind it and what is more it controls all the patents on the sine + I j of coffin which i must be used to meet the sanitary requirements when housing hous-ing thousands of dead in a single building I build-ing The patents on this coffin are of such a nature and the requirements of I I the new system of disposing of the I dead are so peculiar that the com panys control of the weird monopoly vouid be the next thingto absolute At least the undertakers and coffin manufacturers so regard it and they arc organizing to tight the threatened I innovation to ThE last ditch The cemetery question in the Greater Now Yorkhas beer assuming the proportions I pro-portions of a troublesome question for some time Within the boundaries rf I the enlarged city there are 60 odd I ineteries and these are constantly I f etar beins enlarged to meet the requirements t ments natural with the progress + f 11 time The dead in these outnumber the living population of 3300000 five I to one I Recent investigations of the causes of disease by the citys Health department fl de-partment resulted in the placing of some of the blame upon the ancient I custom atth burying the dead in thej 1 earth It is asserted that this custom I does more toward the propagation of disease germs than any other single J agency that the earth air and water contaminated and that to this are < contamination I 1 lamination is due all the infrvtious I diseases with which the surrounding I I community is affmi ted It is also i sad that undeniable statists i shoty that mortality and u sickness an greater among people living close to cemeteries 1 than in other districts and ibis this Single fact is practical evidence of the danger I I Within the past few years the problem prob-lem has been discussed at various conventions j I con-ventions of physicians and the same opinions have been reached It Is I I claimer that the earth was made for the living and nOl for the dead but I that under existing conditions the dead I kill the living Pure air and puro water are fundamental necessities to health and it is claimed that these are impossible in a region so generously endows with cemeteries as this citr When the new company submitted its plan to the health officials here it almost al-most Immediately gained their approval approv-al but the objections raised In ether quarters will serve to block a realization realiza-tion of the scheme for a considerable time I The plans submitted Included a project proj-ect for the erection of an immense building in the northern end of Manhattan i Man-hattan close in the vicinity of the I point where the Harlem < river stows 1 i u into the Hudson This building is to be a veritable palace of the dead and will afford space for the reception of at least 12000 bodies and perhaps 15000 The building will be 270 feet wide 70 feet deep three stories in height and the style of architecture appropriate to its sombre uses There is to be a main corridor through the entire depth I of the building and at the rear end I this wIll be arranged on the plan of a chapel for the holding of final services over the dead j Diverging from the main corridor on either side will be several smaei corridors cor-ridors and in the walls of these jylll he arranged the receptacles for the dead Each of those sepulchres will be I of solid concrete four inches thick c = d a trifle larger than the ordinary coflin j Two small doors will open into each receptacle the Inner door to be oft I plate glass and hermetically sealed and the outer door to be of bronze orl or ornate stonework so arranged that it can be suitably Inscribed The re I ceptacles are also to be numbered and complete records of tbosgphtonhed are I to be kept in the offices of the gpmpany f Two unique advantages arc > lone l-one being the absolute security agaisnt i j I grave robbers and the protection afforded af-forded through electrical appliances I against premature burial This apparatus 1 ap-paratus is to be attached to each body i I and the smallest disturbance will cause 1 it to sound an alarm on an indicator which will show the sepulchre from which the alarm comes To make the mausoleum perfect I from a sanitary standpoint the natural process of decomposition Mil be controlled I con-trolled bjmechanical appliances > The body will lie in the sepulchret hret I months before it is hermetically I sealed Fre h air will enterreacfisSep ulchre through a specially constructed conduit and another will afford egress for the air after it has absorbed the I gases and fluids of the body The latter conduit will lead to a separate sep-arate building where the vitiated air I will pass through a furnace thus being I purified by fire This building will be II j erected in the rear of the mausoleum i and will contain all the machinery for the purpose just described and also for I j electrically lighting the mausoleum l j The cost of interment in I this palaces will be greater than for the ordinary way the prices ranging from about S150 to 15000 esItr is the Intention to I divide certain sections into family groups and as these will have the I choice locations their cost will be proportionately pro-portionately large It might seem that the mausoleum I company ran the risk of financial failure fail-ure but when it is remembered that I 0000 deaths occur annually in the i Greater New York district and the I I number is constantly increasing In I proportion to the extension of the population I pop-ulation it can be seen that the field it appeals to is very large |