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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 1900)
Che Conservative. VOL. II. NEBRASKA CITY , NEB. , THURSDAY , JANUARY n , 1900. NO. 27. PUBLISHED WKEKLY. OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK. .T. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR. A JOURNAL DKVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION OP POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS. CIRCULATION THIS WEEK 7,125 COPIES. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. One dollar and u half pur year , in advance , postpaid , to any part of the United States or Canada. Remittances made payable to The Morton Printing Company. Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska City , Neb. Advertising Rates made known upon appli cation. Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City , Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 20th , 1808. CIIEMATION. EDITOR OF THE CONSERVATIVE : Nebraska Oity , Neb. Dear Sir : You print December 21st : "Nebraska Oity is old enough , largo enough and wise enough to calmly dis cuss the propriety of building a crema torium. " That is true of every city of like size. To discuss the immeasurably better plan of burning our dead than the horrible practice of burying them. There is not a single valid argument or reason in favor of earth burial. There is no argument of any kind against cremation. But the building of a crematorium ? What does it involve ? What is the cost , not only in money , but in self-sacrifice ? And what the rewards ? The Le Moyne building , the first erected in the United States , at Washington , Peuu. , cost $3,000. A large endowment was left for its care and use and in no case has any charge been made or allowed , or ever will be. That at St. Paul cost $15,000 , Davenport $20,000 , Chicago $25,000 , etc. And each place requires the constant attention of a skilled person to care for the property and conduct the incineration. It in volves everywhere what pioneer reform ers have ever met , large sacrifice of time and money and watchfulness , and in this instance a degree of obloquy , and the charge of being a crank or fool. The rewards are not in getting paid , erin in thanks , or in adding to the reputation , but in the proud consciousness of right- thinking and right-doing and the firm conviction that in time cremation will be the universal custom. The promise of the reword is of slow progress and of slight accelerated pace. To illustrate how needful it is "to dis cuss the propriety of building a crema torium" without doing it a few figures are given : Out of 1,000,000 detid in 1898 in the United States there wore less than 1,000 cremations. In Boston 1(57 ( were cremated out of 11,000 deaths. At St. Paul , in two years ending Oct. ' 97 , there were 84 cremations only. At St. Louis about 500 in ton years. From this city one in two years with 840 deaths. And here exists the beginning of an organization with 85 names , after two years of quiet , calm discussion in the papers and a discourse for and against it. Wo could build a crema torium here ; there is no prospect of paying expenses of its maintenance ; the spirit of the public is not moved in favor of it. If the 200 who die here yearly were all to be cremated then it would meet expenses ; but so long as the present proportion of one cremation to 1,000 earth burials obtains , we who promote it umst rely on the neighboring cities. It is bound to como 1 New York City must provide for 70,000 dead each year and that means 17 acres of ground and 4,000 on the acre. 800,000 have been buried in Pere La Chaise cemetery in the last century and $80,000,000 ex pended to beautify the place. In the catacombs of Paris the abandoned stone quarries hold the bones of more than 8,000,000 dead , unknown , forgotten , the overflow from the cemeteries. It is horrible ! The four crematories in Pore La Chaise , whose fires never go out , are educating the French. Those who prefer cremation are the wise ones the gifted ones. A few names of national fame are given : Baron de Palm , president of the Theosophical - sophical Society ; Dr. F. Julius Le Moyue , author and orator ; Edward Bellamy , author of "Looking Back ward , " etc ; Sam'l. W. Gale , merchant prince of New York ; Miss Frances E. Willard , President of Woman's Chris tian Temperance Union ; Prof. Samuel D. Gross , greatest of American surgeons , authors and teachers , in his day ; Cap tain Gridley of the warship Olympia ; Anton Seidl , the musical conductor ; Sherman Hoar , leader of the young democracy of Massachusetts ; Miss Kate Field , authoress and editress ; Colonel George E. Warring , chief of sanitation in Havana ; Emma Abbott , the almost divine prima-donna ; Col. Robert G. Ingersoll , orator , author , thinker ; Prof. William Pepper , known in every medi- cal school in the world ; Duke of West minster , Woking , England , December 24 , 180 ! ) , etc. , etc. And with all these examples the growth of cremation is very slow ; yet there is a growth and its calm discussion will quicken it more and more. In an effort to calmly discuss crema tion , five classes will bo met ; briefly catalogued and without any attempt at illustration there are : 1st. Those who regard it un-Ohristian , heathenish. 2d. Those indifferent as to what becomes of the body. 8d. Those who believe it n wise sanitary method but not applied to their own bodies. 4th. Those who think they believe in the "resurrection of the body. " 5th. The believer in cremation for himself , who regards it as the reverent , wholesome , economical , rational way of disposing of the dead. Respectfully , , T. M. SHAFFER. KEOKUK , la. , Dec. 81 , 1899. The best and IDKXTITY. most useful citi zenship is that which identifies itself with the intellectual advancement and the material development of the com munity. The consciousness of constant endeavor to make your home better , more attractive and beautiful is a con dition precedent to that citizenship which founds , builds up and per petuates. Young men and women who wish tranquillity and contentment in their old age must identify themselves with a locality , a home , a community , by striv ing to achieve , to acquire. Having suc cessfully accomplished identification , with the useful and the beautiful in enterprise , during early and middle life , their autumn days when gray hairs and dimmed eyes signal for the approaching preaching end of the play will be full of satisfactions and sunshine , like an Indian summer. "It is our bounden duty to stimulate commerce and agriculture in Porto Rico , and that can hardly be done with out modifying the tobacco tariff as applied to that island , although the middle-aged infant industry of Con necticut-grown tobacco may object , " the Post-Standard . de Syracuse - ( rep. ) clares. "And there are other islands and products to be thought of. "