Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1875 — Osier Coffins. [ARTICLE]

Osier Coffins.

The Saturday Review gives the following description of the latest London sensation: “ The waning amusements 6f the season have received an interesting addition in the exhibition of coffins at the Duke of Sutherland’s. There are few things which in these days have escaped being made the subject of a competitive display, but it has never before occurred to anyone, as far as we are aware, to ask people to spend a summer afternoon looking at coffins and considering how they would like to be buried. Yet none of the shows of the year have proved more attractive than this one. On Thursday afternoon the umbrella-tents at Prince’s were deserted, and the park passed by, while the fashionable world crowded the terrace at Stafford House, engaged in an inspection of various illustrations of the new form of sepulture invented or recommended* by Mr. Seymour Haden, and in discussing its sanitary, aesthetic and other advantages. The bright and animated aspect of the company and the cheerful and even lively tone of the conversation which prevailed would, perhaps, scarcely have suggested to an unprepared observer the nature of the subject which had brought the sprightly throng together; but some allowance may be made for the gratification of discovering a novel topic of fashionable gossip. After all, the bills of mortality are not likely to be increased by a change in a method of burial, and, on the other hand, there is at least something new to talk about. The skeleton at the feast may be taken as an appropriate symbol of the new phase of social excitement. The ladies, wheff they retire to the drawing-room, will exchange views as to the last sweet things in shrouds or coffins, while the gentlemen below will occupy themselves over their wine with cheerful dissertations on the relative merits of cremation gnd interment. It would appear that the painful sensitiveness on the subject of mortality which at one period afflicted the French court, so that no reference to it was tolerated, has passed away from good society in England at the present day. The question of the nicest way of being buried is discussed with perfect frankness and equanimity and a considerable part of life promises to be spent on the consideration of what is the most pictOresque and poetical fashion of decay. “ The specimens of coffins exhibited at Stafford House are about a dozen in number, and notice is given that they are merely suggestive and do not practically fulfill all the conditions essential to their principal use. They are all made of osiers, either white or stained, and jn shape are similar to an ordinary coffin except that they are rounded at the ends. They have, in fact, very much the appearance of extra-sized bassinets for very large babies. Some are of a perfectly plain character and are recommended as ‘ inexpensive,’ while others are of a more ornamental character, with stripes of blue or black and gold. But of course they are all much less costly than the boxes in present use, though this is a consideration which to most people will appear comparatively immaterial in such a case. The question is not one of expense but of decency and sanitary wholesomeness. A double basket is provided for cases in which charcoal is required, the powdered dust being placed in the interval—from two to three inches—between the two baskets. In most of the examples the meshes of the wicker-work are too close for the conditions of speedy disintegration; and thus one of the practical difficulties of the experiment is how to make the coffins sufficiently open for this purpose while at the same time strong and capable of retaining a proper hold of their contents. The solution of the problem may possibly be found in the use of a temporary outer covering while the body remains in the house, which will be removed when it is deposited in the earth. No attempt was made on this occasion to illustrate the manner of filling up the baskets with ferns, lichens, mosses, fragrant shrubs, evergreens, and so on, as proposed by Mr. Haden, but there were a couple of coffins in which the wicker was lined inside with a surface covering of moss, and which certainly looked snugger, as a lady observed, than the naked wicker-work, which rather suggested cool summer wear. It is admitted that in special cases linings of some imperishable material for a few inches upward from the bottom will be necessary, and in other cases modifications of the ordinary form, in order to insure a complete inclosure of the body in wool, charcoal or other disinfectants. In appearance the wicker coffins when filled up with foliage must, we should think, be less gloomy and repulsive than the wooden ones; and to some minds there may perhaps be a sentimental feeling of relief in the idea that screwing down is dispensed with. “On the whole it may be supposed that anyone, judging by his feelings when alive, might prefer, as a matter of taste, to be lightly swathed in herbs and osiers rather than screwed down roughly in a hard, tight box; but, after all, the question of the fittest mode of interment concerns the survivors rather than the departed one, and it is necessary to recognize at the outset that, where there is anything like natural feeling, it is hopeless to think of reconciling the misery of the event with any kind of aesthetic enjoyment,” i \