Skip to content
MRM Library
Previous sectionFuneral Rites of Japan, INext sectionEditor’s Table: “Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also”

Do It Now

Improvement Era, vol. 6, no. 4, February 1903, p. 304

Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations

304 IMPROVEMENT ERA. home. The coffin containing the body is put into a furnace of lighted wood. The burning lasts for two or three hours, sufficient time to thoroughly consume the corpse. Except a few small splin- ters of bone and teeth, the ashes are the only thing that remains. The cinerary, weighing about four pounds, is placed in an urn, sealed securely, and the name of the deceased engraved on the top. The following day, the relatives, accompanied by a priest and his aco- lytes, go to the crematory, and, upon presentation of the receipt issued the day previous, receive the urn containing the ashes of their dear one. They repair to the cemetery where, after a short reading from the sacred scriptures, dust is returned to dust. Only when the body has been cremated is intramural burial permitted. The charges for cremation are: first class, $5 to $7; second class, $2 to $2.50; third class, $1.20 and $1.50. A good priest, of whom inquiry was once made on this point, said, "Poor folks often come begging to be let off more cheaply, but in these hard times, it is impossible to reduce the charge a single cent." (Concluded in next number.) DO IT NOW. Under every clock in a factory at Cleveland, Ohio, is the motto, "Do it now!" Such a motto, lived up to by everyone would add thousands of good deeds to dail\ happenings, save many firms from bankruptcy, paint hundreds of pictures only dreamed of, and straighten our, half the tangles of our complicated social life. The habit of putting off disagreeable duties is responsible for much needless unhappiness, for these bugbears weigh on the mind and prevent the satisfied content that comes from duty well performed. Mos' tasks promptly undertaken prove less difficult than we an- ticipated, and the joy of accomplishment often compensates for any hardship experienced. Don't get to be known for unfulfilled good intentions. Good intentions carried out become the good deeds that make men useful, loved, and famous. Doing things, rather than just i-lanning them, makes all the difference between success and failure.-- Success.