Page:Once a Week Volume V.djvu/621

 614 single small room inhabited by a numerous family, and in which all the usual processes of life, as cooking, eating, sleeping, &c., are carried on? The experience of all men who are accustomed to visit the dwellings of the poor will abundantly confirm the terrible stories incorporated in the Report of the Committee as to the results of keeping a corpse above ground under such circumstances. The Colney Hatch Company have endeavoured to deal with this evil by making arrangements at their station in Maiden Lane by which a corpse immediately after death may be removed at a most trifling expense to a reception-room at Maiden Lane to which the friends of the deceased may have access continuously until such time as the remains are removed to their last resting-place. Here precautions are taken, and wiser precautions than could be taken in any private dwelling, to guard against the awful tragedy of a premature interment. In various towns of Germany—notably at Frankfort and at Munich—this system has been found to work well, and to be acceptable to the working classes. The danger, however, of premature interment is exceptional indeed—the real peril is to the living from cohabitation with the dead.

There is no such absolute reluctance, as supposed, amongst the humblest classes of society to part with the remains of their relations and friends. It is the want of money to defray the dues and charges of a funeral which leads in ninety-five per cent. of cases to delay in the burial. The average price of the funeral of an adult is 4l.—of children 30s. This sum must be gathered painfully together before the corpse is removed from the room in which it has been too long retained. Now, in the case of the very humblest and poorest person, the Colney Hatch Company undertakes to receive the body at their station at Maiden Lane, and to keep it there a sufficient time free of charge; to remove it thence to Colney Hatch for 6s., with the addition of a charge of 1s. 6d. a-head for the return-ticket of each mourner. The cost of the common interment, at the lowest rate, is 13s. 6d. Thus the mortal remains of the very humblest workman in London may be decently and reverently moved from the death-bed to the grave at a charge—exclusive of the conveyance of mourners—of 19s. 6d., and, at the same time, all danger of disease to the surviving relations and friends is avoided.

The mortuary is one of the most striking features of the arrangements at the Maiden Lane Station, and well deserves a visit. A portion of the interior is represented in the sketch on next page. The shell or coffin, on arrival at the station, is placed upon a metal chair or plate, and slowly lowered down by an ingenious mechanical arrangement to the table of the mortuary, and then conveyed along rails to the particular spot assigned for its reception. The apartment is well ventilated and illuminated at night, whilst watchers are in attendance to take every needful precaution in cases of suspended animation, should any such occur.

These arrangements have the direct sanction of the Sanitary Commissioners. Should they be found in accordance with the feelings of the working classes, the rate of mortality in London may soon receive a notable diminution.

In fifteen minutes the train—which leaves Maiden Lane—reaches its destination at Colney Hatch, and the tedious and unnecessary ceremony of a lugubrious procession through the streets, or upon the suburban roads, is avoided. At Colney Hatch one hundred and fifty acres of ground have been enclosed and laid out in walks and beds. The features of the surrounding country must be familiar to most Londoners, and it must be a satisfaction to those who, from time to time, may re-visit the graves of those whose remains they have committed to the earth, to find them