Robert Hemingray

MEMORIAL POTTERY.

An item from Muncie, Ind., announces that the employees of the Hemingray Glass Works, in that city, have made a series of watch charms of glass from the bones of Mr. Robert Hemingray's favorite dog, "Rodger," who died a little while ago at the age of twenty years. It may not be too gruesome to state that we have long had in mind permanent memorial tablets made from the bones of departed friends and relatives. A translucent porcelain not unlike English china could be made, and, either cast or pressed into a mold of plaster, might easily be formed into a beautiful vase which would take the place of incinerary urns now used to hold the ashes of those bodies now subject to cremation. To go a step further, a photographic negative of the deceased could be developed on bi-chromated gelatine, which, after being swelled, would give a plaster mold of the features in low relief. The clay could then be cast in slip form, and a perfect portrait obtained, which under a colored glaze, or as a porcelain transparency, would reveal the face of the deceased made from all that remains of mortal man after the body has passed through the fires of the cremating furnace. To the reasoning mind this idea is much more pleasant and agreeable to contemplate than the present method of disposing of the dead by burial in the earth, and as it is perfectly feasible there is a probability that some day it will be carried into effect.

That this idea of memorial pottery is not entirely a new one is shown by the following lines:

On an old woman who kept a pottery shop in Chester, England.

"Beneath these stones lies old Katherine Gray,

Changed from a busy life to lifeless clay;

By earth and clay she got her pelf.

But now is turned to earth herself.

Ye weeping friends, let me advise:

Abate your grief and dry your eyes,

For what avails a flood of tears?

Who knows that in a run of years,

In some tall pitcher or bread pan,

She in her shop may be again?"