Cremation In South Carolina

A strange and solemu event haa rocently occurred in tbis county, which carries the mina back to tbose tuicient days wlien the remains of the dead were disposed of by cincration. The subject of tkis remarkable funeral ceremony was Mr. Henry JJerry, an aged and a highly respectable citizen of this county, whose rare tact, industry and economy, honcstJy exereised, enabled him to amass a very large property. Many years ago, in attemptiug to remove the remains of a belovod relative from the spot where they had lain f or some time, he encountered a sight which created in his rnind an unconquerable aversión to being buried, and to such an extent did this prejudiee possess him in after life that he enjoined it upon his heirs, on pain of disinheriting them, to see that his body was burned after death. He was careful to desígnate the spot where the ceremony should take place, and the lightwood trees that should be nsed as fuel on the occasion. The old gentleman, after lingering for many months, died on Sunday, the 9th inst., and on the following Tuesday his strange desire respecting the disposition of his remaius was carried out to the letter. The funeral service of the church of which he had once been a rncmber was read, and an appropriate discourse delivered by the pastor on the Monday evening previous. The next morning his remains, incased in nothing but a square box, which, by his directions, had been handsomely lined inside and incased outside with black velvet, and ornamented with trimmings, were borne to the spot which he himself had selected for the purpose. Here three large lightwood logs, each nearly two feet in diameter, cut from the very same trees he had indicated, were placed alongside on the ground, and upon these loga the box was deposited. Lightwood pieces of sufficient length and thickness were then piled upon the logs and around the cofiïn until the latter was hidden from view. The lightwood was then piled in cross layers until the pyre reached a height of seven or eight feet. A torch was then applied at different corners of the pile, and in a few minutes the raging firo resembled the burning of a large building, the flamea leaping many feet in the air, and sending hundreds of feet higher a vast column of pitch-black smoke that was seen for many miles around. It is said that the fire died out without entirely consuming the remains, and had to be replenished before the cremation was complete. It was the old gentleman's express desire that his ashes should disappear amid the flame and smoke, or be mingled with the soil underneath the pyre, and so no precautions were taken to preserve them. The burning began at 8 o'clock in the morning, and was finished in six hours. It was witnessed by upward of a hundred persons. Mr. Berry resided at Berry's Cross Roads, a locality that took its name from him. It is about 14 miles from this place. Thus was the injunction, "Ashes to ashes," carried out under conditions that made it impossible to fulñll the other precepts, " Earth to earth, and dust to dust." - Charleston News and Courier.