Cemeteries 



that is desired, and with the spirit in which 

 a cemetery is properly visited. Owners 

 of lots should not be permitted to surround 

 them with railings : they are palpably use- 

 less, they are glaringly hurtful to peace and 

 unity of aspect, they serve merely to ac- 

 centuate the fact of proprietorship, and 

 nothing could be in worse taste than such 

 accentuation in such a place. 



Furthermore, owners should be encouraged 

 to make their monuments, not merely as ar- 

 tistic, but also as simple and unobtrusive, as 

 possible. Only a great man, one to whose 

 grave strangers are likely to come as pil- 

 grims, is entitled to a conspicuous tomb. 

 Even he does not require it, and the usual 

 tenant of a grave requires no more than a 

 sign to show that a grave is here, and to tell 

 whose grave it is. The best tombstone in 

 a rural cemetery is the one which, in form 

 and color, is least strikingly apparent. 

 Therefore a flat slab is better than a vertical 

 stone or shaft, and gray slate or granite is 

 a good material, red granite is a poor ma- 

 terial, and the very worst of all is our 

 favorite white marble. But the ideal mon- 



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