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- 
235 
