PARK AND CEMETERY, 
25 
CEMETERY LAW 
A bill has been introduced into the Minnesota legislature 
by James Handlan, of St. Paul, which makes it unlawful for 
any one to use any piece of land within the corporate limits 
of a city of 50,000 or more as a cemetery unless it is platted 
and dedicated as a cemetery under the laws of the state. A 
fine of $100 or ninety days’ imprisonment is provided. 
* * 
A bill has been introduced into the Connecticut legislature 
permitting any cemetery association to set aside from its sur- 
plus funds a sum not to exced $300,000, as a special fund to 
remain as such forever, the income received from which shall 
be used for the care and management of the cemetery. The 
fund shall be invested as by law required for the investment 
of trust funds. 
^ ^ ^ 
In the case of McCann et al. vs. .Trustees of Mt. Gilead 
Cemetery, the Supreme Court of Indiana decided that the 
statute providing for enjoining the construction of a rail- 
road on any ground held, used, or occupied as ' a cemetery, 
or held for cemetery purposes, protects not only that part of 
the cemetery where there are graves, but includes all rea- 
sonable additions, even though they are . not occupied by 
graves. 
♦ ♦ * 
The city of Norfolk, Va., has been notified of an impend- 
ing damage suit in the sum of $30,000, which will be filed in a 
short time on account of alleged damage to property by the 
location of Evergreen Cemetery near it. The notice reads 
as follows: “Please take notice that Miss Margaret L. Watts 
looks to the city of Norfolk in the sum of $30,000 for damages 
to her land by virtue of the recent establishment of Ever- 
green Cemetery adjacent thereto, in Norfolk county, and un- 
less the said compensation is rendered her, she will at once 
enter suit against the city of Norfolk therefor. M. W. Tal- 
bot, Attorney for Miss Margaret Watts.” 
* J{< 
Bill No. 114, passed at the last session of the Vermont 
legislature as an amendment to the statute relating to appeals 
in proceedings to condemn lands for burial grounds, pro- 
vides that if the owner of land condemned for cemetery 
purposes is dissatisfied with the damages he may petition 
the County Court in the same manner as in case of the 
laying out a highway by the selectmen. 
The Vermont legislature also passed the following act as 
No. 115: 
Section 1. When private burial grounds become unsightly 
for any cause, or when headstones or monuments have been 
displaced, the selectmen or cemetery commissioners having 
charge of the public cemeteries in the town where such bur- 
ial ground is located, on written request of three taxpayers 
of such town, shall forthwith cause a notice to be published 
for three weeks successively in some newspaper circulating 
therein calling upon any person interested in such burial 
ground to cause the same to be put in proper condition with- 
in three months from the date of such notice. At the expir- 
ation of such time if such demand is not complied with, the 
selectmen or cemetery commissioners shall proceed as if such 
grounds were public burial places. 
* * * 
Power of Condemnation 
The burial or other safe disposition of the dead, the supreme 
court of errors of Connecticut says (Starr Burying Ground 
Association vs. North Lane Cemetery Association, 58 Atlantic 
Reporter, 467) is a necessity essential to the preservation of 
the health of the living. The private use of land for this 
purpose by a private corporation may be of public convenience 
and necessity, as that term is sometimes used, although not 
strictly a public use justifying condemnation of land for that 
purpose. But where land is appropriated for a burying ground 
by a town or other municipal corporation, or by owners of the 
land, being a voluntary association or private corporation, and 
the land so appropriated is open, under reasonable regula- 
tions, to the use of the public for the burial of the dead, it 
may become a public burial ground, and its use a public use, 
and the legislature may lawfully condemn land for that public 
use. Unless in certain private charters, the state [of Con- 
necticut] has not seen fit to authorize condemnation of land 
for this public use, except in cases where the land is needed 
for the enlargement of an existing burying ground. 
Land held and used for a public use, when needed for a dif- 
ferent or inconsistent public use, may be condemned for the 
latter use ; but a statute authorizing the condemnation of land 
will not be construed as applying to land already devoted to 
public use, unless such application is clearly covered by the 
statute. For the same reason, land acquired for a public use, 
when, on account of its particular ownership, it does not at 
all or effectually serve that use, may be condemned 
ABOLITION OF THE SUNDAY FUNERAL 
A petition to abolish Sunday funerals and burials, except 
in cases of necessity, signed by the majority of the Protes- 
tant ministers of Sioux City and South Sioux City, la., all 
of the local undertakers and several liverymen, has been 
presented to the organizations controlling the Logan Park 
and Floyd cemeteries by the committee appointed by the 
Ministerial Association some time ago. The question now 
rests with the public grounds committee of the city council 
and the association, which controls the Floyd Cemetery, the 
Logan Park Association having indicated it is ready to agree 
with the majority. Four reasons are given by the committee 
why the Sunday funerals should be abolished : First, that 
Sunday is a day of rest and worship, and funerals necessi- 
tate labor which should be done on some other day; second, 
observation shows that on an average from fifteen to twenty 
men are employed to conduct a funeral, and in many cases a 
far greater number. In one cemetery alone, they say, there 
have been on an average of three funerals a Sunday for the 
past year, thus employing a large number of men. As a 
third reason they assert Sunday funerals tend to ostentation 
and display, which is contrary to the spirit of the occasion ; 
fourth, that Sunday funerals deprive many from attending 
public worship and are detrimental to the regular church ser- 
vices. 
The Board of Directors of the Spring Grove cemetery, Cin- 
cinnati, O., in deference to an almost universal request from 
ministers of the various churches, physicians, humanitarian 
and other societies, have decided that after April 1 no more 
Sunday interments in Spring Grove will be permitted. Tlie 
only exception to the new regulation will be in cases of 
death from contagious diseases and which, under the laws of 
the Board of Health, require immediate interment. 
The ministers have united with the Livery Stable Keepers 
and Undertakers’ Association, of East St. Louis, 111., in cn 
deavoring to discourage Sunday funerals. The associatioii 
has taken the method of making a reduction of $15 in its 
services for week day funerals, the price for Sunday funer- 
als remaining the same. 
