PARK AND C EM ET ER Y. 
312 
ent and E. F. Endicott is secretary. 
The annual report of the Green-Wood 
Cemetery, Brooklyn, N. Y., gives total 
expenditures as $278,482. The receipts 
for the sale of lots were $147,398.90. 
The trust fund deposits for special and 
perpetual care were $6.5,146.50, increas- 
ing this fund to $1,031,134.52. The gen-- 
eral fund for the improvement and per- 
manent care of the cemetery has been in- 
creased by $196,128.40 and now amounts 
to $3,575,331.53. W. C. Grassau is su- 
perintendent. 
Brookville Cemetery, Brookville, Pa., 
has made many substantial improve- 
A new rule of the Texas state board 
of health, effective April 1, requires a 
depth of not less than five feet for all 
adult graves and not less than four feet 
for all children under 10 years of age 
not dying from some contagious disease. 
* * Jf: 
Judge Hermann Brumback in the cir- 
cuit court at Kansas City, Mo., has 
decided that special sewer tax bills can- 
not be collected against a cemetery. W. 
C. Mullins, a contractor, had tax bills 
for $19,129.99 against Mount St. Mary’s 
Cemetery. Judge Brumback said that 
the bills could not be collected because 
the law prohibits the sale of a cemetery 
and, therefore, makes it execution 
proof. 
% * 
No more striking illustration of the 
value of the lowering device in ceme- 
tery use can be found than when acci- 
dental causes re- 
quire the burial of 
a number of bodies 
simultaneously. The 
awful disaster at 
Collinwood, Ohio, 
when over 150 lives 
were lost in the 
public school fire, 
rendered it neces- 
sary to bury the un- 
identified victims, 
about twenty in 
number, side by 
side, at one time. 
Our illustration 
shows the lowering 
devices in opera- 
tion, and gives some 
idea of the service 
they rendered, as 
well as a glimpse of 
one of the saddest 
ments during the year. A new store- 
house was built, and a soldiers’ monu- 
ment erected in the center of the 
grounds. Space has also been reserved 
for a fountain and an active season of 
work is planned for this year. The 
cemetery was incorporated in 1863, the 
original tract including 14 acres, which 
has been added to from time to time 
through the efforts of Mr. Wm. Dickey, 
the only one of the original incorpora- 
tors living. W. H. Gray is president, 
Joseph Henderson, treasurer, and George 
W. Heber, secretary and general man- 
of human ceremonies. The Bomgard- 
ner lowering devices were used. 
5t« * * 
Morris Kortz has filed suit against the 
Rose Hill Cemetery Association at 
Denver, asking $5,000 damages because 
his wife’s body was removed from the 
family burial 'plot without his knowl- 
edge and consent. 
* * * 
The county board of equalization at 
St. Joseph, Mo., has decided to restore 
to the assessment rolls of the county the 
personal property of the Mount Mora 
Cemetery Association, which, so far as 
the records show, has never been taxed. 
In reaching this decision, the board fol- 
lowed the city assessor, who recently 
won a suit against the association in 
the state supreme court. In the city’s 
case it was contended by the defendants 
that the property of a cemetery associa- 
tion is not subject to taxation, but the 
supreme court held to the contrary. 
Expressing the opinion that seven 
cemeteries are sufficient for one town- 
ship, and that the township was being 
used to too great an extent as a sepul- 
chre for Philadelphia’s dead, the Board 
of Commissioners of Upper Darby 
township. Pa., adopted a resolution, at 
the suggestion of the Board of Health, 
prohibiting any more burial grounds or 
the enlargement of any of the present 
cemeteries. A resolution was also 
adopted compelling all undertakers and 
funeral directors to apy a tax of $1 on 
each body interred in either of the 
seven cemeteries. 
-t * * 
As was noted in this department last 
month, the new city charter of Roch- 
ester, N. Y., places employees of Mount 
Hope Cemetery under civil service, and 
otherwise l)rings the cemetery more 
directly under city control. The sec- 
tion providing for the deposit of money 
for perpetual care of lots is somewhat 
different from the former provision and 
contains this clause : “'I'he city is in no 
event liable to repay the principal paid 
into the Mount Hope perpetual con- 
tract fund." Superintendent John W. 
Keller writes as follows about the new 
regime: "Previous to my administration 
there was practically no permanent pro- 
visions made for receiving such moneys, 
but this section has been known how- 
ever, as one of our rules for the past 
nine years, or during my administration. 
The corporation counsel in framing the 
‘new charter' kept in touch with the 
heads of all departments, so that really 
nothing objectionable went into the 
charter as far as Mount Hope Commis- 
sion is concerned. The fact of the 
(Continued on page XIX.) 
CASKETS LOWERED SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH LOWERING DEVICES. 
Interment of Unidentified Dead at Collinwood Disaster. 
ager. 
