road, next in turn, you enlist in a sausage- 
eating race. The sausages taste so good, 
you eat and you eat, and, by and by, you 
are winner of another coupon, to be re- 
deemed with a prize at the stand. 
That over with, you step across tlie 
grass to where men and boys are clustered 
thick. A father-and-son race is in pro- 
gress here — the men racing with their 
hoys on their backs. 
Nearby is the wheel-barrow race — the 
course enroped and then held by more 
J'llEE DRINKS. 
The Color 
Editor Legal Department : Can a ceme- 
tery which is operated by a stock com- 
pany prohibit the burial of a colored per- 
son? Would such a cemetery be obliged 
to sell a single grave to a colored per- 
son? — W. J., Mich. 
From the court decisions referred to 
below', I conclude that it is now a fairly 
well settled rule of law that a cemetery- 
company or association may refuse to sell 
a lot or grave for the interment of a col- 
ored person, especially where there is a 
by-law of the company or association to 
that effect ; but that the right of a colored 
person already an owner of a lot in a 
cemetery cannot be affected by a new rule 
adopted after his purchase of the lot. 
There is no law in Michigan to call for 
a different conclusion reached by the Su- 
preme Court of Illinois under the laws of 
the latter state. 
In the Illinois case (People vs. Forest 
Home Cemetery Co., 258 Illinois Reports, 
3()), it was decided that a cemetery com- 
pany which has no power to condemn land 
and no monopoly of the burial places in 
the vicinity is not such a public corpora- 
tion as is required to sell lots to all per- 
sons who may apply therefor, and that 
such a company may make and enforce a 
rule prohibiting the future sale of lots to 
colored persons for burial purposes. 
Pmt the decision intimates that where a 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
lines of Boy Scouts. One boy in each 
racing team is the “barrow” and goes down 
on his hands ; the other boy holds him by 
the legs. The crowd fairly- roars in de- 
light. A first, a second, third, fourth, fifth 
prize are given each time. 
A local councilman sounds the call to 
each event with his megaphone, and you’d 
like to have a hand in them all. 
The big watermelon contest is staged 
on a long series of trestle-boards, where 
slices of scarlet melon are displayed and 
children take place at each side, hands be- 
hind. At signal all must eat — squarely 
down to the rind ; to those first finished 
goes the prize. It's really wonderful how 
quickly a boy can eat a melon at such 
time; the little black boys especially. 
Farther dow-n on a roped-in section of 
the drive they are having a one-legged 
race — each hoy holding one of his legs in 
his hand, while he hops down the course. 
On your w-ay down the course you catch 
sight of still another merry bout in prog- 
ress — a pie-eating contest. 
A beauty contest is the final event of the 
day, and toward the site of it young and 
old go. It's fun to see the people elect — 
by voice — the most popular beauty shown ; 
it reminds of the folk-moots of old. 
By- that time, however, the crowds be- 
gin scattering. People have arranged lit- 
Line at 
state law confers the right upon a ceme- 
tery company- to condemn land it becomes 
a public service corporation in the sense 
that it may not discriminate along racial 
lines ; and it is also intimated that such a 
discrimination might be prevented in a 
case where the particular cemetery- has a 
monopoly of burials in the locality. 
The Illinois suit was brought on behalf 
of one Gaskill to compel defendant ceme- 
tery company to permit burial of Mrs. Gas- 
kill’s body on payment of the company’s 
proper charges, but both the trial court 
and the Supreme Court, on appeal, decided 
that a previously established rule of the 
company- against sale of lots for burial of 
colored persons was valid, and that the 
company- was therefore within its legal 
rights in refusing to sell grave space to 
Gaskill. 
In passing, it is noteworthy that the rule 
in question saved the rights of colored 
persons owning lots at the time the rule 
was adopted, and of their heirs, to use such 
lots for burial purposes. 
“Corporations organized to serve the 
public generally, such as those which fur- 
nish water, gas or electric lights in cities, 
cannot select their patrons, but must fur- 
nish accommodations to all who apply, on 
equal terms and at reasonable rates,” said 
the Illinois Supreme Court in the cited 
case. “As to such corporations there is 
tie private supper parties — little revels of 
their own in the parks — and are off to 
these. Autos In- the hundred, pedestrians 
by the thousands, begin to get under way. 
They look like so many big, white flowers 
on the grass — the men in shirt-waists, the 
women in summer dresses — as they scatter 
on the green hills. 
The public side of the big picnic is over; 
hut already folks are looking forward to 
next year. 
Felix J. Koch. 
“F.tTHEIR AND SON" RACE. 
the Grave 
the additional reason that they have ex- 
clusive control of the supply and those 
whom they refuse to serve cannot be 
served at all, which impresses the prop- 
erty with a public interest. One reason for 
determining that the property is affected 
with a public interest and devoted to a 
public use is that the corporation may exer- 
cise the sovereign power of eminent do- 
main [condemnation], which can only be 
granted to a corporation for a public use. 
* * * None of these considerations ap- 
ply- to the Forest Home Cemetery Com- 
pany. There is no provision of its charter 
or rule of public policy declared by any 
authority- competent to make known or es- 
tablish such policy, requiring it to admit 
for burial all persons who may apply for 
the privilege. There is no element of mo- 
nopoly, since it does not control all burial 
places in the vicinity of Chicago and the 
community at large is not affected so as 
to impress its property- with a public in- 
terest.’’ 
Plaintiff also unsuccessfully sought to 
show that the cemetery- was a public serv- 
ice corporation, within the rule requiring 
all such persons to serve the public gen- 
erally, because the cemetery- property was 
exempt from taxation, but the court held 
that this fact did not fix the character of 
the corporation. 
Another point raised by plaintiff and the 
