PARK AND CEMETERY 
221 
erly enclosed. Not until 18(13 did the rep- 
resentatives of the people see fit to exempt 
burial lots for the dead, from taxa- 
tion and attachment, and not until 187(1, 
long after the Civil War. did they, by 
enactment, exempt from attachment, monu- 
ments erected to the memory of the dead, 
and forbid the laying of highways and 
railroads through cemeteries, without the 
consent of the association or general as- 
sembly; however, it appears that the puri- 
tan conscience of the wise ones received a 
flickering of light as early as L8(i3, wdien 
the Legislature passed an act providing 
that proceeds of the sale of l)urial lots were 
to be kept separate from general funds 
and devoted to keeping in order, improving 
and embellishing such burial grounds. 
This was the year that towns were author- 
ized to elect commissioners to have charge 
of the burial grounds, and when they 
authorized towns or its trustees to take and 
hold grants, gifts and bequests for the im- 
provement of burial grounds. Notwith- 
standing this privilege, one is led to l^elieve 
that the grants and gifts were not many, 
and those who bequeathed for that object, 
failed to have their last will and testa- 
ment probated, for the generous and pub- 
lic spirited Legislature of 1882 passed a 
law that provided that when a cemetery 
for any cause, became unsightly, the select- 
men should, on written request of any 
three taxpayers of such town, and within 
ten days from the time of such request, 
cause the weeds or grass to be cut, head- 
stones or monuments to be replaced, or 
other disfigurements removed, and may- 
draw orders on the town treasurer for 
the expenses incurred ; hut the amount 
drawn from the treasury of a town for 
such purpose in any year, shall not exceed 
fifty dollars. And a penalty- of ten dol- 
lars was imposed on selectmen refusing 
to perform this duty. (I ask you, gentle- 
men of experience, to consider taking a 
contract under the provisions of this law-.) 
This Act of 1882 opened the way, twelve 
years later, for the Legislature to pass an 
Act, authorizing towns, by vote, to receive 
and hold money, in trust, for the perpetual 
care of private burial lots in cemeteries 
or elsewhere. This law was strongly op- 
posed in many towns, and some have not 
yet conformed to its provisions. While 
Probate Courts have been authorized since 
1884, to decline to make distribution to 
the heirs of a deceased person until suit- 
able gravestones have been erected at the 
grave of such deceased ; and in the settle- 
ment of insolvent estates, since 1!)(I4, execu- 
tors and administrators have been required 
to pay the expenses of erecting a marker 
or headstone at the gra\ e of the deceased, 
not to exceed twenty-five dollars, if so 
ordered and allowed by the judge of pro- 
bate, it was not until 1912, that probate 
courts w-ere authorized to set aside an 
amount not to exceed $2(1(1.09 from the 
funds of an estate for the perpetual care 
of the burial lot of a deceased person, 
since wdiich date, w-e have seen a marked 
improvement in the care of cemeteries in 
this state. 
We are told that confession is good for 
the soul, therefore, we confess that there 
are some few drawbacks about Vermont, 
as was said by Vermont's Great Comedian, 
"The sleighing gets mighty poor up here 
along toward the latter part of August.” 
,\nd following Nature’s example, it is no 
wonder that our legislature has been a lit- 
tle backward in providing for the care of 
our cemeteries but Vermont is not alone 
in this respect, for I have seen as neg- 
lected cemeteries in states of warmer cli- 
mate : and now, having set our hand to 
the work, the improvement is bound to in- 
crease as the years go by. Sentiment is 
being created for further aid by cities and 
towns and most of our cemeteries are in 
the hands of competent superintendents, 
among whom, our own "HANTON,” is a 
leader, and further progress is assured. 
We honor you, gentlemen, who are hon- 
estly striving to emliellish and make more 
beautiful, the last resting places of our 
loved ones. Your work is of the most hon- 
orable, and 1 assure you that the Pro- 
bate Courts, so far as their jurisdiction 
permits, heartily join hands with you in 
your noble work, which tends to develop 
the high, the noble, the spiritual. We live 
on in this world of struggle and rest, of 
work and pleasure, of hate and love, of 
war and peace, and at last the moulded 
dust is crumbled and would be blown and 
scattered to the four winds and soon no 
more. .Memory of our human form would 
not linger in the minds of the living, were 
it not for the protection and tender care of 
our cemetery superintendents. There is 
no picture we have seen, no landscape 
viewed, which has drawn us nearer to 
our spiritual ideal than that of a well kept 
cemetery. We may erect the most beau- 
tiful monument of the most durable gran- 
ite, hut if that monument is left to be cov- 
ered with weeds and bushes, nourished and 
fertilized by the earthly remains of those 
we called our beloved, that monument l)e- 
comes a hollow- mockery and stands only as 
a monument to the fickleness of pur devo- 
tion. 
Whatever our creed, whatever our belief, 
we all have a longing for the beautiful, 
and the same desire that a .beautiful spot 
he selected for our last, long rest, that 
called forth one of the last recorded ex- 
jtressions of the great Omar Khayyam : 
“My tomb shall be in a spot where the 
north wind may scatter roses over it." 
And again : 
"I sometimes think, that never blows so 
red 
The roses as where some buried Caesar 
bled ; 
That every Hyacinth the garden wears, 
Hropt in her lap from some once lovel\- 
head." 
Co-operation of Cemetery and Monument Dealer 
Address before the Ontario Granite and Marble Dealers' 
Association by Arthur H. Sharpe, Landscape Engineer. 
One of your members recently remarked 
to me, in speaking of the Cemeteries in sev- 
eral districts; “If one wants to judge the 
citizens of a community he should study 
the Cemetery.” That single sentence con- 
tained more truth than whole pages w-hich 
have been written upon cemetery organiza- 
tion and allied trades. Much has been 
learned through the study of burial sites, 
both Ancient and Modern. 
Archeologists in studying the nations 
long dead, laboriously excavate among their 
places of internment and from the dis- 
closures of these, correct information of 
the modes of life, the government, art, 
science, religion, and occupations of the ex- 
tinct nations is secured. Myers writes of 
the Egyptians : "The monuments of Kar- 
nack, built during the reign of the Rameses, 
137(1 B. C., reveal the orders of society to 
include, among others, sacred sculptors, 
masons, and embalmers. The)- believed 
that after having spent three thousand 
years with Osiris, a deity of first impor- 
tance, they would return to earth and re- 
animate the former body. Hence little 
care was bestowed upon the temporary resi- 
dence of the living but the ‘Eternal Homes 
of the Dead’ were fitted up lavishly. The 
tombs w-ere usually cut in the limestone 
cliffs of the western rim of the Nile Valley. 
The sculpture and painting of these tombs 
usually portrayed the occupation of the 
deceased." 
Another form of internment of which 
more has been w-ritten is typified by the 
pyramids, the burial monuments of the 
rulers of this same nation. Myers has also 
given us a good description of these in the 
following ; “The simple and durable char- 
acter of pyramidal structures led to the 
adoption of this type of memorial by prim- 
itive builders in all parts of the world — 
Mexico, China, India, Chaldea — but the 
enormous structures of this nature still 
standing in the Nile Valley far surpass all 
other edifices of the same kind, and are the 
most wonderful and venerable monuments 
that have been preserved to us from the 
early races. They date from the fourth 
Dynasty (about 2700 B. C.), and mark not 
