THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
m ILlUSIfUTEII IMTIlt jomil ISIIlItD T1 Tl! IlIEIItSr tf EtMETESItS 
]R. J". I-I AIOHT. 
334 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO. 
Subscription fi.oo a Year in Advance. Foreign Subscription $1.15. 
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VoL. III. CHICAGO, MAY, 1893. No. 3. 
CONTENTS. 
CEMETERY GARDENING-0. C. Simoniis 25 
RIGHT OF WIDOW TO CONTROL BURIAL OF DE- 
CEASED HUSBAND 28 
RULES AND REGULATIONS 29 
VASES AND ViKHS-Edgar Sanders 3o 
WOKING CREMATORIUM 3i 
THE SPRINGBANK CEMETERY, ABERDEEN .82 
TRIMMING GRAVES-C. McArthur 32 
CONVEYING LOTS 32 
SUGGESTIONS TO LOT OWNERS 33 
GOD’S ACRE-//. W. Longfellow 33 
CEMETERY NOTES 34 
ROCK GARDENS— T. 35 
PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT 36 
THE METRIC SYSTEM in 
Cemetery Gardening. 
Probably all will agree that the characteristic 
features of a cemetery should be seclusion, quietness 
and beauty, and in designing cemeteries the land- 
scape gardener seeks to secure these effects. It is 
desirable in the first place to separate the place where 
we lay our dead from the buildings and busy thor- 
oughfares of the living. A suitable location helps 
to do this, but after a site is chosen nothing will add 
to the seclusion so much as an irregular belt of plant- 
ing along the boundaries. A stone wall or a fence 
gives a stiff, formal line, and conveys the informa- 
tion that this line is the boundary of the cemetery. 
A hedge does the same thing, and, moreover, a 
hedge must be trimmed. With one of these bound- 
aries we feel our limitations. We know that beyond 
these there is a different world, and the unity of ef- 
fect is broken; but with an irregular belt of trees 
and shrubs along the boundary, running up and form- 
ing the sky line at one place, dropping to show a 
distant city or village, a valley, a mountain or a 
water view at another, and at all points shutting out 
incongruous objects near at hand, we feel that there is 
no boundary. The distant view, the sky, and all that 
is seen from the grounds we wish to make beautiful, 
belong to these grounds. There may be a fence as 
a partial protection from intruders, but this should 
be enclosed and hidden by the boundary of planting. 
In addition to separation from the outside world, it 
is desirable in large cemeteries to hide one part from 
another. Those who are suffering from a great grief 
like to be alone. The contour of the land some- 
times gives this seclusion. Shrubbery is very use- 
ful for this purpose, and so are evergreens, where 
there is room for them. 
Seclusion helps to give quietness, but there is a 
difference between the two effects. The pretentious 
stone archways so often seen at the entrance gates 
of cemeteries help to giv^e seclusion, but they dis- 
turb the effect of quietness and repose which we seek, 
and so it seems - to me they are in poor taste, no 
matter how good their proportions or how carefully 
they are designed. The roads, the walks and the 
fences, which used to be so common in cemeteries, 
tend to destroy the restfulness that should prevail. 
So, also, do extensive flower-beds and even the 
monuments and headstones. Mr. Strauch reduced 
the number of driveways to those actually required; 
he replaced the gravel walks with grass walks, that 
formed part of a continuous lawn. He abolished 
the use of fences, railings, chains and coping about 
individual lots. He was the first to make a ceme- 
tery even more beautiful than a park. 
Modesty and simplicity are never more appro- 
priate than when they help to give character to our 
final resting places, which should be restful not only 
to the dead but to the eyes of the living. Glaring 
white stones, challenging the attention of all passers- 
by, are therefore especially bad. The stone struct- 
ures so often erected in cemeteries by lot-owners 
or their families as monuments to themselves not 
only destroy the quiet, simple effect which should 
prevail, but they seem inappropriate in every way. 
They call attention to the names they bear, and the 
men those names represent, in a bold, conceited 
manner. In a large majority of cases they are ugly 
in design. They do not e.xtend one’s fame or repu- 
tation. They are intended to last for all time, but 
who will care for them at the end of a hundred years ? 
Of what advantage will they be to this or any other 
generation ? 
The great difficulty in making burial grounds 
beautiful has been their division into small lots, and 
the individual ownership of these lots, with the privi- 
lege of erecting or placing on them any structure 
which fancy may dictate. The most beautiful and 
peaceful spot in the world might be selected for 
