THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
93 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
The city council of San Antonio, Texas, are 
considering the purchase of 500 acres of land for 
cemetery purposes. 
* * * 
I am very much interested in aquatics and think 
that as a class such plants are worthy of more atten- 
tion in cemeteries. — PVin. Stone, Lynn, Mass. 
* * 
Woodlawn cemetery Winona, Minn., Harleigh 
at Camden, N. J., and Forest Hills at Boston, have 
materially increased the capacity of their green- 
houses this season. 
* * * 
The Laurel Hill Cemetery Association at San 
Francisco are erecting a spacious building 35 x/o 
feet, to be used as offices, reception rooms and 
superintendent’s residence. The building is of brick 
with light stone trimmings and elaborate interior 
finish. It will cost about $15,000. 
» * * 
Two workmen at Greenwood Cemetery, Brook- 
lyn, quarreled over a trifling remark and fought 
with sickles. One of the men was nearly decap- 
itated and otherwise horribly mutilated. The other 
escaped with but few injuries and was imprisoned 
awaiting the result of his victim’s injuries. 
* Hi Hi 
On a plat sixty feet in diameter in the Brock- 
port (N. Y.) Rural Cemetery, a soldiers’ memorial 
of unique design is now in course of construction. 
It will be in the form of a circular tower ten feet in 
height, built of rock faced stone. Memorial tablets 
will be placed on the inner walls and a spiral stair- 
way leads to the top of the tower. The plat is en- 
circled by a twenty-foot drive and the greensward 
between it and the tower will probably be used for 
statues, cannon, etc. 
* * * 
A Boston paper says that the grave of Phillips 
Brooks at Mt. Auburn is entirely overgrown by the 
glossy-leaved myrtle, or periwinkle, and upon this 
dark background fresh flowers are constantly laid. 
The bishop lies in a simple, old-fashioned grav<; lot, 
with an iron fence around it. The gate of this fence 
is not latched, but swings silently, to admit the 
countless visitors, who have worn the grass entirely 
away between the grave and the path below it. Two 
laurel bushes, which stand on each side of the gate, 
have been nearly chipped away by those who wish 
to retain some memorial of the spot. 
The Modern Cemetery is a splendid periodical.— 7. M. 
Underwood, Lake City, Minn. 
I consider the Modern Cemetery most valuable. — Geo. 
E . Smith, Treas. The Rural Cemetery, Worcester , Mass. 
Resolutions Adopted at the Seventh Annual Convention 
of the Association of American Cemetery Superin- 
tendents. 
Resolved; That it is the sense of this convention that all 
Sunday funerals be discouraged as much as possible. 
Resolved: That it is the sense of this meeting that all 
headstones or markers should be limited to the height of the sod 
or the level of the surface of the ground. 
Resolved: That it is the sense of this meeting [that vaults 
and catacombs be discouraged and if possible prevented in cem- 
eteries. 
A Chinese Monument. 
A piece of unique monumental art in Rosehill is 
the Chinese monument, which serves also as a sort 
of altar where the Celestials perform their singular 
funeral ceremonies. It is near the north gates of 
the grounds, and is a singular bit of architecture. A 
central wall or slab eight or ten feet high is sur- 
mounted by a graceful bit of scroll work and orna- 
mented with a tablet of gray-veined marble, upon 
the surface of which are carved in vertical lines the 
queer Chinese characters, painted black, which 
probably relate the object of the monument or may 
contain a prayer to the heathen gods. At either 
side of the central tablet are two small hollow pil- 
lars, square at the base and surmounted by a ball. 
Holes are cut in the sides of these, and a little door 
of iron is set near the bottom of each, says a writer 
in the Chicago Times. 
The square holes in the side pillars serve as 
vents for the smoke of the incense, colored paper, 
rice cakes, sweetmeats and other such things that 
are supposed to be acceptable offerings to the Chi- 
nese gods and which are introduced into the columns 
through the little iron doors, which are the open- 
ings to the fireplaces of the altar. 
These pillars and the central tablet rest on a 
semi-circular hearth or altar with three steps or 
stages, which are surrounded by a coping. Before 
the center of the face of the monument, under the 
inscribed tablet is an iron pan, where the mourners 
burn joss sticks of perfumed wood, which are 
equivalent to prayers for the repose of the soul of 
the dead, each prayer being supposed to ascend as 
long as the joss stick burns. 
It is said that the Chinese invariably bury their 
dead in the single graves of the cemetery, and never 
purchase lots, for they do not intend that the bodies 
of their countrymen shall permanently rest in the 
unhallowed soil of a Christian land. 
In a Cemetery. 
Tommy — “All these people haven’t gone to 
heaven, auntie.” 
Aunt — “Hush, Tommy! Why do you say that?” 
Tommy — “Because I read on some of the tomb- 
stones, ‘Peace to his ashes,’ and they don’t have 
ashes only where its very hot. — Ex. 
