THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
1 16 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
It is bad enough for men to be selfish during 
their lives, but to provide for the selfish squander- 
ing of money on useless tombstones after they are 
dead is the sublimation of greed. — Oakland (Cal.) 
E71 quiver. 
* at iff 
On the line of the Union Pacific Railway, near 
the town of Sherman, stands a memorial to Oakes 
and Oliver Ames, to whose exertions the comple- 
tion of the road is due. The monument is a pyra- 
midal granite structure 65 feet high and 60 feet 
square at the base. 
* * * 
The arched roof of the new receiving vault at 
the Sacramento, Cal., City Cemetery fell in last 
month and ten thousand brick covered two work- 
men who were removing the wood-work from be- 
neath the arch. One of the men was instantly killed 
but the other escaped with slight injuries. 
* * * 
A plan to provide work for the unemployed, in 
laying out the new portion of a cemetery was 
broached by an alderman of Brockton, Mass. , re- 
cently. Some $1,212 was reported on hand in the 
Melrose Cemetery fund. The proposition was to 
expend this sum in improving the fourteen rough 
acres of the cemetery by hiring worthy poor men 
at $1 a day. The board of aldermen concurred in 
this opinion, and voted that the committee on Bu- 
rial Grounds carry out some such plan. 
* * * 
The Odd Fellows’ Cemetery, one of the most 
beautiful burial grounds in San F'rancisco, is to be 
turned over to the park commissioners of that city 
for a public park. The ground for this cemetery 
was purchased by the Odd P'ellows’ in 1865, and, as 
it lies wholly within the city limits, no more terri- 
tory can be acquired and about all of the lots avail- 
able have been sold. With the sale of the last lot 
the career of the cemetery will be practically closed. 
The trustees will then have $100,000 in the treas- 
ury, a sum sufficient to keep the grounds in excellent 
condition for all time, and it is proposed to donate 
the grounds and this fund to the city of San Fran 
cisco lor the maintenance of a perpetual park. 
* * * 
Chicago police have interfered with a curious 
Chinese burial custom during the past month. In 
a little house adjoining Rosehill Cemetery several 
Chinamen have been at work boiling the bones of 
their deceased countrymen preparatory to shipping 
them to China. Some forty-eight celestials repose 
under the sod of Rosehill. Their remains are all to 
be exhumed, and, after boiling to remove the flesh, 
the bones are to be disjointed and sealed up, togeth- 
with the cue or pig-tail, in tin boxes about thirty 
inches long and fifteen inches wide and deep, in 
which they are to be shipped to China and buried 
in consecrated ground. The Chinese believe that 
until their bodies repose in consecrated ground their 
spirits cannot leave the flesh. 
* * * 
It is gratifying to note that the long-continued 
stubborn opposition to cremation which has pervad- 
ed professional circles of highest influence is rapidly 
giving way. For years undertaker’s as a class have 
been the strongest foes of incineration, believing it 
to be inimical to the best interests of their business. 
Now, however, a change has come. The Casket, 
the well-known undertaker’s journal, has taken ad- 
vanced ground on this subject and demonstrates 
clearly that it is the best policy for undertakers to 
follow public sentiment in the matter of cremation 
rather than to oppose it. Without entering into a 
recommendation of cremation the shows that 
the practice will not lessen the cost of funerals or 
in any way interfere with the business of the under- 
taker. The Modern Cemetery is glad to see 
this breaking down of prejudice against a practice 
so little understood and so much undervalued as cre- 
mation. In the current number of the Casket illus- 
trations of five crematories are given, beginning 
with the first crematory erected in the United 
States, the Le Moyne at Washington, Pa., in 1876, 
and showing the retorts of the Le Moyne and the 
Lancaster, Pa., crematories. 
» # 
C. L. Marston, a trustee of Mount Mope Ceme- 
tery, Bangor, Me., has sent the Modern Cemetery 
a photograph of the recently completed entrance to 
that cemetery. It consists of two granite towers 
4ft. 6in. square at the base and 14ft. bin. in height. 
The work is ashlar finished and rises in 12 inch 
courses diminishing from base to cap i inch in i 
foot. Each tower is topped by a square urn having 
polished sides margin lined. Wings lift. bin. in 
length and 2ft. bin. in height project from the out- 
sides of the towers and terminate in small posts 2ft. 
bin. square. The caps and urns are of white Hal- 
lowell granite and the remainder of the superstruc- 
ture is of dark gray granite from the Lincoln quar- 
ries, tne contrast in the colors giving a pleasing ef- 
fect. In the front of each tower there is a polished 
panel inscribed with name of cemetery and year of 
incorporation. Mr. Marston writes that the ceme- 
tery has been very much improved within the last 
few years. A chapel has been erected and several 
lakes, dotted with islands, have been added. The 
board of trustees take a great interest in making 
the grounds attractive and are assisted by a well- 
qualified superintendent. 
