ii8 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
= CRSnATIOH. ^ 
A Crematorium in Chicago. 
Recognizing the growing sentiment in favor of 
cremation in Chicago, and actuated by a desire to 
supply a public want, the managers of Graceland 
cemetery have constructed incinerating furnaces in 
connection with their beautiful chapel. After a 
careful investigation into the workings of the vari- 
ous systems of generating heat as used in the cre- 
matoriums of this country, it was decided to employ 
oil for the purpose. Experiments have shown the 
furnaces to work entirely satisfactory, and the pub- 
lic have been duly apprised of the fact that it will 
no longer be necessary to send bodies to other cities 
for incineration. The rules that have been adopted 
provide that in addition to the usual permit admit- 
ting the body to the cemetery, when incineration is 
desired, a certificate to that effect, signed either by 
the person whose body is to be incinerated or by 
the one having charge of the body, must be depos- 
ited at the cemetery. 
It is believed that every incineration should be 
conducted in as private a manner as possible and 
not serve to gratify morbid curiosity. For this rea- 
son but five persons in addition to the regular at- 
tendants will be admitted to the crematory at the 
time of the incineration. Every incineration shall 
be attended by some relative of the deceased or rep- 
resentative of the family. 
The charge of the use of the crematory is twen- 
ty-five dollars. This charge includes a receptacle in 
which to place the ashes and the use of the chapel, 
excepting where death occured from a contagious 
disease. It is suggested that burial in a family lot 
will be the most satisfactory way to dispose of this 
receptacle, and in this way the sentiment connected 
with trees and shrubbery, the songs of birds and 
quiet landscapes, will be preserved and the cemetery 
will be a beautiful memorial park. 
* * * 
The late Mrs. Lucy Stone was an advocate of 
cremation and left instructions that her body be 
burned in the new crematorium now under construc- 
tion near Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston. It is 
stated in the Urn that six bodies are in different 
Boston vaults awaiting the completion of the 
furnace. 
riary Magdalene’s Grave. 
Fifteen thousand pilgrims annually visit St. 
Baume, in Provence, not far from Marseilles, in 
France, where Mary Magdalene is said to have 
spent the last thirty years of her life. 
The legend, according to the Nouvelle Revne, 
runs that Mary Magdalene came from Judea in a 
small boat with Lazarus, Martha, the two Marys 
and Salome, bringing with them the body of St. 
Anne, the head of St. James the Less, and a few 
wee bones of the innocents massacred by King 
Herod. But from early ages this story has been 
disputed, and the Abbe Duchene, one of the most 
erudite writers on the early Christian saints and 
martyrs, considers that the relics of Mary Magda- 
lene were probably sent from Constantinople about 
the seventeenth century. A Greek breviary, how- 
ever, speaks of the saint as having died at Ephesus. 
The pilgrimages are to a kind of grotto, which 
is supposed by local tradition to have been the 
place where Mary Magdalene spent her old age. Be 
that as it may, it seems that there is no older or 
more picturesque place of pilgrimage in Europe. 
In addition there can be seen at St. Baume a forest 
which has practically been kept intact since the 
days of old Gaul. The Dominican’s convent is 
practically the only inn in those parts, and every 
visitor has to put up with the severely plain accom- 
modation provided by a monastic cell, and simple 
but clean food. 
The convent contains about one hundred beds; 
the lady visitors are served by nuns, the gentlemen 
by monks. The convent, which is almost as ancient 
as the grotto, is situated on the edge of a vast rocky 
chain of hills, and almost opposite the monastery, 
half up the steep incline, is the famous grotto cut 
into the solid rock. There a wide platform is hewn 
out, partly occupied at present by a second con- 
vent. 
The grotto is about twenty-five yards square, 
eight yards high, and to all intents and purposes, a 
chapel. The principal altar is surmounted by a fine 
statue representing Mary Magdalene praying. It is 
strange to stand on the spot, apart from the feeling 
connected with the great saint to whom it is dedi- 
cated, and to think of all those who have stood in 
the grotto. 
•^10orre5]3ORelence.{^ 
Vacation Reminiscences, 
In our last notes, we were about leaving St. 
Paul, our destination being Clinton, Iowa, after a 
pleasant visit there, and at Elgin, 111., we went to 
Chicago, where of course, our interest was cen- 
tered in the World’s Fair. So much has been said 
about it, that any thoughts we might express would 
fall into insignificance compared with the able 
writers who have through the daily press given so 
many interesting articles of the various depart- 
ments. We cannot refrain, however, from express- 
