THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
H ILLIISTMTED IMTIL) JOnillll DEigiED TO TIE IIIEBEST OF CEMETEOIES 
jr« -A. I O 
334 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO. 
Subscription fi.oo a Year in Advance. Foreign Subscription $1.25. 
Special Rates on Six or More Copies. 
VoL. III. CHICAGO, FEBR’Y, 1894. No. 12. 
CONTENTS. 
CEMETERY PLANTING 113 
RIGHTS OF OWNERS OF CEMETERY LOTS iM 
UNCONSTITUTIONAL LOCAL LEGISLATION 134 
LINCOLN'S ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG iBj 
TAX ON GRAVES. A 13$ 
CREMATION i35 
*BELLEFONTAINE CEMETERY, ST. LOUIS, MO i36 
ORNAMENTAL FRUITING SHRUBS i38 
CEMETERY WALKS 138-9 
ANNUAL REPORTS, SWAN POINT. PROVIDENCE, MT. 
AUBURN, BOSTON 140 
"RULES AND REGULATIONS, WOODLAWN CEMETERY 
TOLEDO, O 140-1 
EPITAPHS 142 
FOREIGN FUNERAL CUSTOMS i43 
CORRESPONDENCE 143 
THE QUESTION BOX i44 
PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT 144 
’'Illustrated. 
Cemetery Planting — I. 
As in all decorative planting, the landscape 
plan must first be carefully thought out with a view 
to pictorial effect. For it is a picture that is to be 
made, and the prime artistic quality of synthesis 
must be considered before the analysis which de- 
cides details, viz., the position and variety of trees, 
shrubs, vines and plants best adapted to the pro- 
duction of the desired broad effect. The parts 
must be subordinated to the whole. Mr. Hamer- 
ton’s words written of landscape painting, apply so 
forcibly and admirably to landscape planting, that 
they may well serve as rules for guidance in such 
work. 
He says that in landscape art: “a fine effect is 
pictorially complete; a common effect usually scat- 
tered and comparatively unmeaning; a fine effect 
has large masses and vigorous appositions; a com- 
mon effect is apt, (he means likely') to be broken 
and feeble.” There, in a nutshell, is a fundamen- 
tal rule for all decorative planting, be it applied to 
parks, cemeteries, private grounds or suburban lots. 
If one succeeds in applying the spirit of it, the 
effect can not be less than good. But the rule is 
not so tangible that it can be handled or measured. 
The rules of composition are elusive; vague as the 
effects of natural landscape on all sensitive minds, 
but, — just as surely felt. The unfailing guide, 
however, is to have a reason for every part of the 
design, and in a cemetery this should not be hard 
to find. Utility for the purpose in hand is the rock 
foundation that must underlie all work if it is to 
stand the test of time. 
The best salient feature or features of the natu- 
ral landscape will be quickly recognized, and read- 
ily made the most of by every man of taste who 
looks and tries for this end, and whatever they may 
be, will decide the character of the picture he will 
form in his mind’s eye. It may take years to make 
the picture, but if he sees it clearly at the outset he 
is sure, in time, to “arrive.” It may be that the 
picture must needs be pastoral, like Graceland, 
(Chicago), or sylvan like Spring Grove (Cincinnati) 
or hilly woodland, such as Bellefontaine or Cal- 
vary (St Louis) might be if some trees were clear- 
ed out of the first, and a judicious cyclone would 
clear some stones out of them both. 
But the desired general effect decided on, there 
remains the delightful task of working it out in all 
its charming detail. And while the making of such 
landscapes in a measure resembles the composition 
of a landscape painting, it is far more difficult; for 
the painting represents one phase of one season and 
remains unchanged; while the landscape is looked 
at, enjoyed and criticised in all the phases of all 
the seasons. Moreover, the materials of which it is 
made change in size; and while the painted picture 
is seen from the point of view chosen by the artist, 
the made landscape is seen from all points of view, 
and must look right from every one of them. 
All of these conditions must be taken into ac- 
count by the artist who makes these out of door pic- 
tures, if that coquettish siren, success, is to attend 
him on his way. But above all else, perhaps, he 
must know how and when to hold his hand, or all 
sense of repose will be lost, and its loss is fatal. 
Meaningless repetitions of plantings, however good 
in themselves, will give a spotty, broken effect. 
Broad stretches of open, unbroken turf bring about 
repose, rest the eye and set off the scene. In fact 
they make the view, as without such openings there 
can be no vistas, and without vistas there can be no 
landscapes. For trees alone do not make a land- 
scape. An unbroken wall of foliage is not as dreary 
as one of brick, but it shuts off a view quite as ef- 
fectually. 
A carpet of sward, whether spread on a level. 
