2 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
A Plea for Centralizing Country Cemeteries. 
With the rapid advancement our nation is mak- 
ing in the appreciation and culture of art, our out- 
lying districts are not enjoying the true and the 
beautiful in nature and in art, as applied to their 
cemeteries, as they might if they were more united. 
As matters now exist, every village and almost 
every district of a few miles in extent, that has been 
settled or is occupied largely by a class of people 
in any sense united, as by relationship, religion or 
nationality, have established and make for a time 
an effort to maintain (all that it claims) “a burying 
ground.” Doubtless there are many good reasons 
for the establishing of many of these grounds, and 
there are also many things to make these spots desira- 
ble and endearing to a community, but it has been 
found practically impossible to maintain with any 
degree of respectability these small burying grounds. 
The reasons for this are various; the principal one 
however is that because of their small extent, the 
few families interested become scattered in a few 
years so that the grounds are left with no one to 
properly care for them. But to argue against these 
small burying grounds will not be so effectual in 
preventing a new lot being platted each year, as 
will a well directed effort to substitute something 
better. The day has arrived when this should be 
accomplished. Many states by law authorize the es- 
tablishment and maintenance of cemeteries by the 
public authorities. 
The advent of the Modern Cemetery to cur- 
rent literature will yield a profitable influence in the 
betterment of cemeteries. It will be a great aid in 
creating a more extended feeling that a cemetery is 
a place of art, not alone as man makes it but also as 
God would have it, by the provisions he so richly 
provides in nature. 
Thanks to our landscape engineers for the beau- 
tiful examples of their art which they are scattering 
over the land. These will have a great tendency 
toward creating a unity of interests such as will en- 
able undertakings to be perfected at proper loca- 
tions. 
The frequency with which, or at what points 
cemeteries should be established will depend large- 
ly on the population of the territory to be accommo- 
dated. In rural districts it is seldom necessary to 
have more than one cemetery for each one hundred 
square miles of territory, provided such grounds can 
be somewhat centrally located. They should how- 
ever be located according to the center of popula- 
tion of the district, which will have a tendency to 
bring them within a pleasant distance of some town 
or village such as usually occur at about such inter- 
vals as is embraced in the aboye territory. In many 
of the older states the counties are divided into civ- 
il townships of such extent as would make it well, 
especially if under public management, to have one 
cemetery for each township. The location of ceme- 
teries at as frequent intervals as above mentioned 
will not enable them to be made of such extent or 
character as would be desirable from an art view, 
but would about meet the absolute requirements of 
the people, as matters will exist for some genera- 
tions to come. But even these should be no 
barrier in the way of each city or town of any con- 
siderable size being provided with a sufficient high 
class ground. Each county should in addition to 
what has been suggested, make provisions on a 
broad and liberal scale for the establishment and 
maintenance of a country cemetery at the county 
capitol that would meet local requirements. But 
to get these matters before the masses of the people 
properly, there must be an active interest and ef- 
fort manifested by cemetery authorities, landscape 
engineers, and local engineers or surveyors as well. 
In fact it the local engineers and surveyors would 
cultivate and embody a little more art in some of 
their work they could be of aid in abolishing the 
stingy little rectangular real estate speculation 
“grave yards,” dotted over the land. 
The establishing of a main county cemetery is a 
subject of sufficient importance for an article of it- 
self which may be submitted later. J. C. W. 
The Cemetery in the Country. 
Rural cemeteries, as a general thing, are greatly 
neglected. Not because those who have friends 
buried there are forgetful or unmindful of the dead, 
or are unwilling to do their share of work in making 
the place beautiful, but because of alack of system 
in the work done. I have often thought that if a 
few of the leading women of a country community 
would take the matter in hand, a great deal might 
be done to improve the appearance of our rural 
cemeteries. The first step should be the organiza- 
tion of an improvement society, which should enlist 
the assistance of all the people interested. There 
need be but little “red tape’’ about it — the less 
there is the better is its chance of being successful. 
Those who are lot owners in any cemetery will al- 
most invariably give countenance and aid to any 
scheme calculated to make it attractive, and the 
judicious expenditure of a small amount of money 
in combination with willing labor by interested part- 
ies will produce satisfactory results in one season. 
ORGANIZING FOR WORK. 
There should be a committee to decide what is 
to be done, and some one selected to act as superin- 
tendent in carrying out the plans of this committee, 
people who donate labor being required to work 
under his instruction. Without such a committee 
