THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
5 
THE ARCHER MAUSOLEUM, WOODLAND CEMETERY, DAYTON, O. 
The authorities of Fere la Chaise, in Paris, are 
annoyed at the revival of a very grim hoax. A 
Russian princess is said to have left a million francs 
to any person who should spend a whole year and 
a day consecutively in the little chapel raised over 
her tomb. The body was in a glass coffin in the cen- 
ter and the walls were covered with mirrors, so that 
the watcher, could he keep awake, would have no 
possible escape for his thoughts to anything more 
agreeable than the corpse. No occupation or re- 
laxation was allowed but that of reading by the 
light at the head of the coffin. No conversation 
was to be permitted and food was only to be 
brought to the chapel once a day. One hour for 
exercise was to be confined to a stroll among the 
tombs. The offer of $200,000 in this way brought 
an avalanche of applications from all sorts of per- 
sons. Widows were numerous. The obligation of 
silence for a year and a day had no terror for them. 
They would be able to wag the tongue all they 
wanted when they had the million. Men of all de- 
grees of impecuniosity and neediness applied. The 
cemetery people would like to have the perpetra- 
tor of the joke in Pere La Chaise. 
The permanence of sepulchral architecture is an 
object so desirable as to entitle it to special atten- 
tion. The dilapidation and disfigurement of struc- 
tures reared for the dead, have been too common 
to excite surprise but can never be witnessed with- 
out pain. Owing to numerous causes of decay and 
displacement which are ever in action, it should be 
mad^e aprimary consideration to guard against them. 
Respect for the dead, respect for ourselves, and a 
just regard for the taste and feelings of all whom 
either affection or curiosity may attract to the cem- 
etery, demand so much at least, of those who shall 
make improvements in Oak Ridge. This is a mat- 
ter in which all are interested for whatever the pre- 
caution and care used by some, if others, through 
inattention suffer their grounds and monuments to 
become neglected, painful contrasts will soon offend 
the eye, and the entire grounds will suffer a serious 
injury. 
It is not possible wholly to prevent the effect of 
atmospheric influence, but proper care in the eree- 
tion of monuments will greatly counteract and long 
retard the footsteps of decay . — Oak Ridge, Spring- 
field, III. 
