THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
i6 
Under the shade of trees, even where grass does 
not thrive, an authority (Mr. Falconer) says that 
the Japanese climbing honeysuckle (Lonicera 
brachy podia) will make a thick carpet of vines — a 
fascinating suggestion that makes one long to see 
such a rug forming for some fine tree to stand on. 
Bitter-sweet is a good vine, especially if the fer- 
tile, seed bearing (female) plant is used, for its 
fruit is decorative and lasts well into the winter. 
While vines are legitimate material for working out 
various details of the scheme, they seem especially 
adapted to those parts that are to approach the 
nearest in effect to nature’s pattern. So in a pictu- 
resque dell, or on the border of a glade near the 
edge of a naturalistic grove would be a home-like 
place for a tree, overgrown and literally draped by 
the wild grape. There is no vine that knows so 
well how to drape a tree, or that does it so success- 
fully. It is a perfect vine for such places and 
schemes. It has the grace of a wood nymph, and 
the odor of its inconspicuous blossoms is like a 
breath of spring from some fairer world than ours. 
It comes into leaf early, and remains green and 
fresh from the ground up until the entire procession 
of summer growths has passed. It does not seem 
conscious of taking any part in the pageant, but it 
is there, in becoming dress, as a spectator who 
means to see all there is to be seen. It is too much 
absorbed in what is going on to grow old itself, and 
before it wakes to consciousness of self the end has 
come and it dies unruffled and happy, with its sim- 
ple beauty intact. 
An excellent example for its friends to follow. 
Fanny Copley Seavey. 
Electric Funeral Cars. 
A system of funeral transportation service is 
coming to the front in many of our large cities and 
is rapidly gaining public favor, and with very good 
reason. The carriage service of the ordinary fu- 
neral has grown to be a severe tax both on the fi- 
nancial resources and the disposition of the com- 
munity, for while generally expensive it is also 
quite unsatisfactory, and from what we learn, a de- 
partment in the undertaking business which would 
cause very little uneasiness were it to be discontin- 
ued. 
We refer to the funeral car on our street rail- 
ways, which is being used in several of our large 
cities most noticably on the “electric” routes. 
On many of our steam roads the regular funeral 
train is now an institution and some of the compan- 
ies have deemed it good policy to construct spec- 
ial cars fitted up expensively and tastefully to meet 
the circumstances. 
This new progressive, but withal philosophical 
and economic feature of our “funerals” is now rap- 
idly extending to our street railways, and we see no 
reason why such a system cannot be made a perma- 
nent feature, notwithstanding the frequent local in- 
convenience of distance from the residence to the 
car route. But we think that this is a matter of de- 
tail of the new order of things which the undertak- 
ing fraternity will quickly overcome. 
The manifold advantages of economy, order and 
a minimum of discomfort are so pressing, in face of 
the obstacles, that once the community so signifies 
the car companies will rapidly frame themselves to 
the demand. 
Atchison, Kansas, has a regular funeral street 
car, which was perhaps the first practice of the 
idea. 
The City of Mexico has some thirty funeral 
street cars, equipped to suit the conditions of pat- 
rons, and the street railway system permits of these 
cars reaching almost any part of the city. Some of 
the more expensive cars are so arranged as to 
wheels that they can be drawn from the track and 
driven to the grave without infringing the rules of 
the cemetery. 
In Seattle, Wash., the funeral car will be a per- 
manent feature of street railway service and in Port- 
land, Oregon, the system is about to be introduced. 
In San Francisco the funeral car is an establish- 
ed fact on the electric road which is nine miles 
long and passes four cemeteries. 
At Pittsburgh there is a switch upon which the 
funeral cars stand near the entrance of one of the 
principal cemeteries. 
The tendency of the age is to modernize the fu- 
neral, in other words to remove from the occasion 
the outward paraphernalia of ancient times which 
have so obstinately clung to it and to perform the 
sad ceremonies in the spirit which our civilization 
has spread about us. 
We have received from Mr. J. Me Near, proprie- 
tor of the Cypress Hill Cemetery, Petaluma, Cal., 
a photograph of the entrance and one of his own lot. 
This cemetery was started in 1866 with 25 acres 
which has since been increased to 50. The entrance 
is some 2000 feet from the main traveled road and 
is reached by a private road 60 feet wide. The main 
avenues inside the gates are 50 and 60 feet wide 
and lead into others of lesser width, running on an 
up grade through the valleys. The main avenues 
are lined with palms, dracenas, magnolias and 
flowers. Mr. Me Near’s lot is a knoll 90 feet in di- 
ameter, the posts, steps and coping of which is cut 
from a solid piece of granite. Mr. Me Near writes 
that this cemetery will compare favorably with the 
best cemeteries in the State. 
