i8 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
The Shaw Mausoleum, St. Louis, Ho. 
Probably the first im])ression of most visitors to 
the Memorial and tomb of Henry Shaw is one of 
surprise, and it is not unlikely that strangers visit 
the famous Garden where it stands without realizing 
that it contains a tomb. 
It is so unlike all preconceived ideas of a tomb 
that from a dis- 
tance it might 
easily be mistak- 
en for a summer- 
house. And in- 
stead of looking 
funereal it is a 
cheerful object. 
But on closer in- 
spection its pur- 
pose can hardly 
be mistaken, al- 
though its details 
are sometimes 
misunderstood. 
Taken as it 
stands it is by no 
means a gloomy 
adjunct to the 
garden, notwith- 
standing the re- 
marks of a visitor, 
( overheard by the 
writer, ) who tried 
to harrow up her 
soul by discover- 
ing the dew of 
death on the lit- 
erally marble 
brow of the re- 
cumbent statue 
within. 
The unusual 
shape of the 
building is ac- 
counted for when 
one learns that 
Mr. Shaw got his 
idea of its form 
from a structure 
described and ill- 
ustrated in one of 
the Plncyclopaedias of Loudon, the noted Scotch 
Horticulturalist and Landscape Gardener. This pic- 
tured building was, however, roofless, being in- 
tended to enclose some sort of a tree which was to 
emerge from the top in its own good time. 
The present building is the second of the same 
shape that has been built in the garden. The firtt, 
which still stands at only a short distance from the 
newer one, was erected some forty years ago of 
rock-faced limestone. I was told by Mr. Barnett, 
(the architect who built both structures, and one of 
the few men who knew Mr. Shaw intimately, not 
only in a business way but socially,) that the first 
building originally, had neither roof nor windows, 
and in his opin- 
ion was not in- 
tended fora tomb 
by its eccentric 
proprietor. Lat- 
er, it was roofed, 
the open arches 
glazed and a 
marble statue by 
the German 
Sculptor Von 
Muller placed in 
it. 
There seems 
to be some differ- 
ence of opinion 
as to whether the 
limestone struct- 
ure was ever in- 
tended by Mr. 
Shaw for his 
tomb. Some 
think it was and 
that he merely 
became dissatis- 
fied with the ma- 
terial of which it 
was built, while 
others hold that 
using such a 
building for the 
purpose was an 
afterthought. 
But, be that as it 
may, some four 
or five years be- 
fore his death he 
gave Mr. Barnett 
instructions to re- 
produce the ori- 
ginal building in 
substantial ma- 
terials, on a slightly larger scale and on a far more 
solid foundation. 
The Mausoleum stands in a grove of mixed trees, 
oaks, sassafras and sugar maples representing the 
deciduous class, and pines and hemlocks the ever- 
green class, in the garden proper, and about two 
hundred feet from the fence which separates the gar- 
THE SHAW MANSOLEUM. 
