46 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
The Supreme Court has just affirmed the uncon- 
stitutionality of the Act of June 8, 1891, which 
prohibits the establishment of cemeteries within one 
mile from any city of the first class'. This decision 
was rendered in affirming the judgment of Common 
Pleas Court No. 4, in the case of the City of Phila- 
delphia against the Westminster Cemetery Com- 
pany. The City of Philadelphia had asked for an 
injunction to restrain the Cemetery company from 
using their land for burial purposes, such land be- 
ing within the act. The Westminster Company de- 
murred to the bill, not in respect to the facts as to 
its location, etc., but as to the unconstitutionality of 
the Act, it being local and not general. The judge 
of the lower court sustained the demurrer, and the 
City of Philadelphia took an appeal with the above 
result. Among the points made by Judge Wil- 
liams of the Supreme Court are: 
“If, however, we look into the provisions of the 
Act, we shall find that they do not relate to cities of 
the first class or any other class. They relate dis- 
tinctly and clearly to a strip of territory lying on 
the outside of the city of Philadelphia, having a 
breadth of one mile and a drainage into any stream 
from which the water supply of the city is obtained. 
“It lays its hand on cemeteries and forbids 
their establishment within this narrow strip of terri- 
tory. Now cemeteries may be more numerous and 
more necessary in the neighborhood of cities than 
in the country, but it will hardly be asserted that 
they are part of the municipal machinery of a city, 
even when located within its limits. This Act does 
not undertake, however, to deal with cemeteries 
within cities of the first class, but with those that 
are wholly outside of them. 
“It does not attempt to deal with all cemeteries 
that are outside, but only those that are within one 
mile from the city lines. Even this limited terri- 
tory is subdivided so that in the neighborhood of 
Philadelphia the law is applicable to those cemete- 
ries lying in the valley of the Schuylkill, but it is 
not applicable to those in the valley of the Dela- 
ware. It would be difficult to imagine a better ex- 
ample of a law both local and special than this. We 
have held that the classification of cities rests on 
population, and may be sustained for the purposes 
of municipal government. 
“When an effort has been made to extend leg- 
islation for classified cities to other subjects not mu- 
nicipal in their character, we have in every case re- 
fused to sustain such legislation.’’ 
The judge quoted a number of cases and closed 
by saying: “These cases are absoluteiy conclusive 
upon the question now raised, and the learned 
judge of the court below could not have done other- 
wise than to hold the Act of 1891 relied on to be 
local, and therefore unconstitutional. The judg- 
ment is affirmed. ” 
^ # * 
Marcus A. Farwell, President of the Oakwoods 
Cemetery Association, Chicago, died June 12, at 
Waukesha, Wis. , of typhoid pneumonia. Mr. Far- 
well was born July 8, 1827, in Coshocton County, 
O., where he grew up and was educated. He came 
to Chicago in 1 85 I and from 1855 to 1884, when he 
retired, was actively engaged in the wholesale groc- 
ery business. At the time of the Chicago fire 
when the house was entirely destroyed, Mr. Farwell 
was the first man to telegraph to New York that his 
firm would pay 100 cents on the dollar. Of later 
years he engaged a little in politics. For twelve 
years past his time has been devoted chiefly to Oak- 
woods Cemetery. He leaves a widow and four chil- 
dren. Mr. Farwell was an honorary member of the 
Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, 
and took great interest in the welfare of the associa- 
tion; he became personally known to many of its 
members by his frequent attendance at the meetings. 
Treasured Tears. 
In some districts of the Tyrol a quaint custom 
prevails which is singularly like the ancient Orien- 
tal custom of collecting the tears of mourners in 
bottles and preserving them. A traveler who has 
spent some months among the peasantry in that 
lovely district between Austria and Italy says that 
when a Tyrolean girl is about to be married and be- 
fore she leaves her home to go to church, her moth- 
er hands her a handkerchief which is called a tear- 
kerchief. 
It is always made of newly-spun linen, and has 
never been used. It is with this kerchief that she 
dries her tears when she leaves her father’s house, 
and while she stands at the altar. After the marri- 
age is over, and the bride has gone with her hus- 
band to their new home, she folds up the kerchief 
and places it unwashed in her linen-closet, where it 
remains untouched. The tear-kerchief has only- 
performed half its mission. Children are born, 
grow up, marry and move away from the old home. 
Each daughter receives from the mother a new tear- 
kerchief. 
Her own kerchief still remains where it was 
placed in the linen-closet on the day of the marri- 
age. Generations come and go. The young rosy 
bride has become a wrinkled old lady. She may 
have survived her husband and all her children. 
All her friends may have died off, and still that 
last present which she received from her mother 
has not fulfilled its object. But it comes at last. 
At last the weary eyes close for a long, long sleep, 
and the tired wrinkled hands are folded over the 
