lOO 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
Some Canons of Criticism.* 
{Concluded^ 
“Monuments are the grappling-irons that bind 
together successive generations;” accordingly Beauty 
of Design having been secured; 
Durability — Permanence , is the next essential. 
The monument is not so much for the present as for 
future generations — “tw non vobts ezdificatis.” 
In the search for a material that should combine 
a desirable color, susceptibility to art treatment and 
durability, we have seemed almost to witness the 
clash of the proverbial irresistible force with the 
immovable body. Slate, sandstone, limestone, 
marble, bronze, zinc: — each in turn has been tried 
for sepulchral monuments and has been (or is be- 
ing) abandoned as defective in one or more of the 
above requirements. Granite, has seemed to ap- 
proach the nearest to our requirements among the 
natural stones— and for what we may designate as 
the severest prose of Memorial Art, it is doubtful if 
it ever will be superseded. But to the sculptor 
granite is an absolute impossibility. (Please note 
that by “sculptor” we do not mean “stone-cutter” 
though even the latter term is not strictly applica- 
ble to the worker of granite, since granite has to be 
crushed into form by tools that do not cut, but 
break.) Even when (as very rarely happens, since 
really it is scarcely worth while to do so) a model 
from the studio of a real artist is procured, all the 
delicate touches that distinguish the artist’s tech- 
nique are lost in the coarseness and hardness of the 
stone, and most of even the broader treatment which 
distinguishes it as a work of art, is dissipated in the 
lower intelligence (we come near saying “lowest”) 
that necessarily intervenes between the model and 
the finished statue. 
No, while granite is adapted to the prose of 
Memorial Art, any attempt at the poetry o'f it can 
result only in doggerel. 
Leaving, for a moment, this subject, let us con- 
sider our third requirement, which is intimately 
connected with this, viz; 
Cost. Before the Ohio Marble and Granite 
Dealer’s Association (see Monumental News, for 
August ’94) Mr. O. A. Coltman after recognizing 
the deplorable character of our sepulchral monu- 
ment, says (in substance:) 
“The monument man cannot be expected to be 
a teacher of the public taste. He is more concerned 
to learn, and cater to, his customers’ ideas than to 
supply his own. Ifour cemetery memorials are bad, 
it is the fault of the purchaser; he gets what he 
wants and all that he is willing to pay for.” 
We believe, and, (since ignorance is less de- 
plorable than dishonesty,) for the sake of the monu- 
ment man, hope that this is not true. That the 
buyers of monuments are penurious, is proven false 
by the too lavish expenditures made by them in our 
cemeteries. Instead of looking upon cost as we 
wish them to, as the last and least consideration, 
many have evidently regarded it as no consideration 
at all. That there has been fierce competition is 
true, but this is of the monument man’s own making 
— he (whose name is Legion) has fairly thrust him- 
self upon the customer and demanded a hearing; he 
has called himself (and probably believed himself) 
an authority upon the subject; each of him has urged 
a little greater ostentation than the other — gener- 
ally (such, in this respect, being the fatal facility 
of granite) in the direction of a larger structure. 
When the doctors agree, is it to be wondered at that 
the patient has confidence in their prescriptions? 
Cost then, is, though the last, still a very serious 
consideration; but our purpose is rather to restrict 
than enlarge it — more especially when it is misdi- 
rected to the transportation of enormous blocks of 
stone that when set up, go to the disfiguration of 
our cemeteries; or to the attempt to sculpture a stone 
that is in its very nature unsulted to sculpture. 
It will be apparent from what we have said, that 
Memorial Art demands an art-medium in which are 
combined, (i) Susceptibility to Art Treatment (2) 
Durability and (3) Delicacy of Color. 
We have endeavored to show that the quarry 
and the foundry have failed to supply a material 
that satisfies these requirements. History tells us 
the kiln does this] the very earliest forms of art were 
produced from it, and the only wonder is that we 
should have sounded the entire gamut of other ma- 
terials before having recourse, again, to it. 
It is the material in which the Greek sculptors 
delighted to work; the material in which the Della 
Robbias executed their immortal, and now priceless, 
productions; the material that has transmitted to us 
the world’s history from a period so remote as other- 
wise to have been beyond conjecture; the material 
that all authorities agree in pronouncing to be prac- 
tically imperishable; the material that fully equals 
in fineness of texture and delicacy of color the most 
fragile marble; and the material that retains and 
exhibits unchanged, the most subtle touch of the 
sculptor and we look to its early recognition. 
In concluding these papers, which have stretched 
themselves out to an extent the writer did not dream 
of at their beginning, we urge upon you to secure, 
by doing — and much more by leaving undone, — 
that which shall so consecrate our cemeteries to all 
that is pure and lovely, that even the casual visitor 
shall hear again the Voice that Moses heard saying: 
‘ ‘Cast off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place 
whereon thou standest is holy ground.” 
*Copyrighted. i894, by the Memorial Art League. 
