104 
THE MODERN CEMETERY, 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
The Mount Albion Cemetery commissioners, of Albion, Or- 
leans County N. Y., advertises the following on its letter-heads; 
“By the terms of all notes given for cemetery lots, the commis- 
sioners have the right to take possession of said lots upon the 
nonpayment of the note, and remove all bodies buried therein to 
the public ground at the expense of the purchaser, without no- 
tice.” Such information is good to keep before some lot owners. 
-)(■*«■ 
Mrs. Alice N. Lincoln, in New York Times, thus describes 
her feelings while watching a cremation: As we stood in silence 
watching the rosy glow which played over the white surface of 
the retort a feeling came to us of awe certainly, but also of peace 
and rest. There was something so spiritual, so elevating in the 
absolute purity of the intense heat that it seemed to all of us 
who stood there far less appalling than the blackness of an open 
grave. 
*** 
Mr. J. A. Pirie, many years secretary of the Forest Home 
Cemetery Association, Milwaukee, Wis., died at his home Oct. 
19, after an illness of several months. He was born in Irie Wells, 
Scotland, in 1832 and came to Milwaukee in 1849. After many 
years in the banking business he associated himself with the For- 
est Home Cemetery Association of which he has been secretary 
for over fifteen years. He was widely known and esteemed by 
all who knew him. 
* * * 
A curious source of wealth is reported by the French coun- 
cil at Mongtze, as belonging to Upper Tonquin, in its wood 
mines. The wood was originally a pine forest, which the earth 
swallowed in some cataclysm. Some of the trees are a yard in 
diameter, and lie in a slanting direction. As the top branches 
are well preserved, it is thought the geological convulsion which 
buried them cannot be of great antiquity. The wood, varnished, 
is imperishable and the Chinese gladly buy it for coffins. 
* * * 
An interesting case, says the New Bedford, Mass., Mercury, 
in which an undertaker, and the pastor of St. Lawrence church 
will be the principals, is likely to come up for trial soon in the 
local court. The undertaker objects to a custom which has been 
in vogue many years, of taxing undertakers an entrance fee of 
three dollars whenever they take a body inside the Catholic cem- 
etery on Kempton Street. Last month while entering the 
cemetery the undertaker’s hearse was stopped by the assistant in 
charge of the cemetery by order of the reverend father. Coun- 
cil has been retained. 
* * * 
Periodically the old crime of grave robbing develops in suf- 
ficient seriousness to make it of more than local interest from the 
fact that the bodies so procured are destined for points outside of the 
locality where the crime is committed. A grand jury of St. Joseph, 
Mo., has been investigating what is claimed may prove a whole- 
sale business in this line with bodies taken from the various cem- 
eteries of that city. Subjects for dissection are distinctly neces- 
sary in the medical colleges, and legitimate means should be 
possible for obtaining such subjects, but unquestionably to the 
seats of medical learning must be laid the onus of stimulating 
the gruesome business of body snatching periodically recorded. 
-» * » 
Members of the A. A. C. S. who attended the Minneapolis 
convention will remember the address of Mr Charles Nichols, 
secretary and treasurer of the Oakland Cemetery Association at 
the Aberdeen, and will regret to hear of his death which oc- 
curred October 24. With the exception of an interval of one 
year he had served as an active trustee of the Oakland Ceme- 
tery since 1868 and a member of the executive committee. He 
first reached St. Paul in 1858 and after two years residence was 
appointed postmaster by President Lincoln, his term closing 
with the rebellion. He has been connected with many of St. 
Paul’s business enterprises, and was a highly honored and re- 
spected citizen. At the time of his death he was serving in the 
capacity of assistant master in chancery of the Union Pacific 
system. 
* * -» 
The Tyrone, V&., Herald, recently published a petition 
which was being circulated for signatures, expressing unqualified 
disapproval of the employment of any person in Tyrone Ceme- 
tery “as has been the case sometimes heretofore, we believe, of 
any person who has or does allow to be kept on his premises in 
our midst a brothel, or house of ill fame, or of any self styled em- 
ploye who, for the sake of gain, has been known to extort from 
bereaved friends in time of their distress, undue amounts for the 
work done, or of any persons known to have been guilty of theft 
or crime; to the employment of any such as sexton, assistant 
sexton, or employe, we earnestly remonstrate,” etc. If this protest 
be well founded, the management of Tyrone Cemetery-needs in- 
vestigation and in the interest of the community an enforcement 
of the regard due to the established ethics of cemetery control. 
* » * 
A New York lawyer is said to have been retained by some 
twenty-five descendants of persons buried in St. John’s Church- 
yard, which belongs to the Trinity corporation, and for which the 
city has offered the sum of $520,000 in order to turn it into a 
public park. The lawyer contends that the Trinity corporation 
has no right to sell it, that the lots occupied were originally 
paid for, so that their descendants still own them, as the receipts 
do not show that the land should ever revert to the cemetery 
authorities. He believes the dead have rights, and in any event 
it shall be insisted upon that the bodies be re-interred in Green- 
wood, Woodlawn or some other well known cemetery. It is said 
that the Trinity corporation does not fear any action, claiming 
not to have made a cent from any of its burying grounds. Many 
inquiries have been made by persons having dead in the church- 
yard as to what disposition was going tojoe made of the bodies. 
-if- * * 
A suit in mandamus has been brought against the German 
Roman Catholic cemetory association, Cincinnati, which con- 
trols the St. Mary’s cemetery at St. Bernard to compel the issue 
of a permit to parents for the disinterment of the bodies of their 
two children who died(in 1890. It is desired to remove the bod- 
ies to the German Evangelical cemetery and the directors of the 
Catholic cemetery refuse to allow the disinterment. A similar 
proceeding was begun by the same parties some time ago. and 
the court refused to grant a writ, but since that time a law has 
been passed making it obligatory upon cemetery trustees to 
permit a disinterment upon application of the next of kin, pro- 
vided that no such disinterment shall be made during the 
months of April, May, June, July, August and September, and in 
no event where the deceased has died of a contagious or infec- 
tious disease, and not until a permit has been issued by Jhe local 
health department. In case the directors refuse a permit, the 
act makes it the duty of the Court of Common Pleas to issue a 
writ of mandamus. 
* * * 
Further excavations recently made on the site of the Anglo- 
Saxon Cemetery on the top of High Down Hill, near Worthing, 
England, have yielded some interesting results. The ground 
has been trenched under the direction of Mr. C. H. Read, of the 
British Museum, who regards it as the largest and most impor- 
tant Saxon cemetery yet found in Sussex. Many interments have 
been traced. The most notable discovery has been that of a col- 
