PARK AND CEMETERY. 
28 
At a meeting of the trustees of 
the Highland Cemetery Association, 
Wichita, Kas., it was decided to op- 
pose a bill that has been introduced in 
the legislature by Representative 
Jewett and Senator Stewart respec- 
tively. The main objection to the bill, 
the trustees say, is the provision al- 
lowing cemeteries to be owned and 
controlled by corporations under 
which dividends can be declared on 
stock up to the amount of 6 per cent 
on the capital stock. “We do not be- 
lieve that cemeteries should be in the 
control of corporations for the pur- 
pose of making money,” said a trustee 
of the association. Some sections of 
the bill are: 
“Section 1. That all cemetery com- 
panies heretofore organized under 
chapter 23 of the General Statutes or 
Compiled Laws of the State of Kan- 
sas prior to March, 1901, owning or 
controlling a cemetery to a city of 
40,000 or more, having a population 
of 40,000 or more, the land of which 
was conveyed to said company in pay- 
ment of capital stock issued therefor, 
shall be under the management and 
control of directors elected by the 
stockholders thereof, and that all of 
the acts of any board of directors 
heretofore regularly elected by stock- 
holders in any such company which 
would be legal if done by any other 
private corporation, are hereby recog- 
nized, confirmed and made valid, pro- 
vided that from and after this date no 
dividends shall be issued in e.xcess of 
6 per cent on the original capital stock 
of such corporation ,and provided fur- 
ther, that all net earnings in excess 
of 6 per cent shall be set apart for a 
permanent care fund for such ceme- 
tery. 
“Sec. 2. Such permanent care fund 
shall be perpetually held, reserved and 
maintained for the same purposes and 
upon the same terms and conditions 
as provided for in sections 210, 211 
and 212 of article 13 of chapter 18 of 
the Laws of 1901. 
“Sec. 3. That all land held by such 
corporation for cemetery purposes, 
whether platted or not, and all lots 
sold for burial purposes, and all vaults 
and other improvements for such pur- 
poses, shall be e.xempt from public 
taxation while so held; and every lot 
sold and conveyed in such cemetery 
shall be held by the proprietor for the 
purpose of sepulture only, and shall 
not be subject to attachment or execu- 
tion, but such proprietor or purchaser 
shall not be a stockholder or member 
of said corporation by reason of his 
being such purchaser and proprietor.” 
* * * 
Faustino Armendariz, whose twelve 
year old daughter committed suicide, 
recently invoked the aid of the courts 
to bury her body in the family lot 
in the Catholic section of Evergreen 
Cemetery, E Paso, Tex., in spite of the 
Church’s opposition. When applica- 
tion was made to Rev. Father Pinto 
for a permit it was refused on ac- 
count of the child being a suicide. A 
petition for an injunction restraining 
the Evergreen Cemetery company, et 
al, from interfering with the burial of 
the child on the family lot in the 
Catholic cemetery was filed before 
Judge Harper. Deputy Gammel served 
the injunction papers on D. H. An- 
derson, superintendent of the ceme- 
tery, who at first refused to obey the 
injunction and warned the grave dig- 
gers against taking any steps to dig 
the grave. The father, however, se- 
cured help and buried the body. The 
grave was, however, dug three inches 
shallower than required by law. One 
of the olificers of the church an- 
nounces that further action will be 
taken in the matter and is quoted in 
a local intervew as saying: “While 
the act of Armendariz is not one for 
excommunication, he violated three 
laws and rules. He violated a state 
law by not burying the box to the 
proper depth; a law of the cemetery 
association to have a permit before 
burying a body, and the law of the 
Church that a body of a suicide must 
not be buried in consecrated ground.” 
* * * 
During a recent finance committee 
hearing on the matter of the abate- 
ment of the assessment against the 
West Meriden Cemetery Association, 
Meriden, Conn., for a curb, it was 
shown that it had been the custom 
to resell lots in that cemeter 3 ^ Cor- 
poration Counsel H. T. King has since 
caused to be introduced in the legis- 
lature the following bill: 
“Whenever any burial lot in any 
cemetery located within the limits of 
any city has been used as a place of 
interment or burial, and subsequently 
the remains of any persons buried 
therein have been removed therefrom, 
said burial lot so used shall not there- 
after be again used as a place of in- 
terment or burial, nor shall said lot 
be resold by any person or associa- 
tion. 
“Any person or association violat- 
ing the provisions of section 1 shall 
be fined not more than $50.” 
* * * 
An ordinance is to be introduced 
into the Board of Supervisors of Den- 
ver, Col., to prohibit further burials 
in the Catholic and Jewish cemeteries 
adjoining Cheesman Park, in response 
to a petition from which we quote the 
following: 
“These cemeteries are adjoining 
Cheesman park on the east in the 
midst of one of the most desirable 
residence portions of the city, and im- 
mediately adjoining one of our most 
beautiful parks. We feel in common 
with a large majority of the citizens 
of Denver that burials affecting, as 
they do, the comfort, health and 
pleasure of the citizens, as well as the 
beauty of the city, should no longer 
be permitted within its residence 
limits.” 
* * * 
State Senator Wakelee, of New 
Jersey, has introduced what is prac- 
tically the same bill fathered by him 
last year regarding the location of 
new cemeteries, or the extension of 
old ones, in municipalities of that 
state. Senator Wakelee’s bill pro- 
vides that the location of new ceme- 
teries or the extension of old ones 
must be approved first by the munici- 
pal and local health authorities, and 
then by the Board of Chosen Free- 
holders of a county. The present law 
provides for the reference of these 
matters to the State Health Board. 
* * > 1 « 
Maple Hill, the oldest cemetery in 
Minneapolis, which has been aban- 
doned for cemetery purposes for a 
number of years, has been placed in 
charge of the park board and many 
improvements made. It is hoped 
that it will ultimately be turned into 
a park, and a number of the bodies 
have already been removed to other 
cemeteries. 
* * 
Mayor Reyburn ,of Philadelphia, in 
a recent interview favored the taxa- 
tiontion of cemeteries. He declared 
that some of them were extremely 
profitable, and that as they are fre- 
