PARK AND CEMETERY. 
122 
decision in the matter of Vinot would 
scarcely meet with the approval of 
the appellate courts at the present 
time. In the Gould case it was held 
that the property was taxable, al- 
though bequeathed for the purpose of 
satisfying a contractual obligation ex- 
isting at the time of the decedent’s 
death; and in the McAvoy case it 
was held that the bequest was tax- 
able, although the beneficiary received 
it in payment of services to be ren- 
dered thereafter. 
While it has been held that a sum 
spent by an executor in the erection 
of a monument to the decedent is 
exempt (matter of Edgerton’s Estate, 
35 App. Div. 125, 54 N. Y. Supp. 700), 
and that a reasonable sum spent in 
the purchase of a burial plot for the 
That the 203 acres of cemetery land 
in North Arlington, N. J., owned by the 
Catholic diocese of Newark, will be ex- 
empt from taxation is the opinion given 
to the North Arlington Council by Bor- 
ough Counsel John Bell. Mr. Bell an- 
nounced that a recent act of the Legis- 
lature exacted that no one municipiality 
could contain more than 375 acres of 
cemetery land. Besides the Catholic 
Cemetery in North Arlington there are 
two other cemeteries, the West Arling- 
ton and the North Arlington. Each 
one of these contains fifty acres. The 
newly passed legislation provides that 
it is only necessary for a cemetery cor- 
poration to file a resolution to increase 
its acreage with the Council of the 
municipality, and that the Council has 
no option in the matter provided there 
is no more than 375 acres being used 
for cemetery purposes. 
s): * * 
It is reported that eight graves in 
Lone Fir Cemetery, Portland, Ore., 
were recently torn open by a steam 
shovel used by contractors extending 
East Stark street, through a newly pop- 
ulated district. The owners of the 
cemetery, when it became crowded, it is 
said, sold as burial plots portions of 
the land dedicated for a street. The 
burials were made years ago, and as 
relatives of the dead cannot be found, 
no attempt has been made to remove 
the bodies. Unless a retaining wall is 
built it is feared winter rains will cause 
the ground to cave in, exposing more 
graves. The. city authorities are investi- 
gating the matter of taking legal steps 
decedent may be regarded as a part 
of the funeral expenses and, there- 
fore, a proper deduction (matter of 
Liss’ Estate, 39 Misc. Rep. 123, 78 
N. Y. Supp. 969), there is a manifest 
distinction between such expenditures 
made by an executor in his discretion 
and a bequest made by a decedent 
in his last, will to a certain bene- 
ficiary and for a certain specific pur- 
pose. In the latter case the property 
passes to the beneficiary by virtue of 
the provisions in the decedent’s will, 
and as the statute provides that all 
property passing by will (if not going 
to parties specifically pientioned as 
being exempt) is taxable, the bequest 
to the Mt. Auburn Cemetery Associa- 
tion would seem to be taxable. De- 
creed accordingly. 
to force the cemetery authorities to 
build the wall, while the latter maintain 
that this work should be done by the 
city. 
^ if it' 
In the new city manual of Chicago 
Cit}r Statistician Eastman estimates that 
Chicago’s fifty cemeteries contain ap- 
proximately 1,000,000 interments. The 
first Chicago cemetery was laid out in 
1835. It was near Chicago avenue and 
North Clark street and consisted of a 
ten-acre tract. Immediately thereafter 
sixteen acres were set apart on the lake 
shore, now crossed by Twenty-third 
street. John Kinzie, the pioneer, was 
buried in 1828 in a plot on the north 
side of the river, near his homestead, 
and there the soldiers attached to Fort 
Dearborn were laid at rest. Calvary is 
Chicago’s most populous cemetery, 
while New Light, a tract dscribed as at 
“East Prairie road, near Lincoln ave- 
nue, Morton Grove,” reported only 
forty-three burials. 
* * * 
The avenue to the new National cem- 
etery at Zacualpam, Mexico, is com- 
plete and is the broadest street in the 
town. It is planted with double rows 
of trees and is graded. The cemetery, 
recently dedicated, cost in the neighbor- 
hood of $5,000, half of which was do- 
nated by General Fernando Gonzalez, 
governor of the state of Mexico. It 
has one of the finest walls of masonry 
in the state, and within these walls is 
a seemingly bottomless shaft of an old 
mine, which will be used as a receptacle 
for the bones of those who are con- 
signed to the bone-yard, in case of the 
relatives failing to pay the rent for the 
grave in which the body was originally 
deposited. 
* * * 
It was recently decided by the Su- 
preme Court at Olympia, Wash., that 
the law of 1901 authorizing the state to 
sell lands in Columbia county for cem- 
etery purposes is not unconstitutional, 
in deciding the case of J. H. Day and 
others against W. H. Richardson. Day 
and his associates bought the cemetery 
lands and later the state by mistake in- 
cluded these in lands sold Richardson. 
This suit was to regain possession and 
for damages because Richardson tore 
down the fence. The Supreme Court 
gives the cemetery back to Day and or- 
ders Richardson to pay $40 damages. 
!t! * =i< 
At a recent meeting of the cemetery 
trustees of Lansing, Mich., it was de- 
cided to forfeit all lots on which pay- 
ments were not being made regularly 
and the bodies therein will be taken up 
and buried elsevrhere. . This action is 
taken because of the great demand for 
lots in Mt. Elope, and as many of the 
owners of the more desirable ones are 
in arrears the board members felt it 
incumbent upon them to take the drastic 
measure proposed. 
j}t Jft 
The management of Rockford Cem- 
etery association, Rockford, 111., has de- 
cided to discourage Sunday funerals 
and will therefore after September 1 
charge an additional fee of $3 for in- 
terments on Sunday. 
. ^ ^ jK 
Pine Gro.ve cemetery, Wausau, Wis., 
was visited this summer by an army 
of worms which threatened destruction 
to the tamarack trees. 
CEMETERY IMPROVEMENTS 
Lawnview Cemetery, near Fox Chase, 
a Philadelphia suburb, is issuing a se- 
ries of mailing cards of large size, illus- 
trating views of the grounds, and giving 
some printed facts. Recent cards 
showed pictures of the coach that meets 
passengers on the trolley cars, the su- 
perintendent’s office, beautiful drives 
and several lawn views. C. G. Simon, 
Fox Chase, Pa., is superintendent, and 
C. N. Robbins, Odd Fellows .building, 
Philadelphia, secretary. 
One of the concrete public “compart- 
ment mausoleums” containing 420 crypts 
was recently dedicated with much cere- 
mony in the city cemetery at Alliance, 
O. It was built on the patents of the 
National Mausoleum Co., of Shelby, O. 
Another of these structures is under 
way at Toledo, O., and a site has been 
CtnETERY NOTES 
