' T 
3So 
this line. U may not be amiss, however, to 
state that as concrete fence posts can be 
made for about 20 cents each that it is 
useless to use wood. 
I wish to especially emphasize the value 
of concrete rubbish boxes. Why use wire or 
wood baskets or' galvanized iron cans? 
Concrete rubbish receptacles can be made 
very pleasing to the eye, and it will not be 
necessary to hide them behind bushes, etc. 
A mould for a very pleasing design can 
be made by any good carpenter. This is 
made much easier if it is square with the 
top and bottom made on a flare, much the 
same style, but larger, than some orna- 
mental waste paper baskets. Each separate 
side of this mould would be alike. To make 
the hollow center, provide a box hinged to- 
gether on the inside, with loose pin butts. 
After the cement has set these pins can be 
pulled out and the box easily removed. No 
bottom is necessary for these boxes. In 
fact, they are better without them because 
they can be laid on their side and the refuse 
removed from both ends. If it is desired to 
have the word “Rubbish” on the sides, pat- 
tern letters can be fastened permanently on 
the mould. 
One of the difficulties in most cemeteries 
is to properly mark the name or number on 
the sections so that each lot holder can 
easily find them. Of course we can buy 
galvanized iron posts and blue enamel signs, 
but these are expensive and at the best are 
not permanent.. Concrete is a factor that 
will help out materially in this line at a 
very small expense. If it is desired to have 
a low stone this can be very easily made 
in the form of a low grave marker with the 
pattern letters on one face. The marker can 
be set at the edge of the section with the 
name or number facing the avenue. A 
very pleasing design, but more complicated 
can be made by using a tapered post with 
a small canopy or hip roofed cap on which 
the lettering is placed. 
In Lincoln Park, Chicago, there are. no 
doubt, the most artistic concrete lamp posts 
to be found anywhere. In order to get a 
pleasing appearance to the concrete the 
surface is washed with a solution of 10 per 
cent hydrochloric acid and water and then 
with clear water. This exposes the fine 
granite pebbles used in the concrete, but 
leaves them sufficiently imbedded in the 
cement to insure them staying there. This 
same design, hut smaller, with a name cap 
instead of the lamp head would make some- 
thing both ornamental as well as permanent, 
and could be made in the winter months. 
I suppose if I say that boundary walls 
can be made indoors. I will be set down as 
one who is over enthusiastic, hut 1 am con- 
vinced that it can be done in part at least. 
I ha\'e in mind a closed panel fence in 
which the posts would protrude from each 
side in the form of pilasters. The space 
between the posts would he one large slab 
of concrete set upon edge. These posts 
could be made on an ordinary chimney 
mould, and the slab could be cast the same 
as the sides for the overboxes. A fence or 
wall, as you may choose to call it. of this 
kind, n feet high, would cost less than 
nO cents a lineal foot and would last forever. 
If much new work is planned sectional 
catch basins can he made, hut as there are 
so many different ideas in this line, it is 
hard to define what would be best. 1 think, 
however, a square mould 8 inches high, 
and about 2 feet square, with a removable 
core or center, would ,make very desirable 
catch basins. 
Then there is sewer pipe. Today there 
are dozens of firms making good, cheap 
moulds for sewer and drain pipe. They are 
much superior to clay tile, and something 
that every cemetery of any jnaterial size 
can use every year. 
I believe that every cemetery of consid- 
erable size, especially the newer ones, should 
own a cement building block machine. Some 
will say cement blocks look cheap, but that 
is only where those unartistic persons have 
tried to imitate the cheapest of stone work 
\iz.. “Rock Face.” If cut stone finishes, or 
oven no imitation at all is used, then con- 
crete blocks are both durable and artistic. 
Think of the shelter houses, wagon sheds, 
tool houses, foundations for green houses, 
and other buildings that could be made in 
the winter months. Such a machine should 
be on the face-down pattern, for the same 
reason as given in making corner posts. 
Space or time does not permit me to tell of 
many other small things that can he added 
to the list enumerated herein. 
One thing of which I have not yet spoken 
is the possibility of doing many things out 
of doors in winter with concrete. Last win- 
ter we built the foundations for a building, 
28x30 feet, during .January when the ther- 
mometer fell nearly to zero. It has given 
no trouble whatever, nor do I expect it to. 
This is accomplished by using chloride of 
calcium in the water used to mix the con- 
crete. The work of course sets very slowly 
under this process, but is is quite satisfac- 
tory. By doing the work at that time, we 
were enabled to begin our superstructure at 
a very early date, and had the building 
nearly finished when the spring work began. 
Let me say here that we, as cemetery 
superintendents advocate a subscription, to 
that worthy trade journal, PARK AND CEM- 
ETERY. hut in, order to keep abreast with 
modern ideas have Mr. Haight club with 
the PARK AND CEMETERY a very worthy 
trade journal published in Detroit, known as 
('’oncrete. The superintendent will then learn 
how many useful things he can, make to 
give “Some Winter Work for Cemetery Em- 
ployees.” 
"Country Cemeteries'” was the sub- 
ject of a suggestive paper by Ezra 
Downs, general manager of the Cem- 
etery Construction Co.. St. Joseph, 
AIo., in which he gave some advice on 
financing and managing country cem- 
eteries, liased on actual experience. 
Me said: 
( AHK OF COUNTKV ( EMFTERIES. 
Ih) Ezra 
From the days when Abraham sought and 
secured from Ephron the cave of Machpilah 
\o bury his dead, and the lime when Joseph 
recorded his solicitude that his hones be 
taken back to his native land for burial, a 
suitable place for the proper sepulchre of 
the dead has been one of the chief consid- 
erations of mankind. And the sentiment 
which give.® this consideration such force 
is one of the factors of civilization: so much 
so that the condition of its cemetery is a 
fair index to the progressiveness of any com- 
munity. In larger cities, the great number 
of burials, the extent and cost of the land 
necessary, sanitary and other considerations 
have compelled an improvident race, espe- 
cially unwilling to consider its final earthly 
end, much less prepare for it; to give this 
matter some thought and care, and some 
system and improvement has resulted. Yet, 
it must be admitted, that even where ceme- 
teries are best cared for there is still no 
other institution in which so large a part 
of the community is so deeply interested, 
that receives so little expenditure of money 
or time. But in most rural communities, 
conditions prevail that are astonishingly 
primitive. The attention of the writer was 
first called to this anomalous condition 
nearly twenty years ago, and in an acutely 
painful way, by his being obliged to bury 
his child in a country cemetery in 
a well-to-do community. It was a nice 
plat of ground, with plenty of good monu- 
ment.s, but a great superabundance of weeds, 
briars and brush. His deep sense of mortifi- 
cation at this disgraceful condition, led him 
to the considerations and observations which 
have resulted in the conclusions of this 
paper. On.e of the most striking facts mani- 
fest on. this occasion, and also at every sub- 
sequent funeral that he ever attended in a 
country cemetery was that the patrons of 
the cemetery deeply deplored the desola- 
tion. Another equally striking fact was that 
the lack of care does not exist because of 
any unwillingness on the part of the patrons 
to pay out money for the improvement of the 
cemetery. There is today, scarcely a coun- 
try cemetery anywhere, which does not have’ 
already invested in it in marble, a sum. 
which, if placed at interest would produce 
income sufficient to maintain it in the best 
of care year after year. As far as the 
writer’s observation goes the amount in- 
vested in monuments in a community will 
approximate tlie amount of the capital of 
all banks in tlie same community, yet the 
hanks of a county will employ a hundred 
competent men all their time while the 
cemeteries have a few of the cheapest men 
a part of the time. And it has been a long 
time thus. Y'et the people care. The writer 
does not recall a single instan.ce in twenty 
years of going to a country funeral that he 
did not hear expressions of regret and hu- 
miliation of the uncared for condition of 
“God’s Acre.” Any plan that will afford 
