251 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
The development of the A. A. C. S. means better ceme- 
teries and this means better positions for better men and 
more of them. 
Man}- excellent suggestions have heretofore been made, 
looking to the betterment of the cause. Will any concrete 
action be taken upon them before the Washington meeting? 
h.D\v.\RD G. Carter, Supt. Oak Woods Cemetery. 
Chicago. 
* * * * 
Badges and Cards at the Convention, 
Editor Park and Cemetery: — The writer has been much 
interested in the convention reforms discussed in Park and 
Cemetery, and wishes to make one more ; and that is, to do 
away with the button or badge. To my individual taste this 
is even worse than the go-cart procession. The small poli- 
tician glories in the flaunting badge, button, or streamer, but 
for a society of gentlemen engaged in the dignified calling 
we represent I cannot help thinking it inappropriate. We go 
to see, not to be seen. 
If the committee of arrangements at Washington will see 
to it that those of ns who have never had the pleasure of vis- 
iting their beautiful city are furnished with the necessary 
information as to the points of greatest interest and supply 
each individual with a card on which his name shall be written 
and countersigned by the committee, that will gain admission 
to any cemetery or building of interest, they will certainly 
confer a favor that will be appreciated. 
Evansville, Ind. Wm. Halbrooks. 
I , Annua/ reports or extracts from them^ historical sketches, 
descriptive circulars, photogi'aphs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use in this department- 
'I'he City Council of Joplin, Mo., recently passed an ordi- 
nance providing that $15,000, received as royalty from a min- 
ing company operating on city property, be donated to the 
improvement of Fairview Cemetery. 
* * * 
The Legislature of New Jersey has passed a bill which re- 
quires the consent of the State Board of Health for the 
establishment of new burial grounds. The bill is said to be 
the result of the opposition of certain property holders of 
Essex County to the establishment of a cemetery there. 
* * * 
A tentative call is being circulated in Michigan looking to 
the forming of a state organization of cemetery officials and 
superintendents. It is confidently expected that sufficient in- 
terest will be aroused to justify holding a meeting the lat- 
ter part of June, at either Lansing or Grand Rapids. 
* * * 
William Allen, secretary of the New England Cemetery As- 
sociation, is sending out 200 application blanks for member- 
ship and letters inviting cemetery superintendents of New Eng- 
land to become members, and expects soon to report a sub- 
stantial increase in membership. The association now has 
36 active members. 
Jay Baker, Dwight, 111 . ; W. N. Rudd, Mt. Greenwood, and 
Edward G. Carter, Oakwoods, Chicago, were in conference last 
month arranging a preliminary program for the annual meet- 
ing of the Illinois Association of Cemeteries, to be held at 
Dwight, October 5. The addresses and topics for discussion 
will include a synopsis of the Washington meeting of the 
Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, report 
of the Committee on State Legislation, Ornamental Planting 
in small cemeteries, Records, and other subjects of special in- 
terest to small cemeteries. 
!K * 
A “prairie” fire which started in a stubble field near Fre- 
mont, Neb., swept through Calvary Catholic Cemetery, black- 
ening some of the gravestones and destroying shrubs and small 
trees. About a hundred cedars and box-elders were killed, as 
were half a dozen fine clumps of shrubbery. The grass was 
all burned from the west half of the grounds. The blaze was 
extinguished by a crowd of men who formed fire fighting de- 
vices by cutting out large chunks of grass sod and using pitch- 
forks for handles and running them over the fire line. The 
chemical department of the city fire apparatus was run to 
the scene, but arrived too late to bd of service. 
>11 =K * 
The Executive Committee in charge of the coming conven- 
tion of the Association of American Cemetery Superintend- 
ents, to be held in Washington, D. C., Sept. 19-22, is desirous 
of having the cemeteries in the neighborhood of that city es- 
pecially well represented^ and has sent letters to cemetery cor- 
porations in towns and cities near there, urging them to send 
representatives. The committee, which is as follows, will be 
glad to furnish any information to cemetery officials in advance 
of the convention: Alexander McKerichar (Glenwood), 
Washington, D. C. ; George M. Painter (Westminster), Phil- 
adelphia; Jas. C. Parkinson, secretary of committee (Green- 
mount), Baltimore, Md. ; John R. Hooper (Hollywood), Rich- 
mond, Va. ; F. W. Borneman (Arlington), Philadelphia, Pa.; 
R. D. Howell (Rock Creek), Washington, D. C. 
* * 
The committee on incorporations of the Legislature of Con- 
necticut reported adversely on a bill to incorporate the 
Colonial Cemetery Company, on the grounds that it was “a 
trifle too broad in its provisions.” The bill states that the 
company was to “procure, establish and maintain burying 
grounds or places of sepulcher, to assume the care and man- 
agement of burying grounds and cemeteries not owned by it, 
to engage in the manufacture, sale and erection of tombs, 
gravestones and monuments, to take and hold by purchase or 
by condemnation or otherwise, such real estate and any inter- 
est therein as may be convenient for the company’s purposes, 
to receive and hold gifts, bequests, legacies and devises for 
its own use or in trust ; to issue bonds, secured by mortgage 
of its property, including franchises and after acquired prop- 
erty, to sell or lease the whole or any part of its property 
and any casements or interest therein, to merge or consolidate 
with other corporations, to purchase, hold and enjoy the stock 
obligations, property, leases and franchises of other corpora- 
tions, and to issue its bonds and full paid stock at par toward 
paying for any such purchase, and for the purchase and 
establishment of any part of its cemeteries.” 
^ ^ 
Homeland Cemetery, in Rootstown, Portage County, O., is 
owned by the township and is under the direction of the 
township trustees. Residents of the township are entitled 
to lots free, non-residents pay $25. An association was formed 
about nine years ago, and rules and regulations adopted, which 
prescribe the charges for opening and closing graves and for 
