394 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
poses, of which 50 acres are now being platted. Improve- 
ments under way at present include an entrance gateway, 
receiving tomb, fencing, etc. The officers of the company are 
Otto A. Fisher, president; Alonzo G. Fisher, secretary; Al- 
fonso F. Fisher, superintendent. 
A new Catholic cemetery to be used by all South Side 
Catholic churches of Milwaukee, and to take the place of 
Trinity Cemetery, which is now filled, has been purchased 
by the Milwaukee Archdiocese for $31,500. The new burial 
tract is on Western avenue and covers sixty-two and three- 
fourths acres. 
Calvary Cemetery, a new Catholic burial ground on the 
Marlton pike, below Camden, N. J., was recently conse- 
crated and dedicated with impressive ceremonies. 
The new Catholic cemetery, located on Old Montgomery 
road, just below Hollywood, near Houston, Tex., was conse-, 
crated in June. 
A new cemetery is being laid out at Branford, Conn. 
The Pleasant View Cemetery, of Lyons, N. Y., has been 
incorporated. M. P. Tufts is president and Mary W. Haner 
secretary. 
A ten-acre tract has been donated to the town of Plain 
Dealing, La., for a cemetery. 
The Willard Park Cemetery Company, of Roane County, 
Tenn., capitalized at $1,000 and incorporated by J. S. Knight, 
J. B. Bodwell, A. Jones, George Vanderpile, J. A. Tenny and 
E. S. Reeves. 
The Southdale Cemetery Association, of Southdale, Lu- 
zerne County, Pa., has been incorporated. 
THE UNDERTAKER AND THE CEMETERY 
SUPERINTENDENT. 
(Paper read by W^. N. Rudd, of Chicago, before the convention 
of Illinois Undertakers.) 
Perhaps there are no two classes of business men whose 
duties throw them into closer and more intimate contact than 
the undertaker and the cemetery superintendent. It goes with- 
out saying that the relations between them should be of the 
most cordial and friendly nature. Both are dealing with the 
public at times and under circumstances the most trying, and 
are subject frequently to the most caustic and unjust criticism. 
The mental condition of our clients at the time when they have 
need of our services is and always will be, such that they can- 
not take a sane view of matters. Trifles are magnified, un- 
reasonable demands are made, and unjust criticism, to be ac- 
cepted and borne without retort, is given to us full measure. 
We are all of us human and hence prone to make mis- 
takes. The undertaker sometimes forgets the rough box, or 
telephones the wrong time of arrival, or the wrong size for the 
grave. In such cases, gentlemen, always tell your people 
that it is all due to the carelessness and incompetence of the 
superintendent ; that this is not the first time he has done you 
up in this manner and you are going to take immediate steps 
to have him removed. He will like it — ;and he won’t forget 
you. 
On the other hand, I am told— it never occurs in my 
cemetery, no never — that some of my misguided brother super- 
intendents occasionally open a grave three inches too short 
for the box, or get it in the wrong location, or don’t have it 
quite ready when the funeral arrives. In such cases the 
rule of course should be to whisper to the friends that the 
incompetent, careless scamp of an undertaker must have 
been intoxicated when he gave you the order, because you 
were particular to ask him twice over about it, and have 
followed his instructions to the letter. That he is always 
making blunders and you suppose, as usual, he will try and 
saddle this on you ; and then you shake your head menacingly 
and give out dark threats about what you are going to do. The 
undertaker will like it, and he won’t be apt to forget it either. 
If both parties will systematically follow out this course, a 
state of affairs will eventuate which can only be compared to 
the relations between a small boy and a colony of hornets, 
after the small boy has done business with a stone — that is, 
the relations between the undertaker and the superintendent 
will be a trifle strained — and they will not either of them 
make any money by it. 
Nine out of ten of the annoying little slips which are 
constantly occurring, can be rendered harmless if there is a 
thorough and kindly understanding between a tactful under- 
taker and a tactful superintendent, and permit me to say 
right here, that no man who does not possess a large share 
of tact, has any business in either calling. Many of my brother 
superintendents in the smaller cemeteries and in the smaller 
towns have a hard row to hoe, and I wish to appeal to you 
gentlemen to stand with them, and help them out in their 
struggle for better conditions in the cemeteries of which they 
are in charge. The cemetery superintendent is constantly 
planning for the future good of his cemetery, constantly 
fighting the erection of unsightly monumental structures, and 
so-called improvements by lot owners which will be eyesores 
in the landscape for all future time. He is confronted by the 
ignorance and thoughtlessness of the lot owner, and, too often, 
hampered by lack of support, both financial and moral, of 
those in control over him. 
You, gentlemen, having the knowledge of such things, 
occupying an independent and disinterested position, and 
coming in such close touch with the people, can do more to 
lighten the burdens and smooth the pathway of my hard 
working brethren than any other class of men. Let me ask 
you to turn in and give hearty support to your superintendent 
in his efforts to make his cemetery a place of beauty rather 
than a stone dealer’s sample yard. Teach the people that in- 
dividual whims must be subordinated to the general welfare ; 
that the beautiful cemetery must be a beautiful whole, brought 
about by order, harmony and design, loyally supported by 
each lot and grave owner; that because it is “my lot” does not 
give me the right to maintain it in a manner offensive to 
others, nor to place on it objects which will destroy the 
effect of the carefully laid plans of years ago. Because little 
Willie had a rocking-horse and a bag of marbles, is no reason 
for using the rocking-horse and the marbles to decorate 
his grave, and because the babj wore shoes, is no reason for 
filling them with wax flowers, putting them in a glass case 
and adorning the cemetery lot with them. Because there is 
sorrow In the family, it is no evidence of sympathy on our part 
to allow them to carry out foolish notions which will subject 
them to ridicule or contemptuous pity. It is only an evidence 
of weakness. The part of true kindness lies in gently, but firm- 
ly, directing them towards better and more seemly things. 
But this is getting away from our subject. 
Let me repeat in closing that the true relationship be- 
tween the undertaker and the cemetery superintendent is that 
of cordial friendship and mutual helpfulness, and that any 
friction between them makes the task of each harder, and the 
services of both less satisfactory to the ones who employ 
them. 
