PARK AND CEMETERY. 
G22 
MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY, JOPLIN, MO. 
Mount Hope Cemetery, located in 
Jasper county, southwest Missouri, on 
the electric car line between Joplin and 
Webb City, is an excellent example of 
what can be accomplished in develop- 
ing a cemetery on the lawn plan in a 
few years. Mount Hope is but a little 
over five years old, but as the illustra- 
tions show, the cemetery has the ap- 
pearance of having been carefully main- 
tained for a much longer time. Its lo- 
cation was well considered, and it lies 
within easy distance of the two cities 
above named, and yet far enough from 
either to render the advance of the 
city limits upon the cemetery grounds to 
be a matter of remote possibility. The 
tract is well located and has the ad- 
vantages of area and natural character- 
istics which fit it to meet the demands 
of the section of country which it may 
be expected to serve for many years. 
It is conducted on the lawn plan with 
the important feature of perpetual care. 
the fund for which is accumulating by 
the setting aside of a certain percent- 
age of the returns from the sale of all 
lots and single graves, and the invest- 
ment of this percentage in reliable in- 
terest-bearing securities under proper 
safeguards, so that perpetual care goes 
with the sale of every burial lot and 
single grave. Under this arrangement 
all portions of the occupied cemetery 
receive equal care. 
Mount Hope is conducted on non- 
sectarian lines, and is open to all with- 
out regard to religious or fraternal as- 
sociations. 
Its rules and regulations have been 
adopted after careful investigation into 
those governing other important ceme- 
teries of the country, and which have 
been found absolutely necessary to se- 
cure the proper maintenance of an up- 
to-date burial park. These rules and 
regulations are not only adopted to de- 
fine the relations of lot owners to their 
ownership in the cemetery, but they 
also point out to the superintendent his 
duties. The superintendent must per- 
mit nothing to be done on the grounds 
that would in the slightest degree be 
detrimental to the maintenance of the 
landscape beauty and general appear- 
ance of the cemetery. 
The association has recently pub- 
lished a handsomely illustrated pamphlet 
with a large number of attractive views, 
from which the three herewith given 
have been selected. They show a very 
important feature of landscape work 
in this cemetery — the free distribution 
of appropriate trees and shrubbery to 
form settings for the monuments, as 
well as in combination to present va- 
riety of treatment to secure contrasting 
as well as harmonious effects. 
The plans were prepared by Mr. Sid 
J. Hare, landscape architect, and they 
have been ably carried out by Mr. T. N. 
Campbell, superintendent. 
HOW TO BEAUTIFY A COUNTRY CEMETERY 
Some few weeks back Mr. J. T. Got- 
ten, secretary and treasurer of Oakland 
Cemetery, Weatherford, Texas, offered 
a prize of ten dollars in gold for the 
best article on “How to Improve and 
Beautify Oakland Cemetery.” A com- 
petent committee made the award to 
Mrs. J. N. Chandler, whose paper un- 
der the above head appears below: 
Oakland Cemetery. 
This is a very “grave" subject, nay a 
very harrowing subject, for Hamlet says 
that church yards yawn and hell itself 
breathes out contagion. This same Ham- 
let says that graves give up their dead 
and unhallowed ghosts walk until the mid- 
night cock gives warning, that wandering 
spirits must hie them to their narrow 
cells. 
But, the gods be praised, Hamlet lived 
centuries ago, and the evolution of 
thought has brought us to a much more 
hallowed idea concerning our dead; we 
have all come to love any spot which en- 
shrines our departed ones, and I hope that 
we of Weatherford will so direct oui 
thoughts and actions that Oakland Ceme- 
tery will become the pride of every one in 
our community. Now, it is a bare plot — 
seemingly a waste impossible to treat, but 
wait just a little while and it will blossom 
as a rose. 
The subject is timely for some interest- 
ing retrospect. As long as there have 
been inhabitants on this earth, there has 
been a disposal of the dead. But, listen 
to the manner in which this has been 
done and to the peculiar customs which 
have prevailed. One sect exposed each 
body to have the soft tissues torn away 
by the vultures and then placed the bones 
in a box - for preservation. This custom 
still holds with some South Amei'ican 
tribes. The Chinese today hold annual 
dances over the graves of their departed. 
The Indians of North Carolina laid their 
corpses on the ground, covered them with 
a thin coat of clay and burned the whole. 
The Kaffirs place their dead in sitting pos- 
ture. Some tribes lay their bodies upon 
platforms , in trees to protect them from 
ravenous beasts. The very first sepulchres 
were the Egyptian tombs hewn in the 
cliffs along the river Nile. As the In- 
dians gave their men the bow and arrow 
for the “Happy Hunting Ground” — so the 
Egyptians gave their women their box of 
cosmetics, so that they might make a 
good appearance before Charon, who was 
to row them across the river Styx. 
France has a curious burial custom. Ev- 
ery dead body is taxed, every one who 
serves at the funeral is paid, the sacristan 
who opens the church, the priest, who in- 
tones the prayer, the men who carry the 
body; we have all heard of the wake and 
the paid mourners. How different from 
us, who have the refining influences of the 
highest civilization. The laying away of 
our dead is the labor of friendship and 
of love, nay the privilege rather than the 
duty. Grief has lost its character of de- 
spair; we soften its pangs by lining our 
graves with flowers and foliage; we cover 
the clods with beautiful blossoms, we give 
every evidence of respect and affection. 
Our cemeteries are more and more becom- 
ing beauty spots. 
In the old world as well as the new, the 
tourist always wends his way to the at- 
tractive cemeteries. 
The most interesting one in all the 
world is that of Pompeii, the city which 
nature buried, and which man is resur- 
recting. There is never a visitor to Paris 
who does not take time to go out to “Pere 
La Chaise” to place a flower to the mem- 
ory of those lovers, Abelard and Heloise, 
the two who were divided in life but unit- 
ed in death. We go to “Pere La Chaise” 
not because it is the mausoleum of the 
nation's intellect, but because all the 
world loves a lover. Our own New Or- 
leans cemetery attracts world-wide inter- 
est, because of its system of overground 
buried. 
Our interest turns to the ludicrous, 
when in browsing about old cemeteries we 
find such quaint inscriptions as: 
“Here lies the Body of Thomas Woodhen, 
The most lovable of husbands and the 
most amiable of men. 
N. B. — His name was Woodcock, but it 
would not rhyme. 
Or still again: 
“Here lies a poor woman. 
Who always was tired 
For she lived in a house 
Where help was not hired. 
Her last words on earth were: 
Dear friends, I am going 
Where washing aint done. 
Nor sweeping nor sewing 
And everything there 
Is exact to my wishes, 
Fcr where they don’t eat 
There's no washing of dishes. 
I'll be where loud anthems 
Will always be ringing. 
But having no voice 
I’ll get clear of the singing. 
Don’t mourn for me now. 
Don’t mourn for me, never — 
I'm going to do nothing 
Forever and ever.” 
By the way, it is found that the com- 
monest tombstone inscriptions are, “In the 
midst of life we are in death,” “His end 
was peace.” and “He tempers the wind to 
the shorn lamb.” 
