PARK AND CEMETERY. 
G50 
men. From this a ready comparison may 
be made with the expense of the five 
horse-equipments and drivers displaced, 
while the motor has many incidental ad- 
vantages. 
A Question Box inquiry regarding 
the admission of automobiles in cem- 
eteries showed they were admitted with 
the usual limitations, in a large num- 
ber of the cemeteries represented, and 
were prohibited in nine cemeteries. 
A paper on the use of Calcium Chlo- 
ride on cemetery roads was read by 
Walter G. Mortland, of Pittsburgh, Pa., 
and the same subject was informally 
discussed by S. G. Howe, of the Howe 
Chemical Road Co., Detroit, Mich. At 
noon the party departed by special train 
on the Baltimore & Ohio R. R. for Wil- 
mington, Del., as guests of the Wil- 
mington members of the executive com- 
mittee. Autos were in waiting at the 
station on arrival in Wilmington and 
the visitors were soon enjoying the 
natural beauties of Brandywine park, 
en route to W'ilmington and Brandy- 
wine Cemetery. This cemetery, estab- 
lished in 1845, comprises 33 acres. 
Samuel C. Penrose, the superintendent, 
has been a member of the A. A. C S. 
since 1904. After a brief stop the party 
proceeded to Riverview Cemetery, 
where luncheon was served on the lawn. 
Rev. D. E. Bushnell, of Chattanooga, 
Tenn., asked the blessing and Supt. Wil- 
liam J. Quigley extended a cordial 
greeting to the assembled guests. 
Twenty-five ladies attired in white 
dresses did the serving. A group pic- 
ture was taken here, with Mr. Albert 
W. Smith, president of Wilmington- 
Brandywine Cemetery, aged 94 years, as 
its central figure. Riverview Cemetery 
comprises fifty-two acres. It was incor- 
porated in 1873 and is controlled ex- 
clusively by lodges and encampments 
of the I. O. O. F. and Knights of 
Pythias. Returning to the city the prin- 
cipal residence and business districts 
were covered and many places of his- 
toric interest pointed out. An itinerary 
of the trip in the form of a circular 
furnished with the compliments of J. 
B. Martin, undertaker, is authority for 
the statement that T. Coleman du Pont, 
president of the widely known powder 
company, is planning to build a boule- 
vard 102 miles long through Delaware 
which he proposes to give to the state. 
One of the cars in the procession of 
autos was the motor funeral car oper- 
ated by Lawncroft Cemetery, a new 
cemetery situated midway between Wil- 
mington and Chester. The car will ac- 
commodate twenty- four persons and a 
casket. It weighs nearly five tons and 
cost $7,500. Eugene F. White, vice- 
president and manager of Lawncroft, 
was the driver. 
The final day of the convention 
opened with lowering skies and a driz- 
zling rain, but this did not retard very 
many from carrying out the programme 
to the final letter. A special steamer, 
the Sylvan Dell, carried the party, num- 
bering 175, to Riverton, where the 
nurseries and extensive greenhouses of 
H. A. Dreer, Inc., were inspected under 
the guidance of Manager Eisele. A 
business session was held on the boat, 
at which George W. Creesy, Salem, 
Mass., a charter member of the asso- 
ciation, read the following paper on 
which he referred to the improvements 
made in cemetery management as a re- 
sult of the efforts of this association : 
CEMETERIES TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO 
AND TODAY. 
1887 — 1911. 
By Cieo. W. Creesy, Salem, Mass. 
October 19, 1887, in the office of Spring 
Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio, there as- 
.'tembled twenty-five superintendents, repre- 
senting twelve states. We came together 
at the earnest solicitation of our late 
brother, Charles Nichols, of Newark, N. J. 
Our organization was formed with the ob- 
ject of improving the cemeteries of the 
country, with the father and founder as the 
first president. 
In the next two or three years we visited 
many grounds that were well located, with 
good natural conditions, but suffering from 
want of care, making them unpleasant to 
look upon — gravel paths leading into rear 
lots, mounded graves, high corner posts, 
curbings, hedges, iron rails and fences, sev- 
eral kinds of stone in one lot. very few, if 
rny, flower beds, fewer chapels, no crema- 
tories or mausoleums, and if such grounds 
had a superintendent at that time he was 
fairly well satisfied with such conditions. 
But after much correspondence, in the 
next few years, our association had grown 
in prosperity and numbers, and as the su- 
perintendents met at the annual conven- 
tions and heard the various parts of the 
work expressed and illustrated by viewing 
the grounds under the changed condition.s, 
the marked improvement was soon very no- 
ticeable, as the different men returned to 
their various places and t)egan putting into 
practice what had been suggested. In fact, 
it has been reported that one Board of Di- 
rectors said to their superintendent, "Why, 
we don’t know as we can send you, if you 
are coming back with so many radical 
ideas.’’ 
But a visit today to almost any one of 
the grounds where the superintendent is a 
member of the association will prove that 
the changes seem to warrant the expenditure 
of the superintendent’s trip. and right 
here let me say that we also know of some 
superintendents, who have never joined us. 
copying ideas and plans laid out by our 
association and therefore receiving but not 
giving anything in return. 
Now let us notice briefly what some of the 
improvements are, namely, many curbings 
and hedges removed; graves leveled with 
the sod; gravel wmlks seeded over, thus 
eliminating any visible division line; corner 
posts either flush with the grass or nearly 
so; one monument in the center, instead of 
a large number of stones; many flower beds 
and much ornamental shrubbery; artificial 
ponds spanned by rustic bridges and filled 
with water lilies, etc.; memorial chapels, 
crematories and mausoleums, until now a 
drive into one of our cemeteries under the 
lawn plan is as soothing to the mind and 
eye as a visit to any well kept park, and 
the prospective buyer or older lot owner 
may not need to dread leaving the loved 
ones in such a spot as did our fathers. 
Just a word in regard to the interior or 
office work. I venture to say that twenty- 
five years ago it w'as rather difficult to lo- 
cate a grave that had been used some years 
befoi-s, and a stranger oftentimes had hard 
work to find the spot he wanted to see so 
badly. Today such a stranger may step 
into the office and there, under the card 
catalogue system, locate and learn about all 
the interments in the lot in which he is 
interested and be able to go to such lot 
without any trouble. Perhaps in this re- 
spect there is as great improvement as any 
other line. \.Nevertheless. we who have old 
