122 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
f -/&-©©# CEMETERY NOTES. (0s©®^ J 
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The receptacles for dead children in Spain are coffins of pink, 
blue, or gray tint, which are carried open to the grave. 
* * * 
South Bend, Ind. , is grappling with the all important ques- 
tion of a new city cemetery. A new cemetery is an absolute 
necessity it is declared by its leading journal and the city must 
either purchase a site or a private corporation must be formed 
for the purpose. 
* * * 
The suburb of Hendon, north of London, England, has a 
tavern in a churchyard, with tombstones all around it, which 
has been kept there for many hundred years, and is the only 
licensed house in such a place. The original building was burned 
down 200 years ago, the present house having been built soon 
after the restoration of Charles II. 
* * *■ 
Some enterprising manufacturers have been putting on the 
market rattan coffins, which, however, do not seem to have at" 
traded much more than passing attention due to the novelty of 
the thing. The material is interwoven on the basket idea and 
finished around the top in an appropriate pattern, arrangement 
being made to slide the lid into place to secure it. It is finished 
in white enamel, and a copper lining forms a receptacle for the 
body. 
* * * 
The annual report of Woodmere cemetery, Woodmere j 
Mich., gives the following figures: Total receipts $37,905.86, 
which includes: sales of lot $14,894 70, labor on lots, etc., $16,- 
283.86, sundries, 804.45. Total expenditure, $28,408.64, which 
includes improvements $3575. ; labor, $1 3,857.74; expense ac- 
count $7438.33. Number of interments 1,609. An analysis of 
the labor record shows that there were expended on improve- 
ments 2,860 days; care of the grounds 2,790 days; digging graves 
and care of same 1,957 days, and on miscellaneous work 979. 
* * * 
There is now a cemetery law in New York state which while 
exempting cemetery lots from confiscation and sale, provides for 
the collection of the assessments levied under this law in pre- 
cisely the same manner as school taxes are collected. Hillside 
Cemetery, Middletown, N. Y., recently came under the law and 
an assessment of $2 a lot was levied on its lot-owners. Assess- 
ments can be levied only when needed for the proper mainten- 
ance of cemeteries and in no case can they be imposed oftener 
than once in twelve months. A full and complete account of ex- 
penditures is required from all cemetery authorities levying as- 
sessments for maintenance. 
* * * 
Many items occur in the exchanges relative to the organiza- 
tion of local committees having in view the improvement of the 
cemetery. Among them are: Kyle River, 111 .; Oakland ceme- 
tery, Centerville, la., where the Ladies’ Cemetery Association 
organized a flower carnival for raising funds; Whiting, Me., 
where an organization has been formed to raise funds and report 
upon enlargement and improvement; in May and June in Clark 
Co., Ind., a series of festivals are held for raising funds and 
otherwise providing for the care of the rural cemeteries; residents 
of Bennington Centre, Vt., are at work raising funds to renovate 
the old cemetery, which contains the remains and tombs of so 
many of Vermont’s celebrated people. 
* * * 
The annual meeting of the Allegheny, cemetery, Allegheny, 
Fa., was held June 25th. The report shows that the financial 
depression was also felt here. There were sold 44 lots at a total 
of $19,294 25 and the number of lot-owners is now 5,181. T he 
estimated cost of the 290 memorials erected during the year is 
$65,000, much less than for many previous years; these in- 
cluded 10 monument, 55 tombs and 225 head markers. There 
were 896 interments made giving a total in the cemetery of 39,- 
574, of which 10,500 are in single graves. The total receiptsfor th e 
year were $5 5, 764 and disbursements $38 290. The total invested 
capital from which the cemetery gets interest, except cash bal- 
ance in bank is $493,566 from which must be deducted the lot- 
holders endowment fund amounting to $36,010. The cemetery 
suffered very severely from the unprecedented wind and ram 
storms through the year. 
* * * 
The method of disposing of the dead by dessication is pro- 
posed to be tried on a large scale by a mausoleum company in 
New York City. The project comprises the erection of a build- 
ing near High Bridge, with a capacity of 10,000 bodies, to be 270 
feet long, 75 feet deep and three stories high. The interior will 
be divided into sections with main corridors and diverging halls. 
The partitions between the niches containing the bodies will be 
of concrete without seam or joint, 4 inches thick. The niches 
will be a little larger than an ordinary coffin. The opening in 
these will be by two doors, the inner one of plate glass to be 
hermetically sealed after it is occupied, the outer one will be of 
bronze or other ornate material having the requisite inscriptions 
and other data. Dessication is carried out by means of a circu- 
lation of air made chemically pure by passing oversulphuric acid, 
and afterwards by heat. The process continues for three months. 
* * * 
Considerable of the history of Cleveland, O., is associated 
with the old Erie street cemetery, which was donated to the city 
in 1826, and which must in a few years be redeemed for other 
uses. The plot is 375 feet wide in Erie street, runs back 1163 
feet to Brownell street and extends north from Erie court to 
Summer street. Although opened in 1826, a large number of re- 
movals from other cemeteries were made, and as the city only 
possesses records of the cemetery back to 1840, it would seem a 
proper suggestion that the Historical Society gather up all the 
data which the fast decaying tombs and gravestones offer to fill 
in the history of the city. It is estimated that some 22,000 bodies 
have been buried since 1826; there are 4,000 brick graves, and 14 
private vaults. The oldest stone is one in memory of Rebekah 
Carter, who died in 1803. While many of the most prominent 
poineers of Cleveland are buried here, the monuments and stones 
are very variable in kind, and the elements have played the 
usual havoc with the older ones constructed in the earlier years. 
* * * 
The report of George H. Gilbert, architect, on the condition 
of the Allyn Memorial Chapel, in Spring Grove Cemetery, 
Hartford, Conn., recently transferred to the cemetery association, 
recommends that all the joints in the dome and the upper part 
of the structure be raked out two inches and made solid with ce- 
ment mortar or liquid grout, the side walls to be treated with 
elastic cement. The joints and other work should be cleaned 
with acid to remove the efflorescence which now disfigures the 
building. The turrets at the corners to be reset and made true, 
the ground at the base of the structure to be raised and to have 
a slope to prevent water from percolating into the foundations. 
He also recommends the filling of the crypts, which have never 
been used, with sand and that the floor be relaid with tile. The 
efflorescence on the inside, which has ruined the fine decorative 
work should be cleaned off and the broken terra cotta replaced. 
Perhaps faulty construction, but certainly neglect is answerable 
for this condition. It points a moral in regard to the care that 
should be bestowed on cemetery structures. 
