220 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
CEMETERY NOTES. 
+ 4 * 
The town of Darlington. Ind., has passed an ordinance pro- 
hibiting any further burials within the corporation limits. 
* * * 
Iowa seems to be a favorite ground of the cemetery vandal. 
Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, has been undergoing an epi- 
demic of petty-thieving about its graves. The only way to pre- 
vent such depredations is arrest and punishment, but to do this 
an effective policing must be temporarily adopted until the 
abuse is checked. 
* * * 
Extensive improvements are contemplated for Oak Hill 
Cemetery, Evansville, Ind. It is probable that the residence and 
outhouses which stand at the entrance to the grounds will be 
cleared away and a handsome building will be erected in their 
place. Considerable attention is to be given to landscape work. 
The trustees intend to spend enough money to make the im- 
provements permanent and attractive. 
* * * 
No more pronounced argument against the Sunday funeral 
is needed than the unseemly behavior of the curious crowds 
which on that day invade such cemeteries as are public and free 
of access. Frequent items are now appearing in the press re- 
garding these Sunday disturbances, in most cases the cemetery 
officials declaring it impossible to prevent it, thus leaving no al- 
ternative but a discontinuance of the practice as far as possible. 
* * * 
The Catholic Cemetery Association of St. Lawrence, New 
Haven, Conn., has recently acquired a very large parcel of land, 
sufficient for burial purposes for many decades to come. The 
organization has for its object the provision for burial of the 
Catholic dead of the city, and, as the St. Bernard Cemetery is 
practically filled, more land was necessary. The property is 
about two thirds of a mile square. It is proposed to prosecute 
improvements on the tract without unnecessary delay. 
* * * 
The beauty of Newton, Mass., Cemetery has been seriously 
marred by the drying up of their three lakes, due to the sewers 
constructed by the City of Boston along its boundary streets. It 
has not only injured the picturesqueness of the cemetery, but 
caused pecuniary loss in reduced values, and demands for lots 
about the three lakes. The cemetery corporation asks the city to 
supply the lakes with water from the mains to reinstate the 
ponds, which will probably be done. 
* * * 
There is beginning to be considerable thought given to the 
improvement of many of our old rural cemeteries, and it cer- 
tainly is time, says J. H. Hale in the Connecticut Comet. “But un- 
der old arrangements of high mounding of the graves and no 
particular system of grading it is impossible to work a lawn 
mower, and very difficult by any other means to keep the grass 
well cut and everything tidy. In a number of the old cemeteries 
a regrading of the grounds is going on and the mounds made so 
low and easily rounding that a lawn mower can be worked to 
advantage. But some owners of lots object to any changes being 
made, feeling that it is a sort of desecration to have the graves 
altered from their original forms, and where these prejudices 
cannot be overcome there can be no systematic improvement of 
the entire cemetery.” This suggests continual effort in the di- 
rection of educating the lot-owners to the advantages of modern 
improvements. 
* * * 
Reading, Pa., is famed for its beautiful location and for the 
fact that its public grounds have been largely gifts to the people. 
Charles Evans Cemetery, consisting of 127 acres, beautifully sit- 
uated, was donated by a wealthy, childless lawyer of that name, 
who was born in Philadelphia in 1768. The story of the gift is 
told thus: An old friend, Mrs. Thomas Morris, who delighted in 
dainty dishes, occasionally sent to Mr. Evans some of the work 
of her own hands. These attentions so pleased and gratified him 
that he on one occasion asked her what he could do in return. 
She replied: “Nothing for myself personally, but let me beg 
that you will give your beautiful plot of ground, with its lovely 
views, to the city as a cemetery.” And he did it. Reading is as 
much indebted to Mrs. Morris as to Mr. Evans for the gift. Its 
Board of Trustees consists of thirteen of Reading’s best citizens, 
several in years past having adorned high places in the govern- 
ment, and it is considered to be an honor to be one of them. 
* * * 
In reply to a correspondent in The Ainerica, 7 i Florist asking 
for the six best hybrid perpetual ro.es, two each of white, rose 
and pink, suitable for cemetery planting in a light sandy soil, Mr. 
Wm. Scott replies: It is a pity the soil is light and sandy, for 
that is not the texture conducive to the production of good roses 
or a long crop. The name applied to this large and beautiful 
class of roses is quite misleading; they are hardy, it’s true, but 
by no means “perpetual,” and less so in this country than in 
Europe. Before planting, which is best done in the spring, 
your “light, sandy soil” should receive a third of its bulk of cow 
manure. There is such a long list of fine roses it is difficult to 
choose such a limited list as six, so I have mentioned twelve. 
The first six can be chosen if you please — Baron Bonstetten and 
General Jacqueminot, crimson; Mrs. John Laing and John Hop- 
per, rose or pink; Mme. Plantier and Coquette des Alpes, white. 
Then there is La Brilliante and Senator Vaisse, crimson or deep 
red; Paul Neyronand Ulrich Brunner, pink; Mabel Morrison, 
a grand white flower, and Margaret Dickson, almost white. 
* * * 
The following is a description of the grave of the late George 
M. Pullman in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. Whether the 
fear of ghouls and vandals warrants taking a stride back into the 
ages is a question for thought: A rectangular pit was dug thir- 
teen feet long, nine feet wide and eight feet deep, upon the bot- 
tom of which a flooring of concrete bondedwith bands of metal ana 
18 inches thick was laid. The work was done with the utmost care. 
After the services the casket, inclosed in a heavy lead lined 
mahogany box, was lowered into the grave and then workmen 
wrapped the box in tar paper with an inch coating of asphaltunr 
surrounding this to exclude all ingress of air. The casket was 
then surrounded with concrete to the level of its top. Eight 
heavy steel “T” rails were next laid across the concrete and 
these were tied by two long iron bolts passing through the rails 
A half-inch space was left between the box and under side of 
rails, and a protection was placed over the box to preserve this 
space. Concrete was again deposited in the hole, covering the 
steel rails for a considerable depth. Metal bonding was used 
throughout the concrete work to insure absolute permanency. 
When the grave was covered in and sodded no sign was apparent 
of the extraordinary sepulchre beneath. 
* * * 
Eve Brodlique, writing to the Chicago Record , thus de- 
scribes the cemetery adjacent to Glasgow Cathedral, Scotland: 
Outside, the slanting churchyard is literally paved with stony 
slabs, and across the “Bridge of Sighs” rises the necropolis on 
its hill, a mountain ot monuments as solemn background to the 
ancient church. It is the most remarkable cemetery I ever saw, 
the paths winding round and round until the whole city of pil- 
lars and shafts and pointed stones ends in the gigantic monu- 
ment to John Knox, fitly, from a Scotch view, topping all. There 
are learned names a-plenty in this great necropolis, Dr. William 
