206 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
suits. The Receiving Tomb is built of Barre granite, an i is 
over all 38' 6" X 50', this includes wings in which the catacombs 
are located. The porte cochere is 19 ft. by 20 ft. The trim- 
mings and corners are hammer dressed and filling rock face. A 
dome, 21 ft. square rising 5 ft . 6 in. surmounts the structure. 
The building contains 120 catacombs of various sizes, constructed 
of Vermont marble with polished marble covers and bronze 
handles. All walls and ceilings are wainscoted with polished 
marble. The cemetery is beautifully located and commands 
so ne delightful landscape views, including some reaches of the 
I’oestenkill river. 
* * * 
In contrast with cemeteries conducted for profit it is refresh- 
ing to read particulars of the annual meeting of the Cedar Hill 
Cemetery Association, recently held. The association was in- 
corporated in 1864 and the capital stock was made 150,000. The 
funds from cemetery were to be used m meeting necessary ex- 
penses for care and enlargement, except such amounts as might 
be applied to the repayment of the capital, which with interest 
might be repaid as the corporation should decide. The stock- 
holders have however never asked for interest, and on January 
1, 1895, fifty per cent, of the capital was repaid and on January 
1, 1898, the balance was refunded to the stockholders. In the 
words of the Hartford Times: “There is no longer a particle 
of stock in existence in connection with the property. It is now 
owned by the lot owners, and will be managed by them, the 
stock having been entirely elimipated. The achievement is one 
that deserves special commendation. It could not have been 
effected but for the fact that the stockholders were willing to al- 
low the use of the capital without interest in developing and im- 
proving the grounds. In consequence of this record the annual 
meeting was one of great interest. The original intent of the 
association has been accomplished. Hereaiter the sale of lots 
will assist in the creation of a fund for the care of the ceme- 
tery and for new improvements. The expenses from year 
to year will also be defrayed from the same general source of in- 
come. A new era in the history of the association has been 
reached,” and we would add that opportunities unexcelled are 
offered for making Cedar Hill an ideal spot in every sense. At 
the election of officers Mr. Robert Scrivener was re elected sup- 
erintendent. 
The Dead Gardener. 
What bloom shall we lay on his fingers cold 
Who lieth at length in his shroud. 
The blossoms that blazon their beauty bold 
Or the shy little wildling that hardly can hold 
Its head erect in a crowd ? 
The lordly lily and queenly rose 
He watered and trellised well, 
Yet he loved the tiniest flower that blows, 
And only the heel trodden daisy knows 
Where the dew of his tear drop fell. 
— Marion M. Miller in Criterion. 
The Mayor of Clinton, la. , in the course of a message to 
the council vetoing a resolution relating to the erection of a 
warehouse on the levee, says: “Unobstructed levees, for the 
transaction of public business, parks and broad avenues perform 
a useful function. No community should be so short-sighted as 
to abridge its business facilities or contract its breathing spacesj 
The tendency now-adays is decidedly for ‘expansion.’ Cities are 
everywhere awakening to the necessity of extending and beauti- 
fying their park reserves. All up and down the river our sister 
cities are beginning to appreciate the advantages of river front 
parks and improved levees. Winona is a marked example. Im- 
provement is the order of the day. The fever of civic pride is 
in the air— I hope it is catching, and that we are not immunes. 
The value to a city of well kept levees, streets and parks cannot 
be expressed in dollars and cents, yet there is a commercial 
value attached. The impression produced upon strangers, is 
one of feeling and cannot be catalogued or listed in an inven- 
tory. A community is ‘sized up’ not only by the character of its 
buildings private and public, but by the character of its streets, 
levees and parks as well. The approach to our city from the 
river should be attractive, and it can be made so.” Let the good 
work go on. 
LEGAL. 
LIABILITY FOR POISONING FROM ALLOWING POISON IVY TO 
GROW ON GRAVE. 
What will at once be seen to be a novel point for litigation 
was involved in the recent case of George against Cypress Hills 
Cemetery. By the verdict of the jury in this case the defendant 
corporation was held chargeable with negligence in allowing 
poison ivy to grow upon the grave of the plaintiff’s husband, in 
its cemetery, so that she was severely poisoned by such ivy while 
she was engaged about the grave in planting flowers. 
The grave in question was situated in a part of the ceme- 
tery described as the “public ground,” in which persons buy 
graves for $12 each. According to the superintendent’s testi- 
mony, “the cemetery does not own the soil, but the purchasers 
buy the graves out and out, and they have jurisdiction them- 
selves over the grave.” But the second appellate division of the 
supreme court of New York says that in this view of the legal 
relation of the parties, the witness was in error, as it appeared 
that the plaintiff received a mere ticket of interment. The po- 
sition of the plaintiff, as the purchaser of the grave, the court 
holds, was analogous to that of the owner of a church pew. She 
had acquired the right to use it for a certain purpose, and the 
right of access to it, under such rules and regulations as the 
corporation was empowered by law to establish. 
Having regard to the control which the law gave to the 
corporation, and which it actually exerted within the limits of 
the cemetery, the court thinks its officers and agents were bound 
to exercise reasonable care not to permit the introduction into 
the lots, or upon or about the graves, of anything which thev 
knew, or ought to have known, would constitute an unusual 
source of danger to persons lawfully visiting such lots or graves. 
Whether poison ivy comes within this class of perils, it suggests' 
may be doubted. 
Assuming, however, that the corporation’s representatives 
in the management of the cemetery knew that poison ivy was 
likely to be harmful to a considerable proportion of the persons 
who might be unfortunate enough to touch it, the extent of their 
duty, as it seems to the court, was measured by the obligation 
to exercise reasonable care to prevent the presence of the plant 
about or among the graves. The corporation certainly was not 
an insurer against its appearance in places where it might do in- 
jury. It was bound to do only what an ordinarily prudent per- 
son would do to avert danger from this source. 
Moieover, while the court maintains that the corporation 
could not be held exempt from responsibility for the negligence 
of its agents and servants on the ground that it was a charitable 
corporation, it reverses the judgment of the lower court against 
the corporation, because it thinks that the facts disclosed 5 were 
not such as to render it liable, the corporation only mowing and 
cleaning up this part of the cemetery once or twice a season, 
and doing nothing more there except when specially paid to 
care for particular graves, attention being called to the fact that 
the court did not deem that the proof would fairly warrant the 
inference that the ivy which poisoned the plaintiff had been 
there long enough to justify a holding that the corporation, in 
the exercise of reasonable care, was bound to know of its pres- 
ence in that part of the cemetery, though it was known to be in 
a wholly different locality. 
A very lengthy dissenting opinion is filed, and supported by 
two members of the court, who think that the judgment of the 
court below ought to stand. 
