PARK AND CEMETERY, 
127 
marble and similar material. “Forest Hills,’’ 
Kansas City, Mo., forbids the use of sandstone 
bases under marble or granite monuments. Designs 
of vaults and monuments have to be submitted to 
the cemetery authorities in many places. Where 
brick, marble, slate or other underground grave 
vaults are used, they are, as a rule, put in by the 
cemetery. 
Among the cemetery superintendents and other officials in 
attendance at the convention were: G. W. Beckel, Defiance, 
O.; A. W. lilaine, Detroit, Mich.; W. J. Blain, San Francisco, 
Calif.; J. M. Boxell, St Paul, Minn.; M. P. Brazill, St. Louis, 
Mo.; H. Bresser, Toledo, O. ; W. C. Buchanan, Belleville, 111 ; 
R. D. Boice, Geneseo, 111.; J. F. Boerckel, Peoria, 111.; J. Y. 
Craig, Omaha, Neb ; Geo. W. Creesy, Salem, Mass.; D. C. Cal- 
lahan, Omaha, Neb., E. G. Carter, Chicago; G. J. Chaffee, 
Syracuse, N. Y.; Frank Eurich, Detroit, Mich., A. L. Glaser, 
Dubuque, la., A. J. Graves, Bloomington, 111.; L. C. Glazier, 
Pueblo, Colo.; C. W. Foster, Council Bluffs, la.; Sid. J. Hare, 
Kansas City, Mo.; Wm. Harris, Allegheny, Pa.: A. W. Hobert, 
Minneapolis, Minn.; J. R. Hooper, Richmond, Va.; S. C. Hahn, 
Iowa; George A. Harvey, Belleville, III.; J. H. Fawell, Lincoln, 
Neb; M. M. Jones, Newport, Ky.; R. J. McKee, DesMoines, 
la ; W. A. Morrow, Hillsboro, O ; G. C. Naylor, Wilmington, 
Del.; S. Olsen, Calumet, Mich; G. M. Painter, Philadelphia, 
Pa.; John Reid, Detroit, Mich.;S. W. Rubee, Marshalltown, la.; 
Geo. Ruff, Lincoln, Neb.; W. N. Rudd, Chicago; O. C. Simonds, 
Chicago; Geo. H. Scott, Chicago; G. Scherzinger, Fon du Lac, 
Wis ; F. A. Sherman, New Haven, Conn.; VV. Stone, Lynn, 
Mass.; John Saulter, So. Omaha, Neb ; R. H. Thorne, El Paso, 
Tex.; I). Woods, Pittsburg, Pa ; W. B. Wormley, LaFayette, 
lnd ; T. H. Wright, Covington, Ky. • Mr. Lyle, Pittsburg, Pa.; 
C. A. Baldwin, Omaha, Neb.; R. J. Haight, Park and Ceme- 
tery, Chicago. The ladies present were: Mesdames, A. W. 
Hobert, G. M. Painter, E. G. Carter, and Misses Simonds and 
Beckel; Master G. Bertram Creesy, Salem, Mass. 
OUR ASSOCIATION— ITS OBJECT, AND WHAT 
HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.* 
The object of our Association is the same that it 
has been since the adoption of the constitution eleven 
years ago. It has been spoken of many times in our 
meetings, and when it was assigned me by the Execu- 
tive Committee I objected to it as being trite. The 
answer was that the audience would be partly new and 
should have the work of the Association explained to 
it. I will, therefore, give some thoughts which have 
been presented at previous meetings, but will endeavor 
to put them in new shape. Stated very briefly, the 
object of our Association is education. We come 
together to learn, to hear each other’s experience, to 
get new ideas, hoping thereby to improve the ceme- 
teries committed to our charge. We come also to see, 
as well as to hear, and just as a visit from friends sti- 
mulates a household to put its home in order and 
improve its appearance, so does our meeting at any 
given place stimulate the cemeteries at the place we 
visit to make improvements and show examples that 
will benefit us. This stimulation is a good thing 
for the people visited, as well as for those who come to 
see them. The mere fact of exchanging visits and of 
expecting criticism will help to elevate the character of 
cemeteries. In the meetings that have been held, almost 
every subject has been touched upon. Much has been 
said condemning the practice of erecting so many 
monuments and large headstones; the efforts to preserve 
dead bodies; the barbarous method of conducting fun- 
*Paper read at Omaha Convention of the Association of American 
Cemetery Superintendents, September, iS9\ By O- C. Simonds, Chi- 
cago. 
erals; the planting of weeping willows, and the custom 
of wearing mourning and making things look gloomy. 
We have come to look upon cemeteries as places that 
should stimulate cheerful and comforting thoughts, 
places that will lead us to admire beautiful trees and 
shrubs, the sweet songs of birds, the quiet landscapes, 
and thus draw our thoughts away from sad reflections. 
We have advocated private funerals, which should be 
more in accordance with our instinctive desire for 
seclusion at a time of grieving, and in line with this 
thought have opposed the custom prevalent in many 
places of endeavoring to have funerals held on Sunday. 
I fear our discussions along these lines have had but 
little influence, but I hope they have had some effect. 
I am more and more convinced that the greatest prac- 
tical good resulting from our meeting will be the general 
increase of knowledge in regard to how cemeteries can 
be made beautiful. The pictures to be formed are 
more under our control than any other feature of a 
cemetery. These result not only from the general 
plan of the cemetery, but from all the little details, the 
shaping of the ground, the location of the planting, the 
trimming or lack of trimming, the character of the 
tree, or shrubs selected, the effect of soil upon them, the 
condition of the lawns, the size of lots, the rules adop- 
ted, especially those regulating monuments and head- 
stones, and the provision made for perpetual care. 
We come to learn how to do grading, planting, road 
building; we come to learn how to make lakes, lawns 
and boundaries; we come to get acquainted with the 
various forms of plant life; we come to learn the best 
method of keeping records and taking care of all the 
various details connected with a modern burial place. 
We come also to listen to what may be said by those 
outside of our calling, and I think we have been very 
fortunate in having had an opportunity to listen to law- 
yers, professors, engineers, and other people of edu- 
cation and refinement. 
If a cemetery superintendent performs his duties 
properly he must be a lover of nature, and he will get 
hints not only from the cemeteries and parks he may 
visit, but also from the country and roadside vegeta- 
tion, the margins of streams and lakes, and the woods 
which he may pass on his way to the convention city. 
During the past eleven years the object of our 
Association, as stated in the constitution and as I have 
endeavored to explain it, has been constantly kept in 
view, and the testimony given each year tends to prove 
that much benefit has been derived from our meetings. 
There are a few, however, who claim they have learned 
all that can be taught at our gatherings. One cemetery 
superintendent, who has never been to our meetings, said 
that he had read our reports and our monthly paper, 
and that he had seen nothing in them that he did not 
know more than thirty years ago. His cemetery, how- 
ever, was defective in many ways, and I am glad that so 
conceited a man was not a native of this country. It 
may be true that some of our members have, as they 
claim, learned all there is to know but, even then, it 
would be kind of them to attend our meetings and help 
those less fortunate. The influence of our Association 
is shown by the unanimous approval now given by our 
members to the “landscape lawn plan” first adopted and 
carried out at Spiing Grove, Cincinnati, by Mr. 
Stiauch. Its influence is always exerted in the direc- 
tion of greater simplicity, greater economy, greater 
beauty. A central idea in regard to the cemetery as a 
