Most towns and cities at some time or 
another begin to either take some notice of 
their municipal cemetery, if they are for- 
tunate enough to possess one, or else have 
commenced to demand from the managers 
of the private cemetery more consideration 
than they have before been receiving. 
At this stage, when the citizens or cem- 
etery owners have begun to bestir them- 
selves, they are, in many cases, met with 
some problems that are not the least easy 
of solution; and so, while at our conven- 
tions we may deal, and properly so, with 
the higher and more aesthetic side of cem- 
etery management, yet it might be wise to 
occasionally interest ourselves in the lit- 
tle fellow, who without any million dollar 
fund and face to face with questions that 
would worry bigger men, is working out 
these questions with and, in many cases, in 
spite of the lot owners; pacifying here and 
compelling there, until, if blessed with a 
sense of proper proportion, he is rewarded 
some day (provided he starts as a young 
man) by seeing the lot owners assisting in 
reforms which some of them at first bit- 
terly opposed. And the same sense of 
proportion, or in other words, that good 
common sense, mixed with a lot of hard 
work, is the first and principal requirement 
for the task. 
In the case of a municipally owned cem- 
etery, probably the first step taken should 
be to have the management of the grounds 
transferred to an independent board, com- 
posed of citizens who have plenty of leisure 
time, and whose terms of office would be 
long enough to ensure a continuity of 
plans. 
Then follows the framing of rules, and 
the board and superintendent that expect to 
enforce absolutely a perfect set of rules in 
a year or in ten years are going to endure 
some moments of bitter disappointment; 
for, if it were possible to frame this ideal 
code, it would be absolutely impossible to 
enforce it entirely in so short a time. 
Citizens who have come to consider that 
a cemetery consists principally of high 
mounds, fences, vines and surplus bric-a- 
brac and glassware from the home are not 
so easily, persuaded that it is time for a 
change, more especially if these citizens 
have arrived at advanced years of intelli- 
gence. 
Make your rules as nearly perfect as is 
possible. Shape your plans all in the one 
direction, and then, assuming that all lot 
owners are Missourians, proceed to show 
them what might be done. 
If the superintendent is fortunate enough 
to be possessed of full knowledge of his 
work, so much the easier, but even if in- 
experienced, the task is far from hopeless. 
Some slight benefit will undoubtedly be 
derived from the perusal of the literature 
of other cemeteries, but it would seem to 
us that it is absolutely necessary that these 
cemeteries should be visited, not necessarily 
the magnificent ones, studded with mau- 
P ARK AND CEMETERY. 
soleums, memorial chapels and the like, al- 
though these are educative, but the more 
modest burial grounds not overburdened 
by great wealth, whose superintendents 
have fought and are fighting similar diffi- 
culties, and are ready to share that knowl- 
edge gained perhaps by bitter experience. 
And here again it seems that there 
might be a field for work for our associa- 
tion in the preparation of a handbook clas- 
sifying the cemeteries represented in the 
association and outlining, in tabloid form, 
the distinctive features and conditions of 
each (this information to be supplied by 
the several superintendents), so that when 
in difficulty over some particular phase of 
the work the tyro would know where to 
turn for advice. 
Is it not a fact that every superintendent 
has solved or is solving his own indi- 
vidual problems, and therefore how helpful 
it would be for one in doubt to have some 
means of knowing that a certain other cem- 
etery with the same climate and soil con- 
ditions has already met and successfully 
overcome the difficulty that he himself is 
experiencing. 
These visits should be of at least annual 
occurrence, and should be undertaken with 
an open mind, overlooking what, as he 
gains experience, appear to be defects in 
others, and never allowing that experience, 
derived principally from others, to engen- 
der a know-it-all attitude, which is abso- 
lutely fatal. 
When ready to commence work the lot 
owners should be taken into the superin- 
tendent’s confidence, and, until proven 
guilty of animosity to the new rule of 
things, all should be adjudged as friends. 
Tell them your plans and the reasons, and 
then proceed as far as may safely be at- 
tempted to make them do as you advise. 
As time passes the chronic kickers will 
be discovered, and to these while acting 
fairly, no special consideration should be 
shown; for if the superintendent is on the 
right track, public opinion will uphold him. 
The new section, as opened, should con- 
form strictly to the best usages, and so 
should be an example to owners in other 
sections of what might be accomplished. 
But the work should not rest there, for the 
campaign should be carried, as soon as pos- 
sible, into the older portions ; and while 
the degree of power possessed by the board 
will necessarily govern to some extent the 
amount of work to be attempted, yet it can 
be safely asserted from experience that if 
when complete plans have been made for 
the regrading and improving of a section, 
the lot owners are notified fully of the in- 
tended changes, with the reasons for these, 
the objecting owner will be in such a small 
minority that the superintendent may safely 
ignore his objections. 
This work of improvement should be un- 
dertaken systematically, a certain portion to 
be completed each season, and it should be 
commenced most cautiously, especially for 
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the first two or three years when the sys- 
tem is on trial, every effort being made to 
show all possible respect for the feelings 
of those accustomed by years of experience 
to the old order of things, resting assured 
that each year’s work will be easier than 
the last. 
The money for this work of improvement 
must be derived from some source, and in 
the absence of any fund for the purpose 
this money might be derived from the sale 
of new ground without resulting in any 
great hardship to the purchasers, especially 
in a municipally owned cemetery, where 
profits are not required, it being still possi- 
ble to provide a fund sufficient for the care 
without making the cost of the ground ex- 
orbitant. Certainly the provision for a 
•time of this extra money is necessary, from 
whatever source, and certainly also the like- 
lihood of there being any funds accumu- 
lated under the old management is very 
remote. 
It is hardly necessary to say that the 
commencement of a perpetual care fund 
should be undertaken at the outset, and 
while probably the corresponding increase 
in price of ground will come as a shock to 
the unthinking, and while it is possible that 
provision will still have to be made in the 
municipal cemetery for the poorer citizen, 
yet it should be possible to so educate the 
people that in a few years a sum would be 
derived from the sale of every lot to pro- 
vide for its care (after setting aside the 
necessary sinking funds). 
An educative campaign in reference to 
the perpetual care of the older cemetery 
should also be started, and in order to em- 
phasize the advantages derived from this 
care the annual charges should be reason- 
ably high. 
Practically every letter or statement 
leaving the office should contain an en- 
closure dealing with the advantages of this 
perpetual care system, and it will be found 
that soon the citizens, adopting these argu- 
ments as their very own, will be the super- 
intendent’s best missionaries to the be- 
nighted. 
As soon as possible every department of 
the work in the cemetery should be as- 
sumed control of completely by the board, 
no person being allowed to disturb the turf 
on any lot without special permission, and 
when a definite rule has been established 
as to the location of flowering plants, we 
believe it advisable and economical to pro- 
vide for the use of lot owners, free of 
charge, the services of gardeners who will 
undertake entirely the placing of these 
plants, thereby eliminating the possibility of 
individuals displaying their several and va- 
ried artistic ideas. 
Considering the nature of the soil and 
contour of the land, the best style of road- 
way should be decided upon, and a sys- 
tematic scheme of road-making undertaken 
with the object of arriving some day at 
