124 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
COURT DECISION ON PROHIBITING INTERMENTS 
(Continued.) 
Maps were exhibited by the plaintiffs 
showing from the records of the Board of 
Health the location of every case of diph- 
theria, typhoid and scarlet fever in the city 
during the years 1909 and 1910. There 
was no undue proportion of cases in the 
neighborhood of Union Cemetery, and 
much less than in some sections of the 
city. 
That the neighborhood in which Mount 
St. Mary’s Cemetery is situated is all built 
up; almost without exception the build- 
ings are residences and they are practically 
all occupied. That neighborhood is better 
built up than is the one around Union 
Cemetery. 
That the territory in the neighborhood 
and surrounding St. Peter and St. Paul's 
Cemetery is almost exclusively a residence 
section ; it is densely populated. 
And the same is true of the neighbor- 
hood surrounding Elmwood Cemetery. 
As to the contiguity of business houses 
to Union Cemetery, the evidence showed 
that there were a few as far south as 
Twentieth street, but from Twentieth to 
Thirtieth street on Main and Grand ave- 
nue there were scarcely any. On Main, 
from Thirtieth to Thirty-third street, there 
were quite a number of retail houses, and 
on Thirty-first street there were some. The 
entrance to one of the public parks of the 
city is across Main street, nearly opposite 
the northwest corner of the cemetery ; it is 
about 600 feet from the south line of the 
cemetery before any business houses are 
reached at Thirtieth street and a half mile 
from its north line to any considerable 
number of business houses on Grand ave- 
nue. 
That no complaints were ever made of 
an unsanitary condition of the cemetery. 
Dr. Cross, the official city chemist, a wit- 
ness for the defendants, testified that dur- 
ing the time he had held that official posi- 
tion he had never heard any complaint re- 
lating to the condition of the cemetery. 
Dr. Carl A. Johnson, a witness for the 
■defendants, a member of the Common 
Council, chairman of one of its sanitary 
committees, and for three and one-half 
years immediately preceding August, 1908, 
health officer of the city, said that while 
he was such health officer he never heard 
any complaint as to the sanitary condition 
■of the cemetery. 
And Mr. John F. Ward, the alderman 
from that ward, although his business and 
residence for four years had been within 
a block and a half of the cemetery, testi- 
fied that he never knew or heard that any- 
thing was wrong with it until this or- 
dinance was introduced. This was in June, 
1910, and the ordinance passed in less 
than a month. He said he was simply 
working for “my people that I am repre- 
senting,” and he regarded the cemetery as 
“a drawback to that end of Kansas City.” 
In this connection, the plaintiffs intro- 
duced in evidence that provision of the city 
charter creating the hospital and health 
department, which places it under the man- 
agement and control of a hospital and 
health board composed of three members, 
who must “be selected with reference to 
special fitness for the position,” with an 
executive officer known as the health com- 
missioner, who must be a physician. 
This board is given full power and con- 
trol over matters relating to the public 
health of the city; is vested with large 
powers and charged with important duties. 
Among other things, it is within its powers 
and is its duty to regulate the sanitary 
condition of cemeteries within the limits 
of the city, and to recommend to the Com- 
mon Council the passage of such ordinances 
as it may deem necessary for the preser- 
vation of the public health. 
That regarding this cemetery no rec- 
ommendation was ever made by it or to it ; 
none of its members appeared as a witness 
in this case; even the health commissioner 
was not a witness, although he is a defend- 
ant in the proceedings. 
The plaintiffs introduced much more evi- 
dence of the same general character as that 
heretofore mentioned. 
The defendants introduced evidence tend- 
ing to show the unsanitary condition of 
the cemetery, in order to justify the pas- 
sage of the ordinance as a police measure 
in the interest of public health. 
Dr. Horigan, the principal witness for 
the defendants, testified that he was a phy- 
sician and owned the property on Main 
street, at the corner of Thirty-first, two 
blocks south of the Union Cemetery. That 
he was one of the persons who signed one 
of the petitions to the Common Council, 
asking the passage of the ordinance com- 
plained of, for the reason “that the expan- 
sion of Kansas City is injured by the fact 
that Union Cemetery lies exactly in the 
path of the city’s greatest development,” 
From the Park Reports. 
The annual report of the Park Commis- 
sion of Wilmington, Del., shows expendi- 
tures of $28,035 for the year’s work. Con- 
siderable regrading was done in North 
Brandywine to make four new baseball 
diamonds. The earth removed, together 
with all that could be secured from build- 
ing operations, has been used to fill in the 
valley west of Franklin street. The road 
from Eighteenth street at Franklin to the 
Park Drive has been relocated, curbed and 
guttered. Stone curb and a six-foot con 
crete sidewalk has been laid along Eigh- 
and that “its continued use is greatly det- 
rimental to property interests in that sec- 
tion of the city,” and is “against property 
values.” 
That, in his opinion, “Union Cemetery 
is in a very unsanitary place.” That he had 
observed pools and ponds of water on the 
north side of the cemetery, and that, in his 
opinion, it was in an unsanitary condition. 
Disease germs are buried with the dead, 
and if bodies are not buried deep, or if 
the water-shed is such that water carries 
the germs and distributes them to the liv- 
ing, sickness and death result. Germs are 
usually carried in two ways : through wa- 
ter supply or by means of rats, mice, flies 
and domestic animals. That the drainage 
of Union Cemetery into pools and ponds 
to the north side of the cemetery is un- 
sanitary ; that the blue scum over these 
pools and pends indicate bacteria and dis- 
eased breeding germs, which may be widely 
scattered. 
That he selected the ground on the west 
side of Main street, within 300 feet of 
Union Cemetery, and there built St. 
Mary’s Hospital, the largest and most mod- 
ern in the city, in which he keeps and 
treats his sick patients, about 200 in num- 
ber. And when asked why he built his 
hospital there, if it was so unhealthy, he 
answered that it was convenient for burial 
purposes in case any of his patients should 
die. 
That he did not know that there were 
actually any germs in the pools mentioned 
or that any disease had been caused 
thereby. 
W. B. Mumford, who kept a drug store 
for about a year on the corner of Twenty- 
ninth and Main strtets, also smelled some- 
thing. He was perfectly satisfied that it 
came from the cemetery; there was “a 
sickening, disagreeable odor all the time 
from that section.” But when he went into 
the cemetery itself he did not notice smell. 
(To le continued.) 
teenth street from Van Buren to Franklin 
streets, a distance of about 600 feet. This 
work, which has taken about sixteen 
months, has involved the handling of about 
40,000 cubic yards of earth, soiling, seed- 
ing and sodding, has cost over $15,000. 
Five park playgrounds were in operation. 
The officers of the board are : William P. 
Bancroft, president ; Edward R. Mack, en- 
gineer and superintendent; Jennie M. 
Weaver, playground supervisor. 
The annual report of the Park Commis- 
sion of the city of Fitchburg, Mass., men- 
tions the following principal improve- 
ft PARK NEWS. 
