200 
There will be a great many lots you can find 
no one interested in. Just keep- cool and your 
eyes open; you will eventually get the most of 
them. The lot owners that are interested in hav- 
ing a good cemetery will greatly aid you in lo- 
cating derelicts. Some of j r ou can get next to 
them by watching when you have burials. When 
I get an order for a grave I look on my sheet 
after the people are gone and see if anyone is do- 
nating towards care of lot. If not, in a short 
time after the funeral one of the most interested 
ones gets a letter setting forth our aim to make 
the cemetery the*' pride of Tiffin, and asking for a 
donation, sending .them a statement with the let- 
ter. Results seldom fail. Stop selling lots under 
the old plan of virtually giving them away and 
no provision made for their future care. Convince 
your trustees of the necessity of selling all lots 
in the future under perpetual care plan. The peo- 
ple will kick at first, but as you make each sale 
be sure to clearly and thoroughly explain to the 
buyer the reason of the raise in price. Picture to 
him the fact that when he is gone and there is 
no one interested in the care of his grave he can 
rest assured that under the perpetual care plan it 
will always be looked after. He will at once see 
the beauty of the new plan and willingly pay the 
advanced price. Have your trustees decide upon a 
price, not less than 13 cents per square foot, upon 
payment of which you will place upon the perpet- 
ual care list any lot sold under the old system. 
Go to some of the most prominent lot owners and 
explain to them the plan upon which they may 
place their lots on the perpetual care list; go into 
detail with them about your plans for the future 
care of the cemetery, and if you are in earnest 
about your work, and show them in your talk 
with them that your whole aim in life is to make 
a modern cemetery of the graveyard, you will land 
them for your perpetual care list. Before you try 
to convince lot owners of the wisdom of the new 
plan, be sure that you, yourself, are thoroughly 
convinced. Have a perpetual care plate placed 
upon every lot going on the list. They advertise 
your new plan and bring business. I would not 
have anything too conspicuous. I prefer the one 
lying flush with the ground. See columns of Park 
and Cemetery. 
My next move would be to line up all the road- 
ways and clean them of all grass and weeds, mak- 
ing my main roads not less than sixteen feet in 
width. The cleaning of grounds, careful mowing 
and lining up of roads should all be done not 
later than the 20th of May. See the point? The 
majority of people visit the cemetery only before 
and on Decoration Day. The three moves you 
have now made in your work of improving will 
be the most pronounced of all. They are such 
that even the commonest ordinary mortal, without 
the least bit of love for the beautiful, cannot but 
notice the change. You have now got the people 
started to talking, and that is what you want. 
You are getting the people interested in you and 
your work. Lot owners are beginning to take more 
pride in their individual lots. 
Later on you will begin to take up the matter 
of improving your roadways. Here is where you 
will reap the benefit of having your roadways 
lined up earlier in the season if it was done 
properly. In improving your roads, be sure to grade 
them so you will have crown enough for good 
drainage and a shoulder on each side to retain 
the material you use on the roads. If roads are 
improved with gravel, a light coat of clay spread 
over the top and then rolled in for a binder will do 
away with the objections so many have to gravel, 
on account of its being so long in packing. 
If crushed rock is used for road improvements 
a top dressing of siftings, * after being spread, if 
well watered, then rolled, will give an almost ce- 
mented road. 
You now see that there is something else needed. 
As you walk around your grounds you feel in every 
fibre of your body, there is something lacking. 
What is it? I have my grounds clean, my grass 
well mowed, my roads being improved, but still I 
am not satisfied. Oh, now I know. Here is a 
bend in the road, with an unobstructed view 
across the whole grounds. Can I not find some 
change here that will fill that gap of something 
needed? I consult my shrubbery catalog, and 
after patient study I am able to see light. I 
plant a shrubbery bed there. Oh, what a change! 
Here a bush, there a vine, by the road a tree, and 
so on, and you have another surprise for the lot 
owners on the next Decoration Day. 
Oh, what care you must take in your planting to 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
make it harmonize with the surroundings; how you 
nurse and coddle until it gets started properly. 
But you are well paid. You must be careful and 
not plant too many in one season, as your help is 
limited and inexperienced, and some is liable to be 
neglected. You must study your grounds thor- 
oughly, and when you decide on a spot to be 
planted, make your bed in the fall, and when 
spiling comes, and you plant, it will take hold im- 
mediately and, do well. Oh, how it hurts when 
you want to plant and the soil is too poor to grow 
black-eyed peas! You console yourself with the 
fact that next season will see you all right. Y r ou 
start at once and save all your old sod, instead 
of throwing it away, pile it up in a heap, haul 
some grass clippings, throw them on, some sand 
also if convenient (not too much), and the next 
season will find you able to combat the cry of 
poor soil. 
While you have been improving grounds, oh, how 
many eyesores are brought to your notice! — a reg- 
ular thicket of what at one time had been shrubs 
on this lot, some pines trimmed up fifty feet, 
looking like an immense head of cabbage on a 
flagstaff on that lot, and you cannot get con- 
sent of the owner to remove them, “because father 
planted them.’’ When you tackle that proposition, 
that is when you begin to think that if the late 
lamented Robert G. Ingersoll were on earth, and 
in your place, he would change his mind and say 
there is a hell. 
When you are improving your grounds you must 
not forget the fact that there is a crying demand 
from the office to give it some attention, and it 
surely needs some. Here you have several thou- 
sand burials in your grounds and not a scratch 
of a pen showing such a thing. Oh, ye gods 
and little fishes! Where shall I start? How shall 
I begin? Oh, what’s the use of making records 
anyhow? They have run along all this time with- 
out any and seemed satisfied, and I will be hanged 
if I am going to all that trouble. Let the family 
keep track of where their folks are buried. Just 
about that time a little voice seems to whisper 
to you — oh, how like magic those words! “You 
are a member of the Association of Cemetery Su- 
perintendents and Officials, and as such it is your 
duty to do anything and everything that is needed 
to make your cemetery modern in every respect.” 
How you then hustle. l r ou send to R. J. Haight, 
Chicago, 111., and tell him to send it quick, one 
record book for burials, one lot book, one index 
book for burials, and one index book for lot 
owners. 
Start immediately to put in the book a record 
of every burial you make. How about the burials 
that have been made in the past? There is an- 
other way to take care of them. Take your lot 
book and put every lot down, of course taking 
each section by itself. Inscribe in the book, 
owner of lot, number of lot, and number of sec- 
tion. You will find in the book space for diagram 
of each lot. Make diagrams of lot, by scale, and go 
to the lot and note graves on it, and mark those 
graves on the diagram exactly as on lot, number 
of graves, and in proper place on page give name 
of each person buried and number of grave. If 
grave has no marker to it, you have some work 
to do. Make a drawing of the lot with graves on 
and numbered on a sheet of paper and mail to 
lot owner, with request to insert name of person 
in each grave, at the proper number. Very often 
you will be unable to locate owner. So, often I 
have been able to trace owner in course of time, 
through information derived from other lot own- 
ers. If you have any love for your work, the 
more difficult it may seem to get the record of 
unknown graves, the more determined you are go- 
ing to be to get them. When you make a burial 
on a lot be sure and mark it on the diagram of 
that lot according to scale. You can then always 
tell a person at the office the exact condition of 
their lot, and save many, many steps. After 
having made diagrams of all lots and burials there- 
on, the next step is to index all known burials. 
This index book will pay you several hundred- 
fold for the labor required to compile it. There 
are several different systems of keeping records of 
burials, and for a superintendent who has no 
office help I consider the R. J. Haight system the 
simplest and best. 
l r ou hjive now started the graveyard to assume 
the appearance of a modern cemetery, and the 
hardest work is over. You have now educated the 
lot owners to your ideas, and you are beginning 
to see the results of your labors. How many, 
oh, how many, are lacking a respectable building 
for an office, waiting or rest room and toilet ac- 
commodations! You must fight until you get them. 
If you are easily discouraged, are not a good 
fighter, and able to hang on like a bulldog to get 
things you know are needed, do not attempt to 
modernize a graveyard. If it is an association 
cemetery there is always one member on the 
Board of Trustees that is going to stand at your 
back and help you fight, but if a municipal cem- 
etery, except in rare cases, you should be given 
a through ticket to heaven and not be compelled 
to get a stopover check for purgatory. 
I had a little experience in municipal cemeteries. 
In four years I had seven different directors over 
me. There was a good chance to modernize any- 
thing then, wasn’t there? How nice to be com- 
pelled to go to a professional politician for his 
sanction to do certain things to improve the cem- 
etery, when you could walk him in the grounds 
for three minutes and he could not find his way 
out again! Still he has the power to say you 
cannot do this or that. 
Be sure and subscribe for Park and Cemetery. 
There is not an issue of it but contains some 
information, to you, worth many times more than 
the subscription price. S'tudy your nursery cata- 
logs. I did not say read them, but study them. 
The dreary days of winter is the time for you to 
acquire knowledge and improve your mind. Read 
carefully descriptions of the various shrubberies 
and see where they will best harmonize with sur- 
roundings. Do all your planning, as far as practic- 
able, in winter; then when the robin red breast 
appears in the spring, no time need be wasted 
and should not be. Don’t be afraid to fill up some 
sunken graves because there is no one left to pay 
for the work done. What you lose in money you 
gain fourfold in the appearance of the cemetery. 
Remember you are now running a cemetery, not a 
graveyard. Gradually straighten up all markers 
and head stones, collect where you can but 
straighten up anyhow. 
Do not be afraid to do some, little favor for lot 
owners. 
Do not fail to be courteous and gentlemanly to 
all. 
Do not forget, soft answer often turneth away 
wrath. 
Do not forget that all who enter your gates are 
equal, and often the biggest heart and tenderest 
feelings are under the ragged coat. 
Do not forget that you often come into pos- 
session of family secrets that should be as sacred 
as though you were a religious confessor. And, 
last of all, 
Do not fail to attend every meeting of your 
Cemetery Superintendents and Officials Association. 
Brothers, I thank you for your kind attention. 
Another paper by Mr. George Gossard, 
of Washington C. H., Ohio, was read. Mr. 
Gossard being a delegate to the national 
meeting of Cemetery Superintendents at 
Buffalo, N. Y., September, 1913. This was 
a very interesting paper covering the en- 
tire work of the national meeting, bring- 
ing out many good points for discussion 
of interest to cemetery men. This con- 
cluded the program. The following officers 
were then elected for the year 1914 and 
1915 : 
President — T. A. Reed, superintendent of 
West Lawn Cemetery, Canton, Ohio. 
Vice President — J. C. Dick, superintend- 
ent of Riverside Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Secretary and Treasurer — E. A. Sloan, 
superintendent Marion Cemetery, Marion, 
Ohio. 
After choosing Dayton, Ohio, as the 
place of meeting in June in 1915, the con- 
vention closed. All thought we had one of 
the best meetings that had been our privi- 
lege to attend up to this time. 
