PARK AND CEMETERY. 
361 
vine personal rights would be speedily in- 
voked upon the man or body of men who 
were to attempt it. It could only be pos- 
sible through the establishment of a new 
cemetery or burial place to be located 
upon a topographical and geologically cor- 
rect area, with sufficient financial backing 
to attract the best efforts and thoughts of 
artists and architects, and await sales. All 
lots should be located, prepared under 
ground as well as on the surface; memorial 
structures designed for each, with due con- 
sideration of environment, constructed and 
placed upon the lot before it is offered for 
sale, just as most of our people’s homes 
are today being designed and erected, yes, 
sometimes furnished complete, before of- 
fered for sale or occupancy, and I am sure 
you will all agree that residential neigh- 
borhoods thus treated are far more at- 
tractive, desirable and financially sucess- 
ful than where the bare land is sold and 
the subsequent development left to the in- 
dividual tastes of the owners, and I can 
think of no sound argument against the 
application of this principle to family 
burial lots. Indeed I am confident that 
it would prove pleasing and acceptable to 
a major portion of our right-minded peo- 
ple. as they would thus be enabled to view 
in its completeness the final resting place, 
and escape the annoyance of solicitation 
in their hours of greatest sorrow by the 
army of itinerant “Mortuary Architects.” 
More might easily be said on this sub- 
ject, but I leave the thought for future 
development, as I realize that I am wan- 
dering into utopianism where few will 
follow, and I must drop back to earth 
and a consideration of our ever-present 
daily troubles. 
The matter of monument foundation 
construction exclusively by the cemetery 
employees under direction of the superin- 
tendent has become so universally estab- 
lished that it is hardly open to discussion. 
The wording of the deeds to the lot own- 
ers which came to us from our ancestors 
of some remote period conveys to them 
the right, among other things, to ‘‘erect 
thereon monuments, cenotaphs or other 
suitable memorials.” ‘‘Suitable” — ah, there's 
the rub! Who is to determine the suit- 
ability ? 1 hey are also in many cases by 
the specific wording of the deed given the 
right "to cultivate thereon plans and flow- 
ers.” True, there is the usual clause, “sub- 
ject to the rules and regulations now in 
force, or which may hereafter be adopted,” 
tucked away somewhere in the text; but 
when you mildly and courteously remon- 
strate against the planting of a Norway 
spruce, for instance, which we all know 
will eventually reach a height and spread 
of sixty or more feet, upon a lot six by 
ten feet, or in case of a larger lot some 
well meaning person plants a crimson ram- 
bler rose at the head of each of twelve 
graves, what are you going to do about it? 
Well, if the owners are persistent and 
stand upon their rights as indicated by the 
wording of their deed, the surest remedy 
I know of is a 95% solution “Herbicide" 
hyperdermically applied, although of course 
I have never used it. 
Seriously, however, if all of these con- 
ditions are eliminated, my observation and 
experience convince me that practically all 
lot owners will yield to courteous and 
sound reasoning, for after all, they mean 
to do right and are willing to be shown 
that which is best. 
I believe that we should have the ex- 
clusive right to do work of that nature. 
It may seem hard to be obliged to do what 
some of them demand, but I feel that it 
is better to submit than to let them do it 
either by their own hands or through an 
outside agency. 
In order to maintain our institution upon 
a sound financial basis, we must of course 
receive a proper compensation for the work 
we do and for materials furnished, which 
compensation usually comes to us in money 
payments, but we may often receive ade- 
quate compensation through the general 
benefit to the whole place by reason of 
work done in certain individual lots or 
even on whole sections of lots without 
a money payment at all. In such cases, 
however, we should be guided by our own 
judgment of what should be done, and not 
by the ill-advised ideas of individual lot 
owners who cannot or will not pay for 
improvement to their lots or even for their 
care. In the latter case I realize that we 
lay ourselves open to the charge of favor- 
itism. Some people cannot by any proc- 
ess of reasoning be made to understand 
why you do things to other people’s lots 
while theirs are left undone. 
Another difficult problem met in muni- 
cipally owned cemeteries, and which I 
fancy those of you associated with pri- 
vately owned ones escape, is found in 
people who apoear to think that because 
the city owns it and they pay their taxes, 
(usually a $2.00 poll tax only), it should 
be done for them without charge, and your 
declination to comply with their expressed 
wishes convinces them that you are an 
incompetent and ungrateful public servant. 
Although, as I have said. I think we 
should do all work upon lots and graves 
and not permit the owners to work out 
their own ideas without control, still we 
should recognize and respect the motives 
actuating them to spend hours periodically 
in building mounds of earth, planting, 
weeding, watering and other attentions 
to graves wherein lie the remains of loved 
ones, and I find it indeed difficult to re- 
strain their efforts, abnormal and even 
hideous though they be. 
Then there is the matter of burial vaults, 
getting to be a pressing question which I 
feel must be met and answered. To a 
considerable degree at least I feel that in- 
dividual liberty should be given to lot 
owners to purchase the kind or style they 
wish. Here is another broad field for 
education, and l doubt not most people 
if properly approached will soon follow 
our advice and expressed wishes. I feel 
very strongly that we should prepare our- 
selves to provide them without trouble or 
excessive cost with suitable indestructible 
vaults, and I am sure we can do so with 
a good profit to ourselves and at a lower 
price to them than can be given by any 
dealer, or manufacturer even, owing to 
the fact that we usually possess plenty of 
room for storage and manufacture, exempt 
from rent or taxation, and at certain times 
of each year have labor which cannot bet- 
ter be utilized. By making such provision 
and keeping our lot owners informed of 
our ability to supply their wants, it seems 
to me we can easily direct the matter into 
the proper channel. 
I assume that you will all agree with 
me that the use of some form of non- 
collapsible vault is desirable in every in- 
terment, as we can thus be saved the labor 
of continually repairing sunken ground and 
avoid the painful necessity of often being 
obliged to explain the cause of the de- 
pression to people who do not understand 
that it is inevitable when wood alone is 
used. 
As at present informed, I understand 
that this branch of the service is being 
administered in about as many different 
ways as there are cemeteries. Some of us 
still follow the old custom of building 
brick side and end wall vaults with slate 
top, with and without slate or concrete 
bottom. On these we presumably make a 
fair profit to which we are justly entitled. 
A few permit this to be done by workmen 
not employed by the cemetery but by the 
family, or by the undertaker after the 
excavation has been made by the cemetery 
employees. In some cases an extra charge 
is made, and I think properly so, as it 
involves extra labor. In other cases no 
extra charge is made, because perhaps pay- 
ment is objected to, or for other control- 
ling reasons. About the same condition of 
administration obtains in cases where all 
slate, metal or cement concrete vaults are 
used. In other cemeteries a stock of 
slate or concrete vaults in the required 
sizes is purchased and kept on hand for 
immediate use, for the reason that there 
is usually insufficient time between the 
receipt of the order and the time of inter- 
ment to purchase and transport one from 
the manufacturer. Again, most of us are 
familiar with the method used by one 
active manufacturing concern (Hay & Pea- 
body) who send their vault to the ceme- 
tery by men in a modern motor vehicle, 
erect it in the grave previously excavated, 
and remain to place the top or cover in 
position after the remains are placed there- 
in. This process I find no fault with, and 
we make no extra charge where this is 
done, for the reason that we are glad to 
