PARK 
AND L 
PUBLISHED 
R. J. HAIGHT, President 
VOL. XXIII 
AND CEMETERY 
ANDSCAPE GARDENING 
BY ALLIED ARTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
H. C. WHITAKER, Viee-President and General Manager O. H. SAMPLE, Secretary-Treasurer 
SEPTEMBER, 1913 
No. 7 
Preservation of Old Cemeteries 
Reversing the judgment of the Jackson County Circuit Court 
in refusing to grant an injunction to the Union Cemetery Asso- 
ciation of Kansas' City Mo., to prevent the enforcement of the 
ordinance passed July 14, 1910, prohibiting the association from 
granting permission for any more interments in its grounds, 
Judge Woodson, in Division No. 1 of the State Supreme Court 
at Jefferson City, recently declared the ordinance invalid and 
remanded the case with instructions to the Circuit Court to act 
in accordance with his decision. Judge Woodson declared the 
ordinance unreasonable, oppressive and tyrannical and that no- 
where in the proceedings has the city shown the cemetery is un- 
sanitary or a menace to public health. “We have reached the 
conclusion,” said Judge Woodson in the opinion, “that this 
ordinance was not enacted for the purpose of preserving the pub- 
lic health, but was passed at the instigation and request of a lot 
of real estate agents, land owners and speculators who think the 
cemetery stands in the way of the development of Kansas City in 
that direction and especially since the new Union station has been 
located in that vicinity. The complaints of the living have been 
as silent as those of the dead as to the insanitary conditions.” The 
ordinance was passed by the council in 1910 in the face of pro- 
nounced opposition from the officials of the cemetery association 
and people whose relatives are buried in Union Cemetery. It was 
charged at the meetings held by the council committee that the move- 
ment to condemn and close the cemetery was not because of being 
objectionable, but was in tlie interest of real estate speculators. The 
decision of the Supreme Court will again permit burials in the 
cemetery. Since the ordinance became a law and the case has 
been in litigation the only burials permitted are in family lots pre- 
viously sold. 
An interesting aspect of the legal right to preserve old ceme- 
teries is set forth in a West Virginia Supreme Court decision. 
Ground was conveyed to a town to be used as a graveyard and 
was dedicated to the public use as such. Many years thereafter, 
and when many dead had been buried therein, the cemetery was 
abandoned for a new one. The town still controlled the old 
cemetery, but suffered it to grow up in briers and brush, and it 
became in bad condition in appearance. Later the town sold it 
to one Couch for $1,000 because it was no longer of any use and 
was a constant expense to maintain in a presentable condition 
and had become a rendezvous for immoral purposes. The case 
of Ritter vs. Couch, 76 Southeastern Reporter, 428, is a suit by 
one who had buried in the said graveyard many blood relatives, 
to enjoin Couch from removing or obliterating the graves of his 
relatives or the stones or monuments marking them. The relief 
prayed for is granted, and the conveyance to Couch is held in- 
valid, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in part 
saying: “If relatives of blood may not defend the graves of 
their departed, who may? Always the human heart has rebelled 
against the invasion of the cemetery precincts; always has the 
human mind contemplated the grave as the last and enduring rest- 
ing place after the struggle and sorrows of this world. * * * 
Everything else has changed; but that sentiment remains stead- 
fast today.” Further the court says : “The briers and weeds 
grew up in it. What of that? The blackberry’s flower is as 
sweet to the dead as any. The weed, though so called, spreads 
‘its perfume on the desert air.’ They, too, are Nature’s tributes 
to the dead. 
‘Above the graves the blackberry hung, 
In bloom and green its wreath ; 
And harebells swung as if they sung 
The chimes of peace beneath.’ ” 
Quarantining Against Tree Pests 
One of the most extensive quarantines yet established under 
the authority of the Department of Agriculture is that recently 
announced by Secretary David F. Houston against the gipsy and 
broivn-tail moths. It affects each of the New England states, 
and establishes regulations which will greatly curtail the transpor- 
tation of all manner of lumber products, florists’ stock, and Christ- 
mas trees and decorative plants, such as holly and laurel, in inter- 
state commerce. The quarantine became effective August 1 and 
will continue until lifted by the Department. The gipsy and 
brown-tail moths have been slowly gaining ground in New Eng- 
land for several years, and extensive measures have been in force 
in the states to check their ravages. The Department established 
a partial quarantine notice last November, which is superseded 
by the order now promulgated. The quarantine order announces 
that the gipsy moth (porthetria dispar) and the brown-tail moth 
( euproctis chrysorrhoea ) , “new and not heretofore widely dis- 
tributed within and throughout the United States,” exist in parts 
of states as follows: The gipsy moth, in Maine, New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts and Rhode sland ; the brown-tail moth, in all six 
of the New England states. LTnder authority, therefore, of the 
“Plant Quarantine Act” of August 20, 1912, Secretary Houston 
declares quarantine against the area infested, and forbids the 
interstate movement of plants except under strict regulations. The 
.full text of the quarantine act is given on another page in this 
issue and should be carefully studied by everyone who is inter- 
ested in the extermination of these dangerous pests. 
Vandalism in the Parks 
Vandalism and misbehavior in the parks seem to be something 
which cannot be wholly escaped. Every summer scores of people 
are arrested for breaking off shrubbery and flowers and otherwise 
violating the regulations governing the parks. On one Sunday 
over one hundred arrests were made for infractions 'tof the law in 
Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and the fact that this large number of 
people were taken in charge following wholesale arrests and ample 
warning the Sunday before is extremely puzzling. The possible 
explanation of the anual outbreak is that the public finds itself 
unable to resist the temptation to gather flowers in the parks after 
the long winter months when little that is green or blooming is 
to be seen. This is a natural and expected weakness, but that is 
no reason why it should be tolerated. The arrests on this one 
Sunday and the fines aggregating over $1,000 imposed the next 
day show that the authorities propose to treat vandalism and mis- 
conduct as they should be. If these offenders can stand the incon- 
venience and cost of arrest, certainly the general public can. But 
the punishment ought to be made severer until the obnoxious 
habits have been broken. 
