PARK AND CEMETERY. 
51 
monies are permitted at the interment, 
but on All Souls’ day mourners visit 
the cemetery and place flowers on the 
tombs. 
In America the largest dog ceme- 
tery is at Hartsdale, in. Y. More than 
500 dogs have been buried there. Plots 
cost from $15 to $25, including a her- 
metically sealed box for shipping. 
Some of the dogs are buried in rose- 
wood and mahogany coffins, with gold 
handles and lined with plush or vel- 
vet. Sometimes silver mugs, ribbons 
and other trophies which dogs won at 
bench shows are buried with them, 
and one woman, it is said, placed a 
Bible and a rosary in her pet dog’s 
casket. At the interments tearful 
scenes occur not infrequently and cer- 
tain mourners make regular visits to 
the cemetery to adorn graves with 
flowers. 
Probably the most costly display at 
Hartsdale is at the grave of a bulldog. 
A granite stone stands at the head and 
at the foot is a marble trough from 
which three marble canaries are drink- 
ing. On each side of the grave is a 
bay tree. Fresh violets were placed 
on this grave daily for six months af- 
ter the interment. An expenditure of 
$500, it is said, was involved in the 
burial. 
The epitaphs at Hartsdale do not at- 
tain the sentimental flights of those 
abroad, consisting generally only of 
the name and the age. There are ex- 
ceptions among them, one reading 
thus: “Our Sydney, died September 
14, 1902, aged 16 years. Born a dog. 
lived like a gentleman, died beloved.” 
Wooster, Ohio, has had a municipal 
dog cemetery since 1906, but there is 
little display of extravagance in it. 
The City Council appoints the funeral 
director, who has charge of the ceme- 
tery. 
The Central Illinois Family Pet 
Cemetery Association was organized 
in 1909 and opened a cemetery for ani- 
mals on a fourteen acre tract at 
Springfield, 111. 
In rare instances dogs have been in- 
terred in cemeteries intended for hu- 
man beings. The Somers family bu- 
Tial ground at Somers Point, N. J., 
contains a conspicuous monument to 
a dog that saved the lives of several 
persons who were drowning in the 
ocean. Usually such interments 
arouse violent opposition and litiga- 
tion. 
Judicial opinions are somewhat va- 
ried as to the right of lot owners to 
"bury animals in their plots in ceme- 
teries. In Kentucky Alice Riddel 
buried her pet. fox terrier in her lot in 
In the courts of Montgomery coun- 
the Cave Hill Cemetery in 1907, 
whereupon Henry Hertle asked the 
court to declare the interment a nui- 
sance and order the body removed. 
Judge Shackelford Miller of Louis- 
ville handed down an opinion declin- 
ing to interfere in behalf of Hertle. 
ty, Pennsylvania, a similar issue was 
threshed out at length in 1905, and the 
decision of the court was that dogs 
must not be buried in ordinary ceme- 
teries. The case resulted from the 
fact that Charles E. Bean had buried 
his dog in his family lot in the ceme- 
tery of St. Peters’ Lutheran Church, 
North Wales, and erected a stone at 
the grave, the inscription reading. 
“Our Pet.” The church authorities 
brought suit to have the stone and 
the dog’s body removed, and Judge 
Aaron S. Swartz ordered this done. 
In his opinion Judge Swartz entered 
into a discussion of the propriety of 
such burials saying: 
This cemetery belongs to the church and 
was set apart as sacred ground for Christian 
burial. One by one the church members 
and others to whom the privilege of burial 
was extended found a resting place for their 
bodies. Common sentiment in every com- 
munity regards the resting place of the dead 
as a sacred spot. It is God’s acre. 
Our feelings are shocked when there is 
any desecration in a cemetery. All levity, 
rudeness of speech or irreverence seem out 
of place. Actions that we may tolerate at 
other places we condemn here unsparingly. 
Any object that suggests a thought that 
this is not sacred ground offends our feel- 
ings and we resent its presence. 
The grave of a domestic animal or the 
stone tablet that commemorates its death 
and burial seems to us so out of place when 
it stands in a cemetery side by side with the 
memorials to our departed loved ones that 
it must be revolting to our better feelings. 
True, it may not offend the persons whose 
affections were won by the animal, but a 
man has no right to offend others by in- 
vading the sacred grounds of a cemetery 
where his friends and neighbors have rights 
bury all his domestic animals in the ceme- 
tery. If the council allowed such use of 
their cemetery it would soon be known as 
that must be respected. Whether, there- 
fore, we consider the language in the cer- 
tificate of the recognized uses of a cemetery 
and the sanctity of the ground set apart 
for a graveyard, we are of the opinion that 
it was wrong to bury the dog in the de- 
fendant’s plot or to erect a tablet to its 
memory. 
If the defendant may bury his dog in the 
lot then the same right can be invoked to 
an abandoned burial ground. People have 
not reached that stage when they are so in- 
different to the resting place of their dead 
that they will deposit their bodies in a 
graveyard that is common to man and 
beast. A man may not know his com- 
panions in the tomb, but it is some consola- 
tion while in life to know that he will not 
be laid beside a dog or that his tablet will 
not be overshadowed by the memorial 
erected to his neighbor’s domestic animal. 
A. A. C. S. AT MILWAUKEE, 
AUGUST 20, 21, 22. 
The Executive Committee in charge 
of the arrangements for the Annual 
Convention of the Association of 
American Cemetery Superintendents 
to be held at Milwaukee, has fixed 
the dates as August 20, 21 and 22. 
Some interesting matters are being 
worked out for the program, and will 
be announced in our next issue. Bel- 
lett Lawson, Jr., Elmwood Cemetery, 
Chicago, is Secretary of the Associa- 
tion. 
The committee in charge of the con- 
vention arrangements is composed as 
follows: James Currie, superintend- 
ent “Forest Home,” Milwaukee, chair- 
man; W. S. Pirie, secretary “Forest 
Home,” Milwaukee; J. Roder, superin- 
tendent “Calvary,” Milwaukee; George 
L. Tilton, superintendent “Graceland,” 
Chicago; and Edward G. Carter, su- 
perintendent “Oak Woods,” Chicago. 
Definite arrangements for the pa- 
pers and discussions have not been 
made, but it is expected that the for- 
mal papers will be prepared largely by 
the charter members. 
VIEW IN THE DOGS' CEMETERY IN HYDE PARK, LONDON. 
