58 
PARK AND CEA\ETERY 
on these tombs. The material is excellent. They are 
enriched with moldings and panels, bordered with 
banners and worked in mosaic with shells, but of 
all the best of them I do not hesitate to say that 
their character is pagan. I think there are more 
obelisks than any other order of tomb, and who that 
knows the origin of the obelisk as a memorial can 
look at it without a blush of shame. My conviction 
is that those who use the obelisk never have thought 
of what they were doing, or they would certainly 
not have done, as can be seen to be repeatedly 
done, embellished the apex of the obelisk. There 
are obelisks here whose point finishes in a heavy 
molding, or is surmounted with a cap, or has an an- 
gel standing on it. One such unfortunate creature 
spreading his wings as if attempting flight, but with 
wings so small they would not have lifted his arms 
if they could fly. Where the obelisk has not suf- 
fered attempt at adornment at its apex, it is stood 
on a base out of all character with itself. On any 
base one can justify space enough to place an in- 
scription, but most of these consist of more bases 
than one, all over done with conventional molding. 
Returning to the point of the obelisk, some are fin- 
ished in tasseled drapery, others are carved, sur- 
mounted by emblematic figures, have urns with 
flame showing, and one, perhaps most offensive 
thing of all, was paneled and carved all over. 
I observe also that the ledger shaped tomb ap- 
pears to have no admirers among your monument- 
al masons, for I suppose that they are the sinners 
above all who deal in America in the matter of mon- 
umental taste. There are also but few broken col- 
umns, which I venture to commend, as to my mind 
to erect a broken column bespeaks irreverence. 
What should be done then? Surely the answer is 
simple. The cross is the emblem of Christian faith. 
The more simple it is in its character, the less it 
detracts from its original significance. In the course 
of ages the cross has been used by various nations 
of people and in various forms, all of which forms 
lend themselves now with propriety to memorial 
uses. 
The illustrations and descriptions I give here- 
with relate to existing English memorials. 
The cross to John Augustus Smith is an Iona 
cross, that early settlement on Scotland’s western 
coast where the monks of the sixth century found- 
ed a settlement and erected their cross, which still 
stands, though this pattern is very much more worn 
than might be imagined from this modern repre- 
sentation of it. 
A cross erected to Alfred Crawshay is of the or- 
der, known to us as a rustic cross, but all the 
details were suggested by his widow for his 
tnemorial and it i§ certainly a unique design; more 
than that, it is a unique erection. No two were ev- 
er made of them. The rock hewn base is repre- 
sented with some cut flowers which are supposed to 
have been distributed upon it, whilst from the in- 
terstices grow ferns. The cross is the imitation of 
rustic timber supposed to have been stood in its 
base until it had been grown around and entwined 
with luxurious passion flowers. The head and one 
arm of it carry a crown of thorns carved in exact 
imitation of the original. The passion flowers have 
entwined themselves through and among the thorns 
and spread upon the arms and head of the cross. 
Surely these are 
superior in many 
ways, and are wor- 
thy the attention of 
those who have 
much to say in de- 
ciding what tomb 
shall be raised over 
the disciples of 
Jesus Christ in 
America. 
Another e v i - 
deuce of lack of 
Christian sentiment 
in the cemeteries 
is the exceeding 
scarceness of even 
an attempt at Goth- 
ic shaping. There 
stands in Green- 
wood a row of five 
in one large plot, so bald in their outline that they 
might have been meant for barrier posts. On one 
of the larger headstones the adornment consists of a 
soup bowl vase. Headstones which with us are gen- 
erally flnished with a lance head, sharper or blunter, 
in America are but roughly rounded. Where carved 
adornment is attempted it is generally limited to 
stiff leaf foliage, the earliest kind of carving which 
Gothic builders did, and from which they wholely 
delivered themselves in the thirteenth century. 
Concerning inscriptions, you largely adopt rais- 
ed letters, which are very plain speaking, and which 
if protected in a panel may be durable, but on many 
of your tombs there is no surrounding protection 
and the letters are knocked off. I would suggest 
the consideration of lead letters, finished flush with 
the marble surface, said to be more imperishable 
than the marble and which are .shown on all tombs 
of which I give you illustrations. They are in gen- 
eral use in England on all marble tombs. 
Halford L. Mills. 
CROSS IN MEMORY OF JOHN A. SMITH 
Wooded Island, Jackson Park, Chicago, is this 
year a magnificent rose garden. 
