park: and ce/Aetery 
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':^}©orre^poMelence.i^ 
Evansville, Ind., August 12, 1895. 
Editor Park and Cemetery . — 
Dear Sir: — I love to see a nice, clean, bed of flowers in a 
cemetery, and who is it does not But 1 think a person is com- 
mitting a great sin, who will dig up a beautiful blue grass sod 
to make a flower bed and then let it grow up to weeds; and they 
ought to repent early in sackcloth and ashes, and turn to the 
grave of their beloved ones to ask forgiveness and to make a vow 
right there to do better in the future. ' 
When the immortal “Little Nell” asked her friends to plant 
something near her grave that had seen the light, she did not 
think they would be so careless as to let the weeds choke it to 
death. Yours Truly, J. S. Goodge. 
The report of the president of the Allegheny 
Cemetery to its corporators, shows quite distinctly 
the effects of hard times on cemetery properties. A 
strange coincidence lies in the fact that during the 
last financial year the same number of lots were sold 
as in the previous year, viz;, fifty— five. The point 
denoting the hard times is that last year the aver- 
age price for lots was $279 while for the previous 
year it was $ 537 - There are 5.084 lot holders who 
have up to this time expended about two and a 
half millions of dollars in the cemetery. This last 
year only some seventy thousand dollars were ex- 
pended on monuments, tombs, etc. The last year 
was very severe on the best trees, some 100 having 
been removed. 
= CRen AT IQH. = 
John Stover Cobb says in the Urn: "Dr. F. 
Julius Le Moyne, of Washington, Pa., must be re- 
garded as the pioneer cremationist of the United 
States. In the year 1876 he built a furnace for the 
purpose of ensuring the incineration of his own 
body and with the design of familiarizing, to some 
extent, the American public with the practice of 
cremation. It is true that, a short time previously, 
an attempt had been made, in New York City, to 
form a cremation society. Owing to the financial 
stringency of the times and opposition of public 
opinion, this attempt, however, was not successful. 
He built, at his home, the first crematory in the 
land and, for a period of more than eight years, 
this little country town of Pennsylvania was the only 
place within the borders of our great Republic, 
where a human body could be disposed of in rapid 
combustion.” 
“I may mention that the published figures for 
iSg 4 include ii months only of that year, and are 
given as 808. This is equivalent to an average of 
73 per month, which will yield about 876 for the 
entire year, # # while these figures comprise, of 
course, a very small percentage of the number of 
deaths, yet if the proportionate increase in the same 
number of years to come is as great as these years, 
we may expect that, in 1910, cremation will be the 
rule, burial the exception.” 
At the Forest Hills crematory, in a little more 
than a year, 120 bodies had been cremated and a 
great impulse would be given to the movement 
when the chapel, already designed, is erected. 
In the substitution of cremation for burial 
the welfare of mankind would be subserved, and 
he urged all friendly to the new movement to help 
in completing the building. In the crema- 
tory chapel no limitations would be placed upon 
any religious belief, and every one would be able 
to witness "a reverent and beautiful way of caring 
for the dead. ” 
Dean Hodges speaking of cremation says; 
‘‘Cremation will tend to do away with cemeter- 
ies, and bring in two new places for the disposal of 
the dead. .The house of the departed may be set 
in the midst of the city, and proper respect be paid 
to the dead without regard to persons, to heroes, 
saints and citizens. Such a building would ofter 
large opportunities to art and artists. It would be a 
building that would uplift the thoughts of all who 
enter, made splendid perhaps with paintings, teach- 
ing the great truths of the present and the future, 
and taking life away from debasing things and in- 
fluences. There would be no pagan shapes in stone, 
but memorial windows, through whose pictured 
panes the sun would tell the story of the cross as 
the symbol of the life to come. 
Cremation. 
BY DR. FREDERICK PETERSON. 
Thou tender blossom, more than human. 
Because so fair and pure and humble, 
O lovely flower, how could I doom one 
So dear to droop defiled — to crumble 
Like man and woman! 
And so, thou flower of flowers, I swore it 
That one thing, one, should not so perish. 
That mocking fate should laugh not o’er it. 
Not alway mar what most I cherish. 
While I deplore it. 
Thus on the white hot coals I place thee. 
Among the ferns of some gone aeon; 
In shining vesture they do grace thee. 
And perfumes as from isles Aegean 
Do soft embrace thee. 
No taint, no blemish, naught but ashes — 
Of such fine death thy frame is worthy: 
The ermine couch with damask flashes, 
Quick change of heavenly back to earthy. 
No soul abashes. 
O bud half open, thy sweet splendor 
Is risen from the fiery portal. 
And atoms which through stem so slender 
Had crept into a bloom immortal. 
Their work surrender! 
