324 
PARK AND CE/AETERY 
The St. Louis Meeting of Cemetery Superintendents. 
It was under the most auspicious conditions that 
the Association of American Cemetery Superinten- 
tendents held its tenth annual convention at the 
Planter’s Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., September 15, i6 
and 17. The weather was pleasant, the attendance 
unusually good, the papers read were extraordina- 
rily interesting, and the entertainment provided for 
the visitors was of a most delightful character. 
Mayor Walbridge extended a cordial welcome to 
thj “mayors of the sacred cities” to what he be- 
lieved to be one of the livest cities in the country. 
He likened the duties of the miyors respectively, 
and found much in common in the work they had to 
perform. President Simonds responded briefly. 
After the admission of eight new members Mr. Si- 
monds read his annual address as follows : 
^ PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
An article by Frank Foxcroft which appeared a few months 
since in the New England Magazine, calls attention to the fact 
that Mt. Auburn is the oldest rural cemetery in the United 
States, it having been consecrated sixty-five years ago. Its 
creation was due chiefly to the thoughtfulness and energy of Dr. 
Jacob Bigelow, who called together a few representative men of 
the city and laid before them his plan for a rural cemetery. A 
short time before he did so, ‘a Mr. Brimmer, in order to save 
from destruction certain trees and other natural attractions, had 
purchased a piece of woods known to the Harvard students as 
Sweet Auburn and this tract he radily consented to sell at the 
original cost to himself.’ Dr. Bigelow went before the officers 
of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society with his plan and re- 
ceived encouragement and substantial assistance. Previous to 
this time the dead of Boston were buried in churchyards and 
burying grounds in the crowded parts of the city, and cellars of 
churches were filled with sepulchres. The motives for the estab- 
lishment of the new burial place were the desire to secure more 
healthy surroundings for the living and more beautiful sur. 
roundings for the dead. The establishment of Mt. Auburn was 
the first great step taken in the United States to bring about a 
sanitary and beautiful method of disposing of the dead, but al- 
though the founders loved nature perhaps as much as we do at 
the present time, they failed to preserve the beauty which at- 
tracted them and introduced many ugly and useless features 
under the name of “improvements.” 
After Mt. Auburn, as you all know, came Laurel Hill of 
Philadelphia, Greenwood of Brooklyn, Spring Grove of Cincin- 
nati and many other beautiful cemeteries. The second great 
step in advance was taken at Cincinnati a litt'e over forty years 
ago and was in the direction of greater simplicity and more at- 
tractive landscapes Hedges, fences, railings and paths, all of 
which had been introduced in the greatest profusion in Mt. 
Auburn, gave way to continuous lawns and varied effects of 
trees and shrubs. This advance was due mainly to the good 
taste and enthusiasm of Mr. Strauch. but credit should also be 
given to Mr. Probasco, a wealthy citizen of the same city and 
during many years President of the Board of Trustees of .Spring 
Grove, who ably supported Mr. Strauch and helped him to 
overcome the opposition of the lot owners. In 1883 Mr. Pro- 
basco wrote a short account of the life and work of Mr. Strauch 
in which he said that “Spring Grove is pei’haps the most import- 
ant possession of the people of Cincinnati.’’ 
Since the information of our Association we have been en- 
deavoring to follow along the lines pointed out by the creator of 
this celebrated cemetery, always seeking greater simplicity 
greater naturalness, greater beauty. The selections given by 
our members on the calling of the roll, will indicate the line of 
our thoui<hts, so there is no need of reviewing our work in this 
paper. The system introduced at Cincinnati was called the 
“landscape lawn plan” and I think it would be admitted by all 
that the landscape is the leading feature in the modern ceme- 
tery. It is to this feature that 1 wish especially to call your at 
tention. 
Hammerton said: “A landscape means a piece of the 
earth’s surface and it is always understood that this piece will 
have a certain artistic unity or a suggestion of unity in itself. ’’ 
A. J. Downing, the father of landscape gardening in this country, 
said “Our part, to appear to advantage, requires some extension 
of surface, its lines should lose themselves indefinitely and unite 
agreeably and gradually with those of the surrounding country.” 
Loudon said,: “The principles of landscape gardening we con 
elude to be derived from nature or developed from the princi- 
ples of landscape painting ” It would seem, therefore, that a 
study of the principles of landscape painting would be of mater- 
ial assistance to the designer who uses for his colors real foliage 
and flowers, or real trunks and branches of trees and shrubs, who 
gets his perspective effects from real distances, his lights from 
real sunshine, real skies and clouds or from their reflections in 
real skies and clouds or from their reflections in real water. 
While time cannot be spared to give all these principles, they 
may be briefly referred to Ruskin speaks of them in the follow- 
ing order: First, the law of principality, >vhich means that a 
composition should have some dominating feature to which all 
others are subordinate. Second, the law of repetition, in which 
a group or object in a view may be repeated by another group or 
object, but the repetition should not be exact. It should usually 
be different in scale and perhaps different in other respects so 
that the repetition is not too obvious. Third, the law of contin- 
uity, which is observed when there is an orderly succession of a 
number of objects more or less similar. Fourth, the law of cur- 
vature, and Fifth, the law of radiation, which have to do with 
the relative positions of the leading objects or lines with regard 
to each other. Sixth, the law of contrast. Seventh, the law of 
interchange. Eighth, the law of consistency. Ninth, the law of 
harmony. It is not often that we think of these laws when look- 
ing at scenery and we may not even know them, but when ju- 
diciously observed they help to make the landscape attractive. 
To be sure there are a great many points of view in a cemetery, 
and from every point new landscapes are seen. Then we have to 
consider the different seasons of the year, the different hours of a 
day, the various kinds of weather and the changes that will take 
place as years pass by, so we have something to study far more 
complex than a painting, but as it is more complex it ought to 
be made more interesting and satisfying: it ought to be man's 
most beauliful production, and what "ould be more appropriate 
for a resting place, a place to which so many are bound by ties 
of affection and remembrance ? A landscape may be called 
the face of nature — of our mother earth. We should seek to 
give this face a good expression, an expression that pleases by 
its beauty, like the face of a beautiful child, and comforts in the 
way described by Lowell:” 
“The landscape forever consoling and kind. 
Pours her wine and her oil on the smarts of the mind.” 
Another authority on landscape art, Thomas Whateley, 
says “The masses of light and shade, whether in a n.itural land 
scape or a picture, must be broad and unbroken or the eye 
will be distracted by the flutter of the scene.'’ Is not this what 
happens when a beautiful lawn in a cemetery becomsg covered 
with scattering monuments, lieadhones and flower beds ? Com- 
pare the views to the right and left just after entering Spring 
Grove with that of the occupied portion of any cemetery, where 
