6 
PARK AND CC/nCTCRY. 377 
Legal. 
supported by columns carry the dome, and these columns and 
pilasters will be of Etowah (Ga.) marble. The ceilings of dome 
and apse will be of artistic mosaic work. Considerable gray and 
pink Knoxville marble will ,be used about the crypts and as 
background to proposed statuary. The floor will be mosaic of 
Italian marbles. Reached by descending marble steps, there 
will be a crypt below the main floor and also below the apse, 
with cells for sixteen more caskets, making thirty-six in all. About 
the sarcophagi there will be figures of angels in Carrara marble. 
A highly decorative lamp, alwaysburning,willbe suspended under 
perforated bronze openings in the dome, connected with venti- 
lators. The skeleton part of the dome will be of iron, supported 
on iron beams, all encased in brick. The pendentives, ceiling 
and covering of dome, forming the bedding for the granite, will, 
be of Gustavino tile, as used by the Moors when in Spain. The 
work is to be executed in the best manner possible. Con- 
tracts have been let to George Brown & Co., for the granite 
work; and to Messrs Hunt Bros., for the marble work. The 
mausoleum will be constructed from designs by Gustavus Staeh- 
lin, architect, and will cost some $90,000, the plot of ground hav- 
ing been secured for 19,000. 
Effect of Electric Light on Trees. 
In a communication to Meehan s Monthly Mr. 
John Hugh Ross of Montreal details his observa- 
tions on the apparent effect of the electric light on 
trees. He says: “In front of my house all the trees 
that are within 50 or 60 feet of the big arc lights 
lose their leaves and show many dead branches. 
One tree within 15 feet of one of these lights is 
nearly stripped to the lowest branches, and is dry 
and dead (it is maple). A tall elm about 30 feet 
away is fast losing the leaves from the long pendent 
branches and a butternut in front of my window is 
fast going the same way. To test this point I have 
taken walks about 20 miles in extent through the 
•city streets with same results visible everywhere, so 
I am convinced the electric light is hurtful to most 
trees. They can’t sleep with those big glaring elec- 
tric eyes shining from about 8 p. m. to 3 a. m. or 
thereabouts. I believe there is also a chemical ac- 
tion from these lights. The tree cannot live in al- 
most eternal day — they, like human or animal life 
of any kind, want rest. It is only near these lights 
the decay is so marked. Have any of your corres- 
pondents noticed this? I would like to know. 
Maples, butternuts and elms seem to suffer most. 
Willows or horse chestnuts do not seem to be af- 
fected — nor the lilacs — the cotton wood does not 
seem to feel it at all. 
Montreal is the best lighted city I have seen 
on this continent, not excluding New York. The 
lights are large arc ones and placed about 25 to 30 
feet from the ground. Now note this: The trees all 
'begin to lose their leaves on top or on the side fac- 
ing the lights, and gradually keep losing them 
downward.” This is an important matter which 
■observations in other localities will help to eluci- 
date. 
RIGHT OF ACCESS TO CEMETERY LOT. 
The court of appeals of New York has rendered 
an important decision, in principle, in the case of 
Palmer v. Palmer, where it reverses the decision of 
the general term of the supreme court of that state. 
The purpose of this action was to establish the 
plaintiff’s right to a way across the defendant’s 
farm, from a certain street of the town of Mamaro- 
neck, in Westchester County, to a private cemetery 
owned by her in the rear of the defendant’s pre- 
mises, and to enjoin him from interfering with the 
exercise of that right. The defendant and plain- 
tiff were brother and sister. In the settlement ot 
their father’s estate, by the heirs, the farm men- 
tioned was deeded to the defendant, and the ceme- 
tery lot to the plaintiff and her sister. After the 
deeds between the parties to that transaction were 
executed and delivered, the plaintiff and her sister 
had no interest in any land bordering upon that 
conveyed to them, and it did not adjoin any street 
or highway. Under these circumstances, the court 
of appeals holds that the plaintiff and her sister 
obviously acquired a right of way by necessity 
from and to their cemetery lot over the remaining 
part of the farm. The law on the subject it says is 
that where a person conveys to another a piece of 
land surrounded by lands of the grantor, the 
grantee and those claiming under him have a right 
of way by necessity through the lands of the 
grantor, as an incident of the grant. And this 
principle applies where the land conveyed is sur- 
rounded in part by the lands of the grantor, and in 
part by the lands of a third person. The grantor 
in such a case has the right to designate the track 
or way, having due regard to the rights of both 
parties; but, if he declines or omits to exercise 
that right, the grantee may select for himself, and 
will be supported in his selection unless chargeable 
with palpable abuse. A right of way of necessity 
over the lands of a grantor, in favor of a grantee 
and those subsequently claiming under him, is not, 
however, a perpetual right of way, but continues 
only so long as the necessity exists. In this case 
the grantor was not shown to have designated the 
track or way to be used by the plaintiff, but she 
continued to use the way as it formerly existed, 
and was previously used by the family in passing 
over the farm to the cemetery. Thus, the court 
says she selected the old way, which must be 
regarded as established and consented to by the 
parties, as no objection seemed to have been made 
for years after the selection or during the continu- 
ance of its use. The doctrine here laid down, it 
will be seen has a wide application. 
