PARK AND CEMETERY. 
67 
It has been voted at the town meeting of Brookline, Mass., 
to appropriate $2,000 for the improvement of Walnut Hills 
cemetery. 
* * * 
Among the acts of the recent session of the legislature of 
Pennsylvania was: an act for the protection of the public health, 
prohibiting hereafter the establishment or maintenance of ad- 
ditional hospitals, pest-houses and burial grounds in the built up 
portions of cities. 
« « It 
The opening of a grave in a town cemetery by order of town 
officers for the purpose of removing a body from a lot which has 
not been paid for to another part of the cemetery which is free is 
held, in State of North Carolina vs. McLean to be within a statue 
making it a felony for any person to open a grave and remove a 
dead body therefrom without due process of law or the consent 
of specified relatives 
* * » 
There is a fine vein of humor in the following from the Cot- 
tage City, Mass., Herald in a note relating to Vineyard Haven 
“While the selectmen are slowly and carefully deliberating on a 
plan to organize and protect their cemetery, made beautiful by 
nature, the cows are still having their innings and doing their 
best to desecrate the graves, attracted by the fine growth of early 
grass.” 
* * » 
At the annual meeting of the Marion, O. , Cemetery Asso- 
ciation, the reports showed a good financial standirg. The re- 
ceipts.for the year were $7,129.97 and the expenditures $3,962.- 
33. The total available assets April 25, 1898 were $28,598 53, 
and on April 10, 1899, $3 1,766. 17, a good sign of prosperity. The 
same officers were elected, most of whom have served for sev- 
eral decades. 
* * « 
In regird to the proposal to establish a cemetery in the 
crater of the Punchbowl, an extinct volcano in the vicinity of 
Honolulu, the Hawaiian Gazette says: “Everything looks beau- 
tiful inside the crater. The Kiowe trees were growing well. 
These and other trees were planted there by the direction of the 
late King Kalakaua. The lantana flourishes, of course. The 
view in any and every direction from Punchbowl is well-known 
to all for its charm. A walk from the city to the place would 
not be a trying undertaking, and the road is better than ever.” 
# * * 
The Mayor of Moline, Kan., issued a proclamation last 
month appointing a certain day on which to clean up and repair 
damages to graves and headstones; also to set out shade trees 
and otherwise beautify the Moline cemetery. All citizens in the 
city and adjoining country, interested in keeping the cemetery 
in good repair, and beautifying the graves of our beloved dead, 
were invited to meet at the cemetery by 9 o’clock A. M. on the 
said day, with shade trees, spades, rakes, axes, and other neces- 
sary tools with which to do the required work. 
* * * 
Notwithstanding that a cemetery is an unusual place for a 
fire Kokomo, Ind., had such a conflagration recently in the 
city cenijtery which swept over nearly three acres of ground and 
destroyed everything in its pathway, including hundreds o^ 
markers and marble slabs marking the resting places of the dead. 
Nearly all the pioneer residents of the city were buried there, 
but since the opening of a new and larger cemetery the place 
has been neglected. Each year it has been permitted to grow a 
luxuriant crop of weeds, and it was the dry vegetation of last 
year that fed this fire. 
•* *• * 
The annual meeting of the St. John, N. B., Rural ceme- 
tery (Fernhill) was held April 3. Except in the sale of lots 
which showed a decrease over last year of $438 an increase was 
shown in all other directions. The perpetual care fund now 
amounts to $ 12,289 79, and last year 34 perpetual care contracts 
were executed making a total of 127. The total receipts for the 
year were $6,600 55 and expenditures $7 17708. A resolution 
was passed calling upon the directors to report at the next an- 
nual meeting upon a scale of fees for perpetual care of lots to 
meet the gradual depieciation in value of money and to secure 
the best results. 
*** 
The annual report of Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee; 
Wis., shows total receipts for year ending March 31, 1S99, to be 
$88,416.43, which include: S ile of lots |2i .334 30; sale of graves, 
$2,578; interments on private lots, 12,344; cremations $1,175; 
care of lots $20 832. 1 1 , and foundations for monuments, etc. , 
$2,201.20. The disbursements amounted to $65,984 35, which 
included: care of cemetery, |i t ,i 14 27; work done by order on 
owner’s lots, $10,875 68; work on foundations and monuments, 
.$1,128.85; repairs and improvements I3-398 49; salaries, etc., 
$10,491.95. The reserve fund now amounts to $i 17.376 99; per- 
petual care fund, $20,754 08. There were 717 interments and 
47 cremations during the fiscal year. 
* * * 
At the annual meeting of the lot holders of Magnolia Ceme- 
tery, Charleston, S. C., on May 4, 1899, Mr. Geo. W. Williaras, 
chairman, made his 43rd Annual Report. The receipts from 
sale of lots the past year were $3-597.57 and the trust fund for 
the care of the grounds, roads and lakes now amounts to $37,- 
949 57 - The perpetual care fund is $29,454.30. The receipts 
from the sale of 2735 lots in the cemetery since 1850 amounts to 
$i84.45oand the numberof burials to 11,000. Some $130,01x1 have 
been expended in the improvements of Magnolia since its or- 
ganization and it is now one of the best kept cemeteries in the 
South. Numerous monuments, costing in the aggregate some 
$200,000, many of them of good taste and beauty, adorn the 
grounds. A park of some five acres is laid out and will be im- 
proved by planting camelias, azaleas, roses and ornamental trees. 
Mr. Geo. W. Williams, chairman, is the only survivor of the 
original Board of Trustees. 
* * -*- 
The legislature of California has passed an act, approved 
March 2, 1899, supplemental to an act entitled “An act to auth 
orize the incorporation of rural cemetery association,” approved 
April 28, 1859, This act authorizes such association to erect, 
purchase, or lease buildings and furnaces and other works for 
cremation:; of human bodies; also, to erect or lease buildings in 
which shall be entombed only the ashes of cremated dead; to 
make provision for the care of the burial places and ashes of the 
dead; also, to provide for the cremation of the unclaimed dead 
and bodies liable, if interred, to spread disease. Section 3 pro- 
vides that in case of epidemics or the prevalence of contagious 
diseases, or otherwise, the proper authorities of any county, city 
and county, city or town, may order the unclaimed or unknown 
dead, and the dead who die in public institutions under the con- 
trol of any county, city and county, city, or town, and the de*d 
commonly buried at public expense, cremated, and their ashes 
