82 
• PARK AND CEMETERY. 
moved away years ago, when they return now and 
then to visit the graves of their ancestors, find it 
difficult to locate them, for the old board fence and 
the bunch of bushes have disappeared; and as they 
walk through the nicely kept grounds, they hardly 
recognize the spot where in their young days they 
used to gather strawberries on Sunday afternoons, 
when in old times it was customary for boys to take 
a walk to the “Graveyard.” 
Small white signs with black letters give you 
the names of walk or driveway; the walks are named 
after flowers, and the drives after trees; the signs 
stand only about eight inches high and are fastened 
in the sod by an iron rod. Modern wrought iron 
scroll frames on iron tripods contain the rules and 
regulations of the grounds. Iron hitching posts are 
set here and there along the driveways, with 
stone paving around each one; flower-beds are 
found at intervals in some space or triangle made 
by walk or drive crossings. Trees are nicel> 
trimmed; lots are kept in order by yearly payments, 
and by an increasing Trust Fund; many fine monu- 
ments are to be seen, while just within the main en- 
trance stands the soldiers and sailors monument, 
built on lines not usually found. This memorial was 
designed by John D. Barron a citizen of the place, 
and an artist. It is built of Onondaga Grey Lime- 
stone, capped by a bronze figure of a soldier, and 
is 71 feet in height including the figure. 
The Receiving Vault is also built of Grey Onon- 
daga Limestone and has a capacity for twenty 
bodies. A sexton is employed by the year, and 
other help is engaged as needed, and in the summer 
many hands are often required. 
While the transformation of the grounds has 
been going on the business part of the cemetery 
has not been neglected. Prior to 1890-91, aside 
from a small memorandum book, and an old dilapi- 
dated map, there was not a mark of a pen as to 
records or accounts. New maps have been made, 
books opened for lot records, interment index, 
trust fund record, record book of receipts and dis- 
bursements, lot deed record book, commissioners 
book of minutes, new forms of deeds for lots and 
trust deeds for trust funds. 
When we consider that to all this work was 
added the recording of about 2,300 burials the 
number when the work began, now increased to 
about 2,500 with name, age, date of death, etc , 
and the trouble taken to get these particulars, it is 
easy to understand how a great deal of credit is 
due to the present superintendent, Mr. Geo. H. 
Wicks, who more for the love he bears for his 
old home, than the pecuniary benefits derived, has 
performed all this work. 
The last report of the cemetery commissioners, 
with its records, accounts, and statement of finan- 
cial standing would reflect credit 
on any cemetery, and the fore- 
going details, show that a little 
devotion and harmony in the 
community, with the desire for 
improvement, can be made to 
work miracles in the way of re- 
sults of organized effort. 
Funerals in Arabia. 
One of the strangest and 
most affecting sights in an Arab 
town is that of the funerals, 
which may be met at any street 
corner. The body is merely 
wrapped in a mat of esparto 
grass and carried either on a 
bier or on men’s shoulders. The 
mourners lounge along, some in front and some 
behind, crooning verses of the Koran in melan- 
choly tones, which haunt one for days after- 
wards. This wailing, however, is nothing to 
that which goes on at the house of the de- 
ceased. 
When I was staying in the* country near Tunis 
1 heard it kept up during a whole night in a 
neighboring village, and I can conceive of noth- 
ing more desperately depressing than these 
strains of lamentation wafted through the dark- 
ness by the breeze. My dog stood it even less 
well than I did, and he felt constrained to join 
in the doleful chorus until I was half tempted 
to put a bullet through his head. Perhaps 
the strangest of all the funerals I saw was at 
Rizerta. It was that of a baby, which was 
being carried to the grave in an esparto basket. 
— The Sketch, 
VIEW IN T.AKE VIEW CEMETERY, SKANEATELES, N. Y. 
A beautiful landscape marred by too much stonework. 
