PARK AND CEMETERY, 
125 
CmETERT HGTES. 
March 9, 1891, at itsannual town meeting, Plymouth, Mass., 
voted for the erection of a Receiving Tomb in Vine Hills ceme. 
tery. At the last town meeting it was voted that the selectmen 
be given authority to build the tomb and pay for it out of the 
contingent fund. “The world do move.” 
* ♦ » 
A monument recently placed in a cemetery in Louisville, 
Ky., is of more than passing interest from the record which it 
preserves. It bears inscriptions to the memory of James Aus- 
tin, a soldiar of the Revolution; James Allen Austin, his son, a 
soldier of the War of 1812; James Grigsby Austin, his grandson, 
a soldier of the war with Mexico, and James Richard Gathright, 
his great-grandson, a confederate soldier, who was killed at 
Murfreesboro, Tenn., Jan, i. 1863. All were privates. 
* * * 
The Catholic cemetery of St. Mary’s Delaware, O., con- 
sists of 8 acres, lying south of Oak Grove cemetery from which 
it is separated by an alley. It is laid out unfortunately on the 
checker board plan, the lots being 20 feet square, with an 8 foot 
path on one side and one of 4 feet on the other, and a corner 
stone 4" X 4" is placed on each. The method of raising pre- 
liminary funds for the enterprise is interesting. The first lots 
were sold for $20 each. The church issued bonds of that value, 
and each bond holder was given a lot, and by this means some 
$2,000 was raised at on»e, $1,600 being paid for the land. 
•» * * 
A private cemetery is in course of preparation at the Odd 
Fellow’s Home, Springfield, O. , in which the dead will be in- 
terred in artificial ground. East of the Home, in the grounds, 
there is a hill some 60 feet high, which falls off eastward into a 
basin, making a natural amphitheatre. In this hollow it is 
proposed to construct a series of terraces, each faced by a re- 
taining wall, which are to be used alternately as walks and bur- 
ial terraces. The first terrace eight feet wide is intended for 
graves, the next, six feet wide, for a walk, and so on until the en- 
tire depression is appropriated. Work has been commenced on 
the first two terraces. 
* * * 
The Grand Rapids, Mich., Cemetery Commissioners appear 
to be in earnest in respect to the proposed improvements in the 
burial of the poor of the city. A recent resolution provides that 
wooden markers shall not be permitted any more, and arrange- 
ments have been made for stone markers. The superintendent 
of Valley City cemetery has been instructed to place a tempor- 
ary marker at each grave in the potter’s fields there and level off 
the grounds preparatory to sodding, so that these parts of the 
cemetery may be cared for in a manner that will be entirely ac- 
ceptable to those interested in graves there as well as the gen- 
eral public. 
* * » 
Round about the circle in Lake Side cemetery, Erie, Pa., 
wherein repose the remains of the late Capt. Chas. V. Gridley, 
G. S. N., are now set four of the bronze guns taken from the 
Cavite Navy Yard, Phillippine Islands, forwarded to the ceme- 
tery for this purpose by the U. S. government. It will be re- 
membered that Capt. Gridley who commanded the Olympia 
under Admiral Dewey, died at Kobe, Japan, while on his way 
home from an illness contracted during the fighting in Manilla 
Bay. The guns are 1 1 feet long, cast in bronze, and weigh 6,000 
pounds each. The circular plot is 74 feet in diameter, close to 
the bluffs of Lake Erie, and overlooks the lake and harbor en- 
trance. To Mr. William H Platt, of the cemetery, we are in- 
debted for a photograph of one of the guns, and a desciiption 
of all. 
* 
The annual report to June 5, 1899, of Woodlawn Cemetery, 
Canandaigua, N. Y., accompanied by a previous report giving 
some historical data, etc., shows an excellent financial condi- 
tion. The receipts for the year were $4,469.09, which included: 
Sales of lots, $2,673 7 °< foundations, $428 27; opening graves, 
$691.75. Among the expenditures were $1,897. 13 for services 
and $762.65 for expenses. The association was organized in 
1884, since which time there has been a total expenditure of 
$59,442.46. The total receipts have amounted to $54 042 46, 
which include: Sales of lots, $44791.02; opening graves, 
^4,522. 73; foundations, $3,27065; vault use, $18025. There 
remains at date only an indebtedness of $5,400 00. The trustees 
have decided to allow only iron flower receivers to be used on 
the graves for cut flowers, all other utensils are to be rigorously 
excluded. 
* * 
That the lawn plan of cemetery development has estab- 
lished itself as a standard is exemplified in the report upon the 
laying out of Ridgelawn cemetery, Watertown, Mass , which is 
in progress from designs by Mr. Arthur ^F. Gray, landscape 
architect, of Boston, which were chosen by the Board of Health 
of the town. In his report Mr. Gray says: “The plan sugges- 
tive contemplates the use of the lawn system throughout, with 
park-like effects; this treatment is not only the most pleasing, 
but the most effective form of modern cemetery design.” And 
further he says: “No curbs, whatever, should be allowed in the 
cemetery, and it would be well to have the marking stones con- 
fined to a few simp’e designs of low markers of approved form 
and design, as has recently been deemed advisable in Brookline, 
where such a plan has been adopted, and the designs of monu- 
ments also are submitted to the cemetery trustees for approval 
before erection.” “All plantings should be controlled in like 
manner, and the decorative plantings of the grounds should be 
confined to such portions as the advisory landscape architect or 
gardener shall designate.” 
* •» * 
A shocking state of affairs has been revealed at the Cote des 
Neiges cemetery, Montreal, owing to the vigorous protests of 
the surrounding community. The cemetery officials can hardly 
be blamed for the evil, although such conditions could not pos- 
sibly exist were the health authorities vigilant. It would appear 
that the cemetery gets no remunerarton for the burial of the 
poor and such classes, and the number of free burials amounted 
last year to 2,000. The following description of the method 
adopted from a press interview with a cemetery official, will be 
convincing as an excuse for public protest: “We simply bury 
those bodies for charity, and from the large proportion of free 
burials we have to make the interments as simple and inex- 
pensive as possible. The cemetery is owned by a private cor- 
poration, and it would simply be ruined if it had to provide a 
separate grave for every single interment. What we do is this: 
We have a square pit some twelve feet square and ten feet 
deep excavated and the coffin- received of people for free inter- 
ment, are placed in a row along one side. When the row is com- 
plete a few inches of soil is placed on the lids and another tier 
put in, and so on, until within three feet of the top of the pit, 
when the tier is covered up as far as possible and a second tier 
begun. When the pit is filled, a mound is levelled over the top 
and the limits of the mound marked out by stakes.” During the 
filling process the pit is covered over with planks. 
