234 
PARK AND CEMETERY, 
monly, even here. A little thought on the causes of the 
effect of a burying ground will suggest its remedy. 
In the first place, a tombstone even the simplest 
need not be ugly or depressing in itself. It gains these 
qualities from its surroundings. It gains them when it 
is surrounded by others like itself and the more of them 
there are, the more waste becomes the wilderness. 
In the second place, the asperity of marble and 
granite, of plane and parallelopiped, may be softened 
and relieved and even beautified by contrast, contrast 
with the infinitely various and graceful forms of vege- 
tation, with foliage and shoot and bough and tendril, 
with green and red and brown, but most of all with 
green. Even the turf, though verdant and lush and re- 
freshing, becomes trim and monotonous, but tree and 
shrub and plant and vine need be no more monotonous 
than the clouds. Since man first began to express his 
delight in the world he lived in, he has used vegetation 
to adorn and enhance his joy, to adorn and soften his 
griefs, ivy and vine and laurel and lilies and roses to 
crown his triumphs and feasts, his births and marriages, 
cypress and willow and rue and violets and what not to 
symbolize his hopes and grace his despair in death or 
suffering; for he knows, though he seldom stops to re- 
member it, that to vegetation he owes his existence and 
all in it that seems good of the earth. 
Here then are the two causes that make our burial 
grounds so dreary and forlorn. They are places of 
stones and not of herbs, of solid geometry and not of 
life and beauty. And it there is any place more than 
another where evidences and suggestions of life should 
abound, surely it is in a Christian cemetery in which 
those who bury their dead can find little consolation 
but in the hope that death is no death, but only the en- 
trance to another life. So if we must have monuments 
of stone and marble, let us not put them all together to 
set off and exaggerate each other’s bareness, but put 
them where but a few can be seen at once, and make 
the sc-eens that separate them of trees and bushes dis- 
posed as irregularly and naturally as may be. Let there 
be no headst me without its accompanying branch, no 
obelisk or storied urn or animated bust without a plen- 
tiful background of thick foliage. Instead of there 
being more scanty growth of green things than in any 
city park, let them be more generous. Let tree and 
shrub and vine and flower abound everywhere, so that 
the grim work of the mason may become refined and 
beautiful, and the facts that he records become meaning, 
and the texts of scripture impressive and pathetic in- 
stead of being lost by vain repetition amid the surround- 
ing multitude of others. Lor to the dead is due a 
habitation as fair as to the living. 
The proposition reduced to these terms would seem 
simple enough, even if we had no examples of burying 
grounds actually made on these lines. Lortunately we 
have them conceived and carried out with complete 
success; none among them probably so notable as that 
of Spring Grove at Cincinnati, due to the remarkable 
artistic taste and persistence of Mr. Strauch. I.ike 
other innovators, and more than most, he had to en- 
counter and overcome the dogged and po verftil resis- 
tance of vested interests and rooted prejudices, to 
fight and cajole his foes who should have been his 
friends, for their own good. But his cemetery is an 
actual achievement, known over America and Europe 
as one of the finest in the world, in which his own 
monument might be set up and inscribed as justly as 
that of Sir Christopher Wren “Si monumentum requiris, 
circumspice.” 
To those interested in constructing new cemeteries 
or improving old ones, a few suggestions iray be useful. 
Large open spaces like those in our public parks, 
vanishing into remote and varying vistas are not attain- 
able in a cemetery where all things must be subordinate 
to the monuments. Then let the open spaces be com- 
paratively small and planted thickly on the outskirts. 
Small burying plots can be arranged among these out- 
skirts so as to be easily accessible, yet not to interfere 
with the view of the whole scene. Though more seclu- 
ded, they would be more individual and easy to find 
than lost in an open space among a large number of 
others. 
Those who could afford to purchase large lots could 
have them laid out by the cemetery authorities, and be 
restricted to one monument. 
The smaller and cheaper plots to be set away from 
the main lines of traffic, and arranged so as to econo- 
mise space in large groups with plenty of planting 
among and around them. 
I.iberal space to be set off in the beginning where the 
designers thought best, not for burial, but for developing 
the varied and picturesque effect of the whole place. 
This has been found to pay not only in an aesthetic, 
but in a commercial sense, for the more beautiful the 
grounds, the more readily do the plots sell; which shows 
that the popular instinct is right after all. All natural 
features, hills and depressions, timber and steep rocks 
to be taken advantage of to prevent the monuments 
from intruding into the general aspect of the place. A 
tombstone being a private monument in a public place, 
should not be allowed to be much more conspicuous 
than other private monuments. 
All monuments to be approved by the cemetery 
authorities. Low and horizontal stones to be encour- 
aged as much as possible. It has been suggested by a 
writer on this subject that natural stones with a sufficient 
surface dressed off for the inscriptions, would make 
good gravestones. For the general effect of the place, 
probably nothing could be better than these with their 
proper accompaniments of shrubs and plants. 
Let these principles of design be followed from the 
beginning and judiciously adapted to the circumstances, 
and alljrules rigidly enforced for the common benefit; it 
will be found that by little more than apt arrangement 
of the materials already in use, cemeteries may be made 
as beautiful as they are commonly hideous. 
H. A. Caparn. 
The oak belongs to England. Fifty years ago the 
people wore a sprig of oak on May 29, which was royal 
oak day, but the fashion has almost disappeared to-dav, 
and e^'en Prince Charlie’s escape by hiding in the 
branches of a giant o.ik is not celebrated nowadays to 
any degree. 
