PARK AND CEMETERY 
121 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
MRS. FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY. 
AN EXCELLENT FIRST .V/ORK FOR IMPROVE, 
MENT ASSOCIATIONS. 
Fall is the season when most outdoor work can be 
clone to the best advantage, and is particularly adapted 
to improvement work in cemeteries — the phase of out- 
door art that appeals more directly to a greater number 
of people than does any other. Indeed, no more effec- 
tual beginning can be undertaken by an organization, 
for it interests all residents, is sure to secure abundant 
personal and financial endorsement, and is so satisfac- 
tory when well conceived and carried out. 
There is, however, danger in the enthusiasm the sub- 
ject so easily evokes and in the general desire of a 
BEFORE. VICTORIA PARK CEMETERY, LONDON. NOW 
MEATH GARDENS. 
community to help in such work. The more there are 
to say and to do, the stronger the likelihood of deciding 
upon and of doing the things that are the most directly 
at variance with accepted canons of cemetery art. A 
knowledge of what is best worth striving for, and the 
exercise of tact in harmonizing the prevailing preju- 
dices in favor of obsolete cemetery custom are essential 
to ultimate success. 
The standard in this branch of outdoor art was set by 
the late Adolph Strauch, whose ideas are exemplified in 
Spring Grove cemetery, Cincinnati, O., of which he 
was for many years the superintendent. His lead has 
been followed, and in several directions improved upon 
by some of our leading landscape gardeners in a few 
cemeteries, notably Graceland, Chicago, and some part 
of many, perhaps most, large city cemeteries is now de- 
veloped along the new lines, known as the “lawn plan.” 
Notwithstanding these facts and the existence of a 
few worthy examples, there is a striking unanimity of 
ugliness and neglect in country and village burial 
grounds and universal evidence of a deplorable absence 
of all conception of beauty and fitness in designing 
and developing such grounds on the part of those who 
control their management. In fact, the so-called “rural” 
cemeteries of America that are celebrated throughout 
the world for their beauty and character are all situated 
near to and are maintained by cities, while the true ru- 
ral cemeteries of this country are blots on the land- 
scape. 
Improvement organization leaders contemplating un- 
dertaking this line of work would better obtain expert 
advice in the outset whether the intention is to remodel 
old or lay out new grounds, for on the excellence of the 
design adopted depends the ultimate results. A thor- 
oughly artistic cemetery is possible to every community. 
It need be no more expensive in the end than the 
crude, unattractive and frequently even repulsive en- 
closures that are now to be seen by the hundred from 
passing trains. Every one of them may and should be 
pleasant places. Spots that no one need shudder to 
AFTER. MEATH GARDENS, LONDON, IMPROVED BY MET- 
ROPOLITAN PUBLIC GARDENS ASSOCIATION. 
look at or dread to visit, and where none should hesi- 
tate to lay their friends to rest. They should be places 
loved and frequented by birds and by people. Restful 
places where peace reigns and hopeful, uplifting 
thoughts are inspired by their perennial foliage and 
springing flowers and their unworldly atmosphere of 
good will. This may be secured by correct treatment, 
which does away with battalions of stones in marching 
order ; replaces a series of mounds, impossible to prop- 
erly care for, by expanses of smooth and undulating 
lawns ; permits only such planting as is provided for by 
the landscape plan of the grounds ; controls the style, 
size and position of such monuments as are allowed, 
and fails to countenance any visible boundary between 
lots. 
It ought not to be particularly difficult to convince 
doubters and conservatives of the desirability of the 
main features that differentiate between the new and 
the old in cemetery aesthetics. Frightful examples of 
the stone yard type are not far to seek in any part of 
the country, while the devastation of time and the ele- 
