PARK AND CEMRTERY 
■42 ) 
CIVIC BEAUTY The Civic Improvement 
IN ST. LOUIS. League of St. Louis, though of 
comparatively recent organization, is proving itself a 
verv live body, and much good has already resulted 
from its effort in a general way. In a special way 
there is recorded in its Bulletin for November, the 
work it has accomplished through its Open Air Play- 
ground Committee for the children in the congested 
districts. By dint of persistent effort it established 
three playgrounds, provided them with playthings, 
gymnastic features and shower baths, and at the end 
of their necessarily short season, were enabled to make 
a most gratifying report on the results of their work, 
the effects of which promise ample returns for the de- 
votion of the generous workers. There is no question 
of the propriety of beginning with the children in all 
public endeavor, and the arguments for this stand are 
of common knowledge. 
T^ARK In the paper given in another 
MAKING. column, being a report on Park 
Development and Maintenance, by Mr. G. A. Parker, 
chairman, New Haven, Conn., there is an abundance 
of food for thought on the subject of which it treats. 
Mr. Parker discusses the qualifications of the profes- 
sional men called upon to practice in park work, as 
well as the fundamental laws incidental to naturalistic 
park development, and the paper concludes with a 
timely criticism of the home grounds, as they are 
commonly developed and improved. The report is of 
broad interest and draws attention to the manv sides 
of the park and outdoor improvement questions. 
THE t>R0GRESS W hilt cremation as a means of 
OF CREMATION. disposal of the dead has been 
making very material progress in this country, it has 
l)een given a most decided impetus in Great Britain b}^ 
the passage of the Cremation Act, recentlv accom- 
plished in the British parliament. For vears the 
friends of cremation have been exerting themselves to 
obtain parliamentary recognition, and now that it is 
attained a crematorium will undoubtedly soon become 
one of the accessories of the cemetery in all availabk- 
districts. The act now in force confers upon anv body 
which acts as a burial authority a general power to 
adopt cremation, plans for which must be approved 
by the local government board, and the equipment of 
which must be certified to by the Secretarv of State 
for the Home Department. This official will prepare 
for parliament such rules and regulations as mav seem 
necessary. Clauses in the act prescribe location as re- 
lated to highways and dwelling houses and provide 
regulations as to the cremation of bodies, and penalties 
for breach of rules, etc. As might have been expected, 
the greatest precautions are called for to prevent the 
concealment of crime — the argument which has hith- 
erto been so effectively used by the opponents of the 
plan. This rapid stride in the cremation idea made by 
conservative England will in all probability stimulate 
public sentiment everywhere to a better comprehension 
of cremation as an appropriate disposal of the dead. 
cAPPALACHIAN The joint meeting of the Ap- 
cHATIONALPARK. palachian National Park Associ- 
ation, the Chambers of Commerce and Boards of 
Trade of southeastern cities, held in Asheville, N. C., 
the latter part of October, was a successful event and 
demonstrated the widespread interest taken in this 
project to create a national park of a district unusually 
favorable for such a scheme. It will be remembered 
that a bill for the purpose has already passed the 
United States Senate, and was favorably reported 
upon by the House Committee on Agriculture, and the 
result of the late convention will be to stimulate all in- 
terested to urge their representatives in Congress to 
push the nieasure to its passage by the House. The 
locality of the proposed reservation, its natural beauty 
and attractiveness, and of more importance than any- 
thing, its regulative influences on the climatic and 
other natural conditions of the country, make the 
cause one of positive public interest, and as such it 
merits the support of the whole country. 
GRAVE The recent wholesale indict- 
ROBBERY. ments for body-snatching in In- 
dianapolis, and the horrible revelations concerning 
the methods and details of the nefarious traffic, 
revive the discussion as to the responsibili- 
ties of cemetery corporations in the premises, 
as well as what might constitute the most effi- 
cient means of prevention. It is quite certain that 
in the great majority of cemeteries protection against 
this deplorable and almost common outrage is totally 
inadequate, and yet it is equally certain that if the law 
cannot administer sufficiently drastic punishment to 
prevent it, public interest in our cemeteries will be 
seriously affected. It is therefore well that cemetery 
officials should again carefully consider this question 
and endeavor to provide some means of protecting the 
graves at night against the “ghouls” which the so- 
called demands of medical science do so much to en- 
courage. Inspired by the conditions prevailing in 
Indianapolis the New Albany (Ind.) council has or- 
dered electric lights to be placed in the cemeteries un- 
der its control, a method of protection with certain 
advantages to offset the objectionable features, and 
which many cemetery corporations might adopt. But 
under existing conditions, it appears to us, that if pub- 
lic sentiment could be aroused sufficiently to compel 
the judiciary to administer punishment to the full ex- 
tent of the law, regardless of politics, legal quibbles 
and personal bias, ample protection would be secured. 
