PARK AND CEMETERY. 
79 
“Graves are funny. Sometimes they behave and 
sometimes they don’t. I’ve kno^^Ti them to be fine 
until the funeral is driving through the gates. 
Then they collapse. I have known them to col- 
lapse after the coffin is lowered, too. Then we 
have trouble. The women faint, the men swear 
and everybody blames the grave digger. But we 
can't help it. It’s all according to the nature of 
the ground. 
••I speak from experience,’* said Pumley. “be*- 
cause I’ve dug graves here for 23 years. Diggin’ 
two graves a day, and sometimes three, I calcu- 
late I’ve dug over 10,700 graves in my time.- I 
never had a vacation, ’cause grave diggers don’t 
get any. If they want a vacation, they take it 
without pay. A grave digger gets $2 a day. so 
yon see we don’t have the money to take a 
vacation. 
“That’s why the men are striking. Who can 
live on $12 a week with a family, when things 
are so high? Meat’s high and loaves of bread 
are smaller. Everything’s up but wages for grave 
diggers. I hear of the other workmen getting 
raises, but the grave diggei’s. no. We get no con- 
sideration at all. They must think w^e’re animals. 
“The cemetery business is a good business. It 
costs a family about $8 for a grave, $13 if it is 
dug on Sunday. It used to be cheaper, but even 
graves have gone up. The cemetery has the grave 
dug in one morning by tw*<i men. paid $2 a day 
apiece. The grave costs the cemetery $2. About 
$C profit on weekday graves, and .$11 on Sunday 
work. 
“The grave digger is not as mournful as people 
think. We whistle and sing and chew while dig- 
The Executive Board of the Cremation 
Association of America has issued the an- 
nouncement that the fourth annual conven- 
tion of the Association will be held at Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, Thursday and Friday, Au- 
gust 24th and 25th. Extraordinary efforts 
will be made to render this year’s conven- 
tion one of the best attended and most en- 
joyable of the series, the Cincinnati Crema- 
tion Company being noted for its hospi- 
tality. Inquiries, regarding the convention 
or the Association, should be directed to 
ASKED AND 
Floral Grave Cover Recommended. 
Editor Asked and Answered ; In your 
March issue I notice a question from J. S., 
Miss., regarding a “grave cover” or flower 
screen to be placed over the open grave 
at the termination of the services. 
VV'ill say for information of J. S. that 
we, here in Elmwood Cemetery, consider a 
flower screen as an absolute necessity, and 
if through some oversight we neglect to 
have the screen at the grave, we soon hear 
from everybody concerned. 
This screen is nothing but a light, but 
substantial, wooden frame, with hand holes 
at each end. Over this is stretched a wire 
mesh, and the entire affair is painted green. 
It is inexpensive and will last for years if 
well made. The screen should be arched. 
The screen is set beside the grave, and 
as soon as the procession arrives all the 
flat flower pieces are laid upon it, and as 
soon as the services terminate, the under- 
taker and the cemetery assistant imme- 
diately place it over the grave, thus quickly 
ging graves. Why shouldn’t we? It isn’t our 
graves we are digging:. We used also to have our 
little swig, but the cemetery officials cut that out. 
One of the diggers got tlrunk on duty and fell in 
a grave. So they cut it out. A ilrunkcn grave 
digger is funny all right.’’ the digger philoso- 
phized. leaning on his long-handled spade. 
“Grave digging, though, is more nerve racking 
than you think. Sometimes the carriages drive 
through the gates and we’re only half finished. 
Then we must work like blazes. Everyl>ody fusses. 
After the services, we lower the casket, four of 
us, into the grave. If it is rain.v, the ropes or 
straps are slippery. The casket might slip or fall 
to the bottom. Also we might fall into the graves 
ourselves. 
“I have seen both happen. Some time ago a 
strap broke. The casket fell with a thump and 
all the women fainted. Nothing was hurt. An- 
. other time two of the diggers fell over the edge 
onto the coffin. One of the diggers hit his chin 
on an iron-bound corner and knocked two teeth 
out. The woman then fainted, too. 
“Once we were lowering a body when the side 
of the grave collap-sed and we all fell in. The 
mourners were superstitious, and swore the grave 
was l>ewitched. But in all my life of grave dig- 
ging I shall never forget an incident that hap- 
pened 10 years ago. The hearse and carriages had 
just arrived. They were up on that hill yonder. 
The pallbearers prepared to take the coffin from 
the hearse. As one of the younger men put his 
hand on the rail of the casket to draw it out he 
fell dead. We took him away, held the services, 
and buried the pallbearer the following Sunday.” 
Air. A. T. Roever, 30 Wiggins block, Cin- 
cinnati. Anyone interested in cremation 
will be welcome. 
As an indication of the progress of cre- 
mation, it may suffice to state that accord- 
ing to the statistics published by John 
Storer Cobb, of Boston, there were 8,868 
incinerations up to the end of 1898, where- 
as the statistician of the Cremation Asso- 
ciation of America reported 88,006 crema- 
tions up to the end of 1913 at the Indian- 
apolis convention. This is an increase of 
992 per cent in fifteen years. 
ANSWERED 
converting the grave into a beautiful flower 
mound. Then everybody is dismissed and 
return to their carriages, after which the 
sexton does the rest. 
While, of course, it is true that in the 
strictest sense of the word the use of a 
flower screen is not necessary, nevertheless 
it has come to be an institution with us, 
and we consider it of great value from a 
psychological standpoint, in that it leaves an 
impression of beauty on the mind of the 
mourner when leaving the grave. From a 
purely utilitarian standpoint, neither grave 
decorations, flower beds, lawns and shrub- 
bery, or even artistic memorials, are nec- 
essary. 
If J. S. will install the flower screen in 
his cemetery he will find it of great assist- 
ance in inducing the mourners to leave be- 
fore the grave is filled. Of course, it takes 
a little time, and requires the co-operation 
of both undertakers and clergy, but it can 
be done, as we have demonstrated here, and, 
as 1 said before, the flower screen is now 
an institution with us, and a popular one 
at that. E. F. Lundstrom, 
Supt., Elmwood Cemetery. 
Birmingham, Ala. 
Planting a “Swastika.” 
Editor .Asked and Answered : I want to 
lay out a "Swastika” and plant in it Loni- 
cera Brachypoda aureo reticulata, for a 
permanent bed. This plant was highly rec- 
ommended for this purpose and for its 
beauty when closely sheared. How far 
apart should they be planted, and how do 
I have to handle them to make a nice, per- 
manent bed? How high from the ground 
should it be sheared? — C. S., Kan. 
The yellow-netted leaved honeysuckle 
you refer to is excellently adapted for this 
purpose and bears clipping admirably. Get 
short, stocky plants and set them out six to 
eight inches apart and encourage their 
growth the first year, with not much clip- 
ping except to shorten the run-away viny 
shoots. The object the first summer is to 
thicken up the growth to a solid mass. 
Xext winter, or before growth starts in 
early spring, shorten all plants back to, 
say, six inches high. .After that, the plants 
being well established, you may keep them 
clipped in to any height you desire, say, 6, 
8, 12 or more inches high. The closer the 
plants are set out to begin with, the sooner 
they become a dense mat of growth, but 
too close planting will weaken them. Or, 
set out the plants 8 or 9 inches apart, and 
as they grow, peg the shoots flat onto the 
ground to cause them to root at the joints 
along their stems and quickly form a mat. 
.Another plant splendidly fit for this pur- 
pose is Eunonymus radicans, either the 
plain green-leaved or variegated form ; it 
is hardy, fills up solidly, and cheerfully 
submits to being clipped into dense form. 
Wm. Falconer, 
Supt., Allegheny Cemetery. 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
The Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera ja- 
ponica, variety aureo reticulata (synonym, 
L. brachypoda reticulata) would make a 
hardy and permanent bedding plant for a 
formal bed such as a “Swastika.” This 
plant can be kept in bounds by shearing, a 
height of four to six inches being best. 
Frequent clipping will cause it to thicken 
up, and the new growth following a severe 
clipping will be a rich golden color. 
Other hardy plants suitable for design 
beds are Vinca minor and Santolina Cha- 
maecyparissus, commonly called Lavender 
Cotton. The latter is a bluish sage-green 
color and endures clipping well, but should 
not be clipped back lower than four inches 
after the plants have filled out. Six inches 
would perhaps be a better height. 
Hare & Hare, 
Landscape .Architects. 
Kansas City, Mo. 
CREMATION ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONVENTION. 
An exchange of experience on practical matters by our readers. You 
are invited to contribute questions and answers to this department . 
