PARK AND CEMETERY. 
239 
and ability to make friends. For the 
funeral director: skill as an embalmer, 
business tact and management, and 
ability to make friends. Here we meet 
on common ground, in business tact and 
management and ability to make friends. 
On the subject of business tact and man- 
agement is where we can co-operate and 
be in harmony with each other, and in 
so doing, give the public good service. 
I believe that any funeral, large or 
small, should be in charge of the super- 
intendent of the cemetery as soon as 
it enters the cemetery. I think it the 
duty of the funeral director to arrange 
the bearers and place the casket in the 
chapel or over the grave, and also to 
wait upon the family, but that this 
should be done in harmony with the 
superintendent’s arrangements, providing 
such superintendent can render efficient 
service. This, gentlemen, is the final act, 
and of very short duration. After the 
funeral director has rendered high class 
and satisfactory service for three or four 
days or perhaps a week to this family, 
and brings them to your cemetery where 
their dear ones are to be left in your 
care, it is then that you should realize 
the confidence and trust that is placed in 
you, and you should render the efficient 
and humble service that should be 
worthy of such a trust. The great can 
afford to be humble and the humble will 
soar to greatness. I believe that the 
superintendent of the cemetery and 
funeral director should co-operate when 
necessary in selling lots or single graves, 
also in the opening of graves and decora- 
tion, chapel service, cremation and vault 
service, but that there should be no 
financial transaction between them. In 
other words, I believe it would be better 
for the family to make their settlements 
with the superintendent of the cemetery, 
and not with the funeral director, and if 
such rules were made by the cemeteries 
so that the public would understand 
them, it would be much more satisfac- 
tory to both of us. There is no reason 
why the funeral director should have 
those accounts on his books. Another 
rule I believe all cemeteries should have 
is not to have burials on Sunday. This 
regulation coming from the cemeteries 
leaves no room for argument with the 
family. It is the only practical way to 
avoid Sunday funerals. The funeral di- 
rectors have plenty of work to do on 
Sunday without funerals. Tn this city 
the Sunday funeral law has been in effect 
about 10 years, and there has never been 
any trouble or serious objection. Mr. 
Hobart, superintendent of Lakewood 
Cemetery stated to me that in that time 
only two requests have been made for 
Sunday service, and after having the 
rules explained to them, they accepted 
them very pleasantly, also that only two 
or three contagious cases were obliged to 
be cared for on Sunday. 
The ability to make friends is a mental 
requirement that is up to each one of us 
as individuals. To put our efforts in the 
right direction, we will build and in- 
crease as sure as the night follows the 
day. Of whom or what should we be 
proud of if not of our friends? 
The other field in which you are 
brought into is skill in landscape garden- 
ing and good roads. • In this particular 
field science has played a very important 
part in the last 10 or IS years, and there 
is a great opportunity for each and every 
one of you gentlemen. The character 
and standing of a community is often 
judged by the condition of its cemeteries, 
and there is no higher tribute can be 
paid a community than to say that its 
cemetery is second to none, and it is 
largely in the hands of the superintend- 
ent to make it so. Your influence upon 
the community and its civic organiza- 
tion is unlimited, and the high standard 
of your citizenship will be felt in every 
part of the community. 
The next two qualities I would men- 
tion are physical requirements of suc- 
cess. For the superintendent of ceme- 
teries: good location for cemetery, com- 
plete high grade chapel, crematory and 
vaults. For the funeral director: com- 
plete stock of high grade goods and roll- 
ing stock. 
The first requirement, namely, location 
for the cemetery. It is possible that 
very few of you have had anything to 
do with the location of the large ceme- 
teries in this country as they were natur- 
ally located before your time. 
In regard to crematoriums, chapels 
and vaults, you have an unlimited influ- 
ence in establishing and working out 
their details. I have visited many 
chapels throughout the United States 
and Canada, and I believe Lakewood 
Chapel is second to none in America, 
of which fact we are justly proud. 
The next stone in our pyramid is serv- 
ice. What an important part this is, 
and how few there are who appreciate 
the value of giving good service. It is 
not how much you can do, but how well 
you do it. It would be possible to have 
all of the other qualities and still not 
render the highest class service, and 
how willing people are, to pay for good 
service. It is that they remember long 
after the amount of the bill has been 
forgotten. You will observe that I have 
said nothing in regard to money. This 
surely is an important consideration, 
but I believe it should not predominate. 
The man who has money and profit in 
mind all of the time, and loses sight of 
the other important things, is not success- 
ful to the degree that he otherwise would 
be. Success spells profit, but profit does 
not always spell success. It is up to the 
individual or association, the degree of suc- 
cess they attain. 
In London, in 1665, during the great 
plague, the burial of the dead was a most 
fearful and difficult task. Out of the pop- 
ulation of 384,000 persons, 97,306 funerals 
took place during that year, and plague pits 
were established in districts around Lon- 
don to relieve the churchyards. In pre- 
vious years there had been visitations of 
the plague: In 1592 there were 11,503 
deaths with a population of 25,886; in 1593 
there were 10,662 deaths with a population 
of 17,844; in 1603 there were 30,567 deaths 
with a population of 37,294. In a burial 
ground owned by an undertaker named 
Martin, which only measured 295 feet by 
379 feet, 14,000 bodies were buried in ten 
years. In a chapel situated in St. Clements 
Lane, surrounded by houses, with a cellar 
60 feet by 29 feet and 6 feet deep, 12,000 
bodies were deposited and not one of them 
placed in a lead shell. 
Parliament at last took notice of the ex- 
isting conditions, and in March, 1842, ap- 
pointed a committee to inquire into the 
whole subject. Reformation had, how- 
ever, already begun, for before the burial 
act became a law private bills were passed 
enabling joint stock companies to provide 
burial grounds. The cemeteries as we 
know them today were established as fol- 
lows : The Kensal Green Cemetery, 53 
acres, consecrated November 2, 1832; the 
Norwood Cemetery, 40 acres, consecrated 
December 2, 1837 ; the London Necropolis 
Cemetery, 2,000 acres, opened January, 
1855. There are now twenty-four ceme- 
teries in the County of London. This will 
show you what extreme conditions existed 
in London at this early date and the ex- 
treme circumstances under which the dead 
were buried. And from that date and 
down through the ages the watchword has 
been progress. 
Viewing the situation at the present 
time, it is remarkable how much progress 
is dues to organization, and the doctrines 
have been so thoroughly taught that it has 
surpassed, I believe, the wildest expecta- 
tions of our fathers. I cannot let this oc- 
casion pass without expressing my respect 
for the men of thirty-five and forty years 
ago, some of whom, thank God, we have 
still with us. We must acknowledge our 
debt of gratitude and hail them as men of 
foresight, of courage, of determination and 
perseverance, and they have builded a 
monument to themselves that will live on, 
years after they are gone. And to you 
who are now active in the work, let Prog- 
ress be your slogan, and may you realize 
to the full extent the opportunities that are 
before you, and giving your best efforts, 
you will render a service that will live on 
after your years of usefulness have passed. 
The thought I wish to leave with you to- 
day I cannot express better than in the 
following lines : 
There are loyal hearts, there are spirits 
brave, 
There are souls that are pure and true ; 
Then give to the world the best you have 
And the best will come back to you. 
