PARK AND CEMETERY. 
277 
if the polished stone was dark the deco- 
ration would show light. The form and 
width of bases seem to bother the un- 
trained designers. They generally make 
them too narrow and too high, which 
always helps the job to look dumpy. 
Always give the washes good long 
measurement and do not drop them so 
sharply. 
Fig. 3 is another thing from one of 
the stock books of monumental designs. 
It was evidently thrown together with- 
out any knowledge of the principles of 
pie lines that are in harmony with the 
contour of the stone. Three oak leaves, 
placed in a decorative manner like Fig. 
4, are simpler and much more beautiful 
than the attempt to decorate like Fig. 3. 
The reason for this is : The leaves and 
the sunken decoration are in harmony 
with other parts of the stone and are so 
simple that they are seen and under- 
stood at once. This job can be cut as 
cheaply as the other. The cost of ham- 
mering will, of course, be more than 
the Bull set work, but the carving would 
results would have been satisfactory. It 
does not take any knowledge to make a 
square polished block, but it does to dec- 
orate it, also to place under it a base 
that will not spoil the looks of it. 
At Fig. 6 is a design with about the 
same amount of stone as Fig. 5. The 
top of the die is simply cut with a 
proper base under it and a simply traced 
panel on the die. It is much different 
in appearance than the other. About 
the same sized base is used as under 
Fig. 5. The die is in a different shape 
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING CONTOURS AND DECORATIONS OF SOME STOCK MONUMENTS. 
design. With some regard to design 
form it might have been rendered some- 
what like Fig. 4. He would have used 
the same size stone, and the first thing 
would have been to cut off the part that 
the ignorant man labors so much with — 
the beautiful rock waves. At once he 
would have a surface to design on. 
Then, instead of having a conglomera- 
tion of bands, flowers and ribbons, with 
a zigzag enclosure, he would draw sim- 
be less, as it would require much less 
work to cut three leaves in low relief 
than to cut a band, a wreath and flying 
ribbons raised high. The monument 
business would be better off if we had 
more real designers and fewer carvers 
to cut bad designs. 
In Fig. 5 we have simplicity all right, 
but in the wrong way. If this could 
have been decorated similar to Fig. 2 
and a better proportioned base used the 
from the other and requires such a 
base. A proper base to use for the 
other would be much larger and wider, 
but not so high, which would improve 
the looks of the die and relieve the job 
from the -squatty appearance. One 
thing that helps make a die like Fig. 5 
look so badly is the air brush way 
of rendering it — all solid black and a 
white line at the corner to separate the 
sides. No matter how dark a piece of 
