280 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
soiling will apply to them. If they are not 
expressly exempted, and no barrier of pub- 
lic policy has been interposed, and no in- 
ability to satisfy the assessment exists, 
such lands are liable to local assessment 
for a public improvement which will ben- 
efit the property itself.” 
A. L. H. Street, Attorney. 
Fixtures for Public Fountains. 
Editor Asked and Answered : Can you 
give me the address of one or two firms 
who supply fountain fixtures? I have just 
received a contract for a very nice foun- 
tain. Under separate cover I am sending 
you one ot the local papers which shows 
it. If there is a firm in Chicago which 
does this work I would especially like it. 
CONCRETE MAUSOLEUM ORDERED DEMOLISHED. 
Last January Monumental News illus- 
trated the accompanying photograph of a 
mausoleum with the following comment : 
“No, dealers, the ragged looking remnant of what 
once was a classic mausoleum shown in the left of 
the two accompanying illustrations, was not dug out 
of the ruins of Pompeii, nor is it a picture of a 
Belgian tomb wrecked by German shells; not at all; 
n 
l 
CONCRETE MAUSOLEUM, ROME, N. Y. ; ORDERED DEMOL- 
ISHED AFJTER STANDING EIGHT YEARS. 
as I expect to be called there on business 
next week. — B. F., Ind. 
Sculptors and dealers who have erected 
public drinking fountains advise that it is 
best to have the local plumber furnish the 
fittings and fixtures. He can show you the 
catalogs of the large plumbing supply 
houses and get you any kind of fixtures 
you might want. When you are in Chicago 
you might call on a few of the leading 
plumbing supply houses and look at their 
catalogs and find out just what you want, 
so that you can, tell the local plumber when 
you get ready to figure with him. One of 
the leading houses in this line in Chicago 
is Jas. B. Clow & Son, 544 S. Franklin 
street, who make a large variety of drink- 
ing fountains and can furnish any form of 
fittings required for these structures. 
Crete mausoleum, either community or private. The 
photograph of this specimen speaks for itself. It 
will be noted that most of the cornice on the side 
visible lies on the ground, a rather unusual place to 
find a cornice, but it must be remembered this 
enduring structure has been standing some eight 
years. This cornice fell to the ground about two 
years ago and cement lovers have very kindly left 
the fragments there for this interesting exhibit of 
concrete as a mausoleum material. We are informed 
In the case of The Bloomington Cemetery 
Association vs. The People of the State of 
Illinois, 139 Illinios Supreme Court Re- 
ports 16, it was decided , that a clause in a 
charter of a cemetery association to the 
effect that the grounds held for a burial 
place be exempt from “taxation and execu- 
tions,” did not protect the lands against a 
special assessment or a special tax for local 
improvements, nor deprive the County 
Court of its power to order the lands sold 
for a delinquent special tax. The court 
said : 
“That exemption from the general tax- 
ation will not protect property against 
special assessment or a special tax for lo- 
cal improvements has been repeatedly de- 
cided by this court. Nor does the fact that 
this land may be exempt from execution 
deprive the County Court of the power to 
order it sold for a delinquent special tax. 
* * * It is not shown that any part of 
the land ordered sold has been actually 
used for burial purposes. This appellant 
is a private corporation, and its property 
may be sold like that of any other private 
owner, unless exempt by its charter." 
After this decision was handed down, 
the Illinois legislature adopted the follow- 
ing statute, but it does not seem to change 
the rule above announced, in view of the 
decision that an exemption from “taxa- 
tion” in favor of a cemetery association 
does not exempt from special assessment 
for a local improvement: 
“The property, both real and personal, 
of any association organized under this 
act shall be forever exempt from taxation 
for any and all purposes.” 
My attention has not been drawn to any 
subsequent decision of the Illinois Su- 
preme Court holding that this exemption 
extends to special assessments, and since 
the legislature is presumed to know of the 
previous decision holding that “taxation” 
does not include special assessments, it is 
almost certain that the court would still 
hold that the exemption is not so far en- 
larged as to include special assessments. 
A footnote on pages 36 and 37, Volume 
XXXV., Lawyers’ Reports Annotated, 
sums up the policy of the law on this 
question in the following language: 
“In determining whether land used or 
intended to be used for burial purposes is 
or is not exempt from assessment for local 
improvements, several important questions 
present themselves which must be disposed 
of separately. There is no fundamental 
reason why such lands may not be held 
liable to contribute to local improvements. 
It is held that where portions of land are 
alleged to be set aside for use as burial 
ground at some remote future the same is 
liable to local assessment, because it is not 
impossible to sell the same to enforce such 
assessment; and further, that such land is 
not within the meaning of a clause ex- 
empting lands ‘actually used for burial 
purposes.’ Graveyards are in the same 
category with churches, and the same rea- 
it is merely a mausoleum of “indestructible and en- 
during concrete,” which the cement advertisements 
and the community mausoleum promoters tell us 
is as everlasting as the pyramids of Egypt. This 
particular specimen stands on the McCarthy family lot 
in Rome Cemetery, Rome, N. Y., and has been last- 
ing more or less since 1907, when it was erected in 
an unguarded moment by one of the McCarthy fam- 
ily, who is an architect with a penchant for con- 
crete construction. He was so impressed with the 
cement show literature that he must have every- 
thing possible of concrete, so he resolved to go the 
limit. And the limit, as everyone knows, is a con- 
that the interior is also an interesting exhibit when 
water stands on the floor an inch or two deep at 
certain times in the j’ear.” 
The sequel to the above interesting story 
is to be found in the following extract 
from the report of the annual meeting of 
the Rome Cemetery Association, in -a local 
newspaper dated August 2 : 
“The secretary reported that a thirty 
days’ notice had been served on the inter- 
