1882 Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings Vo 1 023

10

REFORM IN CEMETERIES.
_____

Innovation at the Brookline
Cemetery of Walnut Hills.
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Conspicuous Monuments Not Permitted
and White Marble Tabooed-Simple
and Artistic Gravestone Required
-The Tasteful Designs by a Boston
Architect.

What is known as "the rural cemetery" is a
peculiarity American institution. It originated
in a desire to surround the resting places
of the dead with pleasanter associations than
those obtaining in the ordinary "burying
grounds," with the desolate dreariness at-
tendant upon the traditions of a grim Puritan-
ism that taught us to regard death in the
light of an awful warning, giving it an en-
vironment of horror and dread. Mt.
Auburn cemetery was the first ex-
ample of the new departure, and
its success was so great that it
made the Massachusetts Horticultural So-
ciety, with whom the idea originated, the
richest organization of the kind in the world.
It was intended that pleasant scenery, with
gentle lawns, beautiful trees and groves, with
curving driveways and rambling paths,
should form an attractive spot with an aspect
of peace and repose. The idea became very
popular, and the example of Mt. Auburn
found a following in nearly every part of the
country, while that celebrated burial place
became one of the show-spots of Boston,
where strangers were taken to behold what
we could accomplish in the way of good
taste.

Artistic Failure of the Mt. Auburn
Plan.

But after awhile we were awakened to the
fact that it was altogether too much of a
show, and that our great example of ceme-
tery reform had become a thing itself sadly
in need of reforming, a place where bad taste
was to be seen in its most concentrated mani-
festations. Little restraint had been laid
upon the proprietors of the lots as to what
they were at liberty to do with their posses-
sions; they were free to follow their own
choice as much as were the holders of real
estate upon a city street. The result
was a patchwork conglomeration of
bad stone carving and gaudy flor-
istry; a competitive exhibit of ostenta-
tious monuments, each individual proprietor
unregarding of the effect of his work upon
his neighbor or upon the whole. The rural
aspect became quite subordinate to the mar-
ble cutter's expostion feature, and admiring
crowds flocked to gape at the technical
achievements in the latter line, together with
the horicultural gorgeousness, just as the
same people would go to wonder at a wax-
works show. From the old burying-
ground idea to this was like escaping from
the infliction of a two hours' sermon under
the old regime at "Brimstone Corner" into the
highly contrasted precincts of an opera
comique. Nearly every rural cemetry in the
country has had a history like this, and the
expansive lawns of such places, bristling
with an irregular assortment of intensely
white marble tombstones and monuments,
suggests to an observers from a distance
the disruption of some huge charnel house,
and the promiscuous scattering of its ghastly
contents of bleaching bones. Thus we have
the unpleasant associations of death that first
induced our revolt against the Puritan bury-
ing ground, with a replusive flavor of the
grotesque in addition. Indeed, some of the
ancient burial places, under the friendly
touches of the soothing hand of time, have be-
come very pleasant spots. For instance, the old
Granary burying ground, on Tremont street,
is a most beautiful example of a simple urban
cemetery. Looking from the busy street
into its quiet recesses, the gray old
slabs of slate in their unordered positions
seem as much a growth of nature as the tall
and graceful trees that spring between them
and mantle them with the soft obscurity of
their shadows. Only a discordant note has
for the past few years been struck by the
gayety of the floral foreground, with high
colored tulips, geraniums and hollyhocks in
succession performing a sort of horticultural
ballet dance over the tombs. Flower beds
are a most obstructive feature in such a spot.

A most successful example of a tastefully
maintained rural cemetery exists at Cincin-
nati, and its influence has been admirable.
Our beautiful Boston suburb of Brookline
has also made a notable departure in this re-
spect, and its success ought to go far in
bringing about a most desirable change in
other institutions of the kind. One reform
in rural cemeteries has already pretty gener-
ally been adoped, in correcting the disfigure-
ments caused by the stone-curbing of
lot boundaries, concerning which the
latest number of Garden and Forest
says: "Now in all cemeteries where modern
notions prevail no lot is sold without the spe-
cial provision that the purchaser cannot in
any way define its boundaries except by
corner stones sunk below the surface of the
ground. The monument, however, remained,
and, as wealth increased, developed from
year to year into a more hideous inappropri-
ateness and vulgarity: and it became evident
that, without some active control in such
matters on the part of the managers of ceme-
teries, they must fail in those very direc-
tions where, it was believed. American ceme-
teries were better than those of any other
country."

Tasteful Gravestone Designs.

Garden and Forest goes on to relate what
has been done toward a reform in this direc-
tion at the Walnut Hills cemetery in Brook-
line. The cemetery belongs to the town, and
is governed by a board of trustees elected by
the people. The trustees prescribe the man-
ner in which monuments can be erected in
the cemetery, and have a number of tasteful
designs for tasteful gravestones, made by Mr.
J. A. Scheinfurth, a well known Boston
architect. If a person wishes to a buy a lot, he
can do so only upon the condition that he will
select one of these designs, or, if none of them
suit his taste, that he will submit some other
to be approved by the trustees. There are
25 of these designs, and eight of them
have been reproduced in Garden and Forest.
"The first thing to be remarked in these
stones is their simlicity; and it need hardly
be explained that this is the most impor-
tant quality they could possess. There may
be many places where highly ornate sepul-
chral monuments are appropriate, but a rural
cemetery is not one of them. But, on the
other hand, simplicity should not mean crude
ugliness, even in the smallest and most thor-
oughly rural burying-ground. Stones should
be at once unobtrusive yet artistic, plain yet
beautiful. Good taste should speak not only
in the restricted use of ornament, but in, its
tasteful application and skilful designing."

These designs differ from the simple tomb-
stones of the past in having an artistic qual-
ity which the former lacked, carefully studied
proportions, graceful contours and the sug-
gestion of a style of lettering easily executed
and read, and also decorative. One design is
a flat slab, which is belived to be the earli-
est form that the Christian monument as-
sumed when it was placed in an open, grassy
spot. "It seems the most natural and expres-
sive form, explaining its purpose and mark-
ing the site it consecrates more exactly than
an erect stone can do. Its inscription can be
easily perused by these who stand beside the
grave; and the fact that it is invisible at a
distance may be counted a merit, as the last
hint of ostentation is thus avoided. *** From
the point of view of the repose and sanctity of
effect which a cemetery, as a whole, should
have, flat stones are palpably preferable to
all others." One which utilizes the form of
the cross - one of the very earliest of
Christian gravestone forms reduced to its
simplest elements - shows the combination of
the cross and the circle, the emblem of Christ
conjoined with that of eternity, which more
constantly appears than any other design in
the oldest sepulchral monuments of northern
Europe. Some designs give opportunity for
several inscriptions on one monument; a
single monument for several individuals
being often more desirable than many, being
less obtrusive as well as less costly. One
simple and beautiful design, with a sword
used in the decoration, is for the grave of a
soldier, and a companion design is intended
for a sailor, or naval officer.

It is suggested that where is is proposed to
follow the example here set, an architect
rather than a sculptor will be found the
proper person to execute the design; for,
quite apart from the fact that well trained
architects are more frequently found in this
country than well trained sculptors, it may be
explained that a sculptor's training does not
prepare him to deeal with formally shaped
blocks of stone and their architectural orna-
mentation. This is said to be the first in-
stance in which an artist has be called upon
to design a whole series of tombstones.

Cemetery Ethics.

The idea that underlies this system adopted
at Brookline is an extension of the same that
has done away with prominent bounds in
cemetery lots. "It is the idea," says Garden
and Forest, "that no individual lot owner has
the right to do anything on his lot which will
injure the aspect of the cemetry as a whole.
The Brookline trustees have further declared,
on the same principle, that no monument or
headstone of white marble shall in future be
erected in the cemetery; they regulate for
the general good the selection by lot owners
of plants, baskets and other decorations, and
discourage expensive architectural tombs.
There is no extravagant horticultural estab-
lishment connected with the Brookline ceme-
tery; no beds of glaring flowers, no novel or
mis-shapen trees, no attempts at display. It
relies for its attractiveness upon natural
woods carpeted with wild flowers, native
shrubs and well kept lawns, bordered here
and there by noble masses of natural rocks,
after the striking feature of much New Eng-
land scenery."

Sunday Herald April 28.[18]89

RECOVERED HIS WIFE'S REMAINS
____

A New Yorker Bring Suit Against a
a Cemetery Corporation.

(Special Dispatch to the Boston Herald)

NEW YORK, Oct.2, 1889. Julia Frances
Dickie, the wife of Edward P. Dickie, a re-
tired glass importer, who has lived for
many years at the Windsor Hotel, died on
March 12, and three days later her remains
were buried in the family plot of the heirs of
the late Charles D. Barley in Greenwood
cemetery. Dickie had a family plot of his
own at Guilford.Ct., but it was not in readi-
ness for an Interment, and, as he says he
availed himself of the offer of his
wife's relatives. Subsequently he ex-
pended nearly $4000 in beautifying the
Guilford plot and in erecting a monu-
ment to Mrs. Dickie's memory. The work
was finished some weeks ago, and Dickie applied
to the cemetery trustees for a permit to
remove his wife's remains to Guliford. The
trustees refused to grant the permit. Mr.
Dickie then learned for the first time that
Capt. G. E. Overton of the 6th United States
cavalry and A. R. Overton, brothers of Mrs.
Dickie, had filed with the trustees a formal
protest, as next of kin to the deceased,
against the proposed disinterment and trans-
fer of the body, and had warned the cemetery
association that they would hold any one
legally responsible who disturbed, or per-
mitted the disturbance of the remains.
Mr. Dickie, claiming that the interment
in Greenwood was only a temporary burial,
made at the suggestion of his wife's relatives
and simply to please them, promptly brought
suit for a mandamus to compel the cemetery
trustees to give up the body. In the supreme
court, today Judge Barrett granted a man-
damus compelling the trustees to allow Mr.
Dickie to disinter the remains whenever he
chooses

See also 130 Mass. 422.
18 R. I. 155

PROPRIETORS OF MT. AUBURN.
____
Their Annual Meeting Only Takes up
Seven Minutes of Their Time.

The proprietors of Mt. Auburn cemetery
don't waste much time at their annual meet-
ings.

They held the 49th of these gatherings in
Horticultural Hall yesterday afternoon, and
just seven minutes elapsed between Presi-
dent Spelman's request, "Please be in order,
gentlemen," and the announcement, "This
meeting is dissolved."

In that brief interval the reports of the
trustees, superintendent and treasurer were
submitted in the form of printed pamphlets
and accepted, and David R. Whitney and
Richard M. Hodges were re-elected trustees
for six years.

In their account of their stewardship the
trustees stated that the receipts from sales
and other sources have been larger than in
the previous year, while the expenses have
not been proportionatley increased.

The exhibit of the various funds is as fol-
lows: Repair fund, $643,700.28, an increase
of $42,747.10 for the year; permanent fund,
$298,108.55, a gain of $11,226.69; gen[e]ral
fund, $74,488.54, an increase of $6107.65.

During the year the secretary has prepared
an abstract of the deeds of the proprietors
which fills three thick folio volumes, and is
intended for c[o]nsultation and use in the Bos-
ton office. The original volumes have been
removed to Cambridge and stored in the
brick fireproof vaults of the corporation.

The superintendent reported that 484 in-
terments had been made in 1890, and that 55
bodies had been removed. The total number
of interments in the cemetery is 28,149.

Accompanying the report is a plan of the
cemetery, showing the location of all the
roadways and the bodies of water.

Herald Feb. 3.[18]91

DURING the past year 31 bodies were in-
cinerated in the crematory at Germantown,
Pa. They came from all parts of the country,
and it is probably safe to say that this number
is fully one-third of all those who were cre-
mated in this country during the year. These
figures do not indicate any great growth of
the cremation idea, notwithstanding the dis-
tinguished encomiums it has received from
the living. 1891.

MT. AUBURN CEMETERY.
____
Annual Meeting of the Proprietors - Report
and Statistics.
____

The annual meeting of the proprietors of
Mt. Auburn Cemetery was held in Horticul-
tural Hall yesterday afternoon. Mr. Israel N.
Spelman, the president, occupied the chair
and the meeting was of short duration. The
term of two trustees, J. Montgomery Sears
and Charles F. Choate, having expired, they
were unanimously reelected for another term
of six years. The full board of trustees will
meet later. The fifty-eight annual report
showed the corporation to be in a most pros-
perous condition. During the past year the
repair fund has gained $37,547.09, which
brings the total amount to $600,958.18. The
permanent fund gained $8875.28, mak-
ing a total of $286,881.86. There
has been an increase of $7502.[?]
in the general fund, and that now amounts
$68,380.89. Among the items of "other
property of the corporation," the Coolidge [?]
is mentioned for the first time. President
Spelman said that this piece of land contains
about six acres, and was situated in the [rear?]
of the cemetery in Watertown, and [ran?]
through to Grove Street. The trustees thought
it best to accept a favorable offer for the pur-
chase of this land, which may at any time be
connected with the cemetery for interment
purposes by consent of the town of Water-
town. It is now held like other property out-
side the cemetery limits, and the small ex-
pense of maintaining it is for the present more
than compensated by the sods and other
material used by the corporation. By the
widening of Brattle street in Cambridge, the
city took 3000 square feet of land, for which
the corporation received $1800. The amount
of new work in grading during the year has
been slight, but as a result of the work of pre-
vious years, 500 new lots have been laid out
and posted and are now ready for sale in the
part of the cemetery formerly known as the
"Watris lot." Other necessary work has
been done to keep the cemetery in good order
and removed all those traces of neglect and de-
terioration which years constantly bring
about as the age of the cemetery increases.

The superintendent's report showed there
had been 536 interments during the year
making a total of 27,610 since the cemetery
was opened. There had been sixteen removals
from the cemetery and forty-one bodies received
from other places of internment. The treas-
urer's reprt showed the receipts for the year
to have been $100,306.13; which incuded
balance of $15,779.60 from the proceding
year. The expenditures have been $85,852.40
leaving a balance of $13,453.65. The land
expenditures included an investment of $1[?]
000; $4613.30 for the Coolidge lot and
$5790.66 paid into the permanent fund.
Other propety of the corporation not
specially mentioned in the treasurer's re-
port consists of nearly 136 acres of cem-
etery grounds, with avenues and paths,
water works for the supply of fountains
and watering places, underground pipes and
drains, chapel and statuary, observatory,
receiving tomb, gateway and other structures
reception house and 5620 feet of land on Mt.
Auburn streets;superintendant's house, green-
houses and 61,170 feet between Brattle and
Mt. Auburn streets; the Stone meadow on the
east side of Coolidge avenue, containing about
five acres, on which are located the stables
and other buildings.

The owners talked over the advisability of
getting up a new catalogue and also a diagram
of the cemetery as it now appears. This was
left to the trustees for action. The meeting
then adjourned.

Boston Post Feb.4.[18]90

CREMATORY PROGRESS ABROAD.

Although there is no crematory at Kensal-
green cemetery at present, says a London
journal, the authorities have determined to
provide a magnificent receptacle for the
dust of those who have been disposed of in
this manner. They have decided to erect
a "columbarium" for the reception of cin-
erary urns, the structure forming a promi-
nent object in the centre of a hall of some
magnitude containing accommodation for
42 urns. Three tiers of compartments on
each of the four sides will be inclosed by a
metal frame, each one having a lever-
locked door filled with plate glass. The
fronts will be in finest Caen-stone, with
panelled pilasters at each angle and
moulded base and cornice. Between the
compartments are shafts of polished Sienna
marble, and the panels in the pilasters are
filled with polished rouge royale marble.
In fact, all the luxuries of moden art will
be requisitioned to make the columbarium
an attractive resting place.