Mount Auburn Cemetery

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MOUNT AUBURN'S NEW BUILDINGS.

[image of statues of John Winthrop, James Otis, John Adams and Joseph Story as well as a small illustration of the new chapel. Caption reads: STATUES OF THE NEW CHAPEL AT MOUNT AUBURN.]

The new chapel at Mt Auburn cemetery, and the administration building, containing the offices of the superintendent and others, are now finished and occupied, and have, in fact, served for a number of months to fulfill the different purposes for which they were designed.

The one nearer the street is the administration building. This building and the chapel are alike constructed of red stone, and the architecture of the group of buildings is the perpendicular gothic, types of which are to be found in many of the rural churches of England. The architect, Mr. Willard T. Sears, has carried out the style consistently in all details.

These two buildings are connected by a cloister, and the material of the main walls is Potsdam sandstone, and the mullions of the windows are Indiana limestone.

The chapel, the main entrance of which is on the principal avenue, is so placed as to be parallel to the street. The porte cochere opens into a vestibule directly under the tower, and there is

another entrance on the north side of the latter.

In one part of the building the visitor will find the celebrated group of statues which have been in possession of the corporation for many years.

There are four of these statues composing the group, and their history is a very interesting one. At a meeting of the trustees held Jan 3, 1854, the subject of procuring some historical statues of great public men was considered, and a committee appointed on the advisability of the idea.

The committee considered the matter carefully, and reported that they deemed if advisable to procure a certain number of marble statues commemorative of men who have been distinguished in the history of the country in their character and public services.

The custom of placing works of sculpture commemorative of the illustrious dead is not uncommon in Europe, and is occasional in this country.

This report caused the trustees to vote that a committee of three be appointed to consider the subject of introducing statues into the cemetery at the expense of the corporation.

After many meetings and much discussion it was finally decided at the

meeting of Sept 4, 1854, to vote the sum of $15,000 for the purchase of three marble statues, said statues to be those of distinguished American citizens.

About this time a statue of Judge Story arrived from Italy, destined for Mt Auburn, and was temporarily placed in the vestibule of Boston Atheneum. It was the result of a spontaneous private subscription, which had immediately followed the death of that distinguished citizen and jurist, which was in 1845.

The section of three historical personages to fill the remaining niches of the old chapel was finally settled in this way. A method was adopted of assuming a representative man for each of the four great epochs in the history of Massachusetts.

First comes, therefore, the statue of John Winthrop, the first governor of the commonwealth; second we find the statue of James Otis, who resisted with magnificient courage and spirit the aggression of the British parliament. The third epoch, representative of the time of the revolution and the establishment of the new constitution, is exemplified in the statue of John Adams. The fourth and last statue represents the last epoch in the marble counterpart of Judge Story.

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THE PARIS CEMETERY FOR DOGS — It has been said, "Paris is the paradise for animals." I don't know whether it is more so than any other place, but certainly it is a place where dogs are made a great deal of during their lives, and I believe it to be the only place where they are provided with a resting place after their death. Le Cimetière des Chiens," dog's cemetery, is a very interesting as well as an artistic place to visit. It is situated on what is called Dog's Island (formally known as Island of Ravageurs), in Asnières, a few miles out of Paris, on the west side. The promoters of the dog's cemetery are Madam Marguerite Durand, directress of the newspaper called La Fronde, and M. George Harmois, director of the journal Avocat. M. Eugène Pierre-Petit is the architect of it. The entrance to the cemetery is very impressive indeed, with its forged iron gates! A visit to the cemetery will stop the irony of the most hardened sceptic! Most of the epitaphs are so sincere and tell so well their own story that no one can help realizing what a splendid friend the dog is to man!

The animals are brought to their last rest in a tricycle used exclusively for their transport to the necropolis. It is divided into several parts; one for dogs, of course, the most interesting one; one for cats, and another for birds and other animals. We must not forget a very important spot, that is "the common grave," where the poorest persons may have the remains of what often has been their only friend interred. Works of art are to be found all over the cemetery. Behind the central fountain there are two nymphs forming the entry to it.

All the epitaphs are most interesting. Here is the grave of Brave Bijou, who saved his mistress from being hurt by thieves. There is Pompon's grave. He was friendly to the soldiers of the camp at Chalons, who have raised enough money to build this tribute to his faithfulness. Here is the grave of Brave Louloer, aged nine months, who nothwithstanding a broken paw, saved a little child from drowning in the Garonne. It is surprising how many inscriptions relate the saving of life by dogs.

How can we help admire creatures who will be faithful unto death, when such devotion is so rarely found among Christians!

One of the finest tombs here, indeed quite a mausoleum, is to the memory of a lady dog called Euma, who saved the life of Princesses Cerchiara-Pignatellé. Some epitaphs are borrowed from poets, such as Victor Hugo's "Dog is the emblem of virtue, who not being able to become man has become an animal."

There are many dog houses made of wood or of stones, with dogs attached to them with their chains and collars. Then comes the cat cemetery. But there are few cats buried there. Why is that the fact? Well, probably because, with some exceptions, of course, cats are more independent, more egotistical, less devoted to us, and when they die we cannot think of them nor regret them as we do our dogs. A visit to the dog's cemetery is really a most interesting one, and I recommend it to all who love animals. I am sure American ladies will be pleased to hear of the humane way of disposing of the bodies of French people's pets, and it may also give them an insight into the nature of the French, who are not willing to abandon even a dead animal who has been friendly to them during their lifetime.

EMÉLIE ALEXANDER MARIUS Officier d. Académie.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery Trustees Elected Proprietors of the Mt. Auburn Cemetery held their sixty-ninth annual meeting yesterday afternoon at Horticultural Hall, and the following trustees were elected: To serve until 1907, Joseph Sawyer and Francis Foster; toserve until 1904, Edward W. Hutchins. President Israel M. Spelman presented the report of the trustees, and Treasurer Dill reported a balance in the treasury of $21,116.73.

CREMATION A GROWING CUSTOM — Trustees of Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Their Annual Report Show That This Means of Disposing of the Dead Is on the Increase — Cremation is the subject upon which the trustees of Mount Auburn Cemetery dwell principally in their sixty-ninth annual report, which has just appeared. The trustees say that since the eighteenth day of April last, when the first cremation took place, fifty bodies have been incinerated and they declare that "it seems clearly evident that cremation is growing in favor. It is undoubtedly not only the most speedy method of resolving the body into its elements, one hour doing the work of years, but also the safest from a sanitary point of view."

The completion of the crematory is regarded by the corporation as its most signal event of the year 1900. Willard T. Sears had charge of the work of reconstructing the old chapel and adapting it to crematory uses. The whole building was made over with the exception of the outer granite structure, which was retained on account of its associations. The trustees acknowledge the valuable assistance and advice which were freely rendered by many on the subject of the crematory, and they especially thank Professor R.H. Richards of the Institute of Technology for his advice and personal aid in making the crematory a success.

The incineration of a body requires about one hour of time. The body is placed in a retort, enclosed in the casket as first received at the cemetery, the name plate and other metal work being removed. Two hours after the cremation the ashes can be delivered to the family in a coppy cylinder, terra cotta urn or wooden casket. No incinerations are made on Sunday, unless the cause of death is certified to be from a contagious or infectious disease.

Superintendent James C. Scorgie reports that the number of original interments for the year ending Dec. 31, 1900, was 469. There were twenty-three removals from other cemeteries, making the total number of interments for the year 492, and the total number of interments since the cemetery was opened 33,412.

The cemetery repair fund now amounts to $1,110,570, the increase for the year being $55,728. The income of this fund must be used for the perpetual care of monuments and lots. The yearly gain in the permanent fund, which provides for the expenses of the cemetery after all of the lots have been sold, was $11,964, making a total fund of $415,935. The general fund, from which are made the larger improvements, now amounts to $128,220.

RIGHTS TO DEAD BODIES

The Supreme Court of California has decided in the recent case of Enos vs. Snyder (63 Pac. Rep. 170) that a person has no property in his dead body so that he can dispose of it by will, and that the right or burial belongs to those relatives who are classes as next of kin, and not to the executor. This decision is quite in line with other American and English cases, the current of authority being that, in the absence of statutory provisions, there is no property in a dead body; that it is not a part of the estate of the deceased, and that a man cannot dispose in his will of that which after his death will become his corpse. It was argued in this California case that the executor or administrator had, by virtue of his office, the right to bury the body and the right tot ake possession of it for that purpose. It has been quite generally declared that the right to bury a deceased husband or wife belongs to the surviving one of the two, and in other cases to the next of kin who are present and have the ability to render the service. It is generally provided that executors or administrators must pay the funeral expenses, but it has been the custom in America for the next of kin, and not the executor or administrator, to take charge of the body and of the funeral and burial.

BURIALS WITHOUT COFFINS — Board of Health Hears a Complaint Against This Method Among the Jews, and Proposes to Stop It — A private hearing was given by the Board of Health the other day on a complaint about an old Jewish burial custom which is said to have been revived in Boston. A Jewish funeral was held here a few days before, and it is alleged that the body was buried without a coffin in the Montvale Cemetery. Five boards were set together in the form of a bottomless box to cover the body, as is done in some poor localities in Russia, whence come many of the Jewish residents of Boston. A complaint was made to the Board of Health and the undertaker was called upon for an explanation. He appeared before the Health Commissioners, accompanied by a rabbi, and argued that the method he followed is prescribed by the Jewish religion, which he desires to respect. As the Board of Health refuses to give its consent, the method must be discontinued.

There is considerable jealousy among the Hebrew undertakers in the North End over this problem. Those who always follow the Christian method of using coffins claim that there are several undertakers who frequently neglect to use them, which enables them to charge comparatively small fees. In the future they will have to comply with the regulations of the Board of Health.

JOSEPH SAWYER'S KINDNESS. — At His Funeral the Minister Says Many Promissory Notes Signed by Students Were Found. — The funeral of Joseph Sawyer was held at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church yesterday afternoon, the pastor of the church, the Rev. H.S. Johnson, officiating. The pallbearers were the deacons of the church, Messrs. C.P. Hall, W.S. Norwell, F.P. Daly and N.F. Roak.

Mr. Johnson, in speaking of the life and character of Dea. Sawyer, said, in part: By every criterion of judgment he was a strong man, strong in business, stron gin the church, strong physically. He always stood immovable for what he thought was right. He was a Christian on weekdays as well as on Sundays, in business as well as in the church. His strength was always at the service of those who needed it. He helped women in distress; he helped men in business, and among his private papers have been found scores of promissory notes signed by young men whom he has helped through college.

DEATH OF JOSEPH SAWYER, THE OLDSCHOOL MERCHANT, IN THE BACK BAY. — Born in This City, and One of the Most Charitable of Wealthy Men. — Joseph Sawyer, the retired woollen commission merchant, died at his home, 31 Commonwealth avenue, yesterday afternoon, from old age. Mr. Sawyer's health began to cause anxiety about three weeks ago, but last Friday he was able to take a walk in the Public Garden. He was confined to his room on Sunday, and his health failed rapidly from that time.

Joseph Sawyer was born in this city 77 years ago, and was a liberal descendent of James Sawyer, who was born in England about 1630, and emigrated to this country between 1665 and 1669. He settled first in Ipswich and subsequently moved to Gloucester. The father of Joseph Sawyer was a mariner, who made a number of voyages to England, and married Ellen Whyte in Liverpool, Eng.

Joseph, the eldest of 11 children, received his education here in the Eliot school, but when 14 years old entered the retail dry goods store of Joshua Stetson on Hanover street, then the headquarters of this line of trade. In 1844 the firm of Wilkinson, Stetson & Co. was organized in the woollen and jobbing business, and in 1849 Mr. Sawyer was admitted as a partner. These relations continued until 1862, when the commissionn house of E.R. Mudge, Sawyer & Co. was formed for the sale of textile fabrics. They purchased, in company with the old firm of Wilkinson, Stetson & Co., the Burlington Woollen Mills of Winooski, Vt., the largest in the state. On the death of Mr. Stetson in 1869, Mr. Sawyer succeeded to the treasurership of the corporation, from which he retired in 1882 to accept the presidency. On the death of the Hon. E.R. Mudge, the firm dissolved, and Mr. Sawyer retried from active business. The firm of Sawyer & Manning was afterwards

[photograph of Joseph Sawyer with caption [Photo by Notman.] THE LATE JOSEPH SAWYER.]

organized, largely with the view of inducting Mr. Joseph D. Sawyer into the business where his father throve. Mr. Sawyer retired permanently from business about five years ago.

Mr. Sawyer was long distinguished for his charitable deeds, and it is estimated that he expended over $500,000 in this direction. The firm with which he was connected could always be counted upon to give substantial aid for every good cause, and for years was known as one of the most charitable, as well as one of the most enterprising firms in Boston. He was one of the best old school merchants in this city, and ws often sought by men who needed sound counsel when in trouble. Mr. Sawyer was a director in the Revere Bank; president for five years of the Colorado Mining & Smelting Company, and a trustee of many estates. He was also connected with a number of charitable and benevolent societies.

Mr. Sawyer was married in this city in 1847 to Anna Maria, daughter of William Dillaway, who survives him with three sons and two daughters. The funeral will be held Friday at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church.

Boston Herald May 28, 1901

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GRAVES OF NOTED PERSONS IN "GOD'S ACRE" A MECCA OF VISITORS x ASHES OF LONGFELLOW, LO

[image of a tombstone with caption GRAVE OF FANNY OF FERN]

[image of tombstone with caption JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL'S GRAVE]

[image of larger grave with caption GRAVE OF LONGFELLOW]

[image of multiple headstones with caption GRAVE OF OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES]

[image of larger grave with caption GRAVE OF WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING]

[image of chapel with caption NEW CHAPEL]

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BOSTON, MAY 26, 1901.

[?]HAT SILENT LAND, MOUNT AUBURN. [W?]ELL AND HOLMES ARE HERE x AND OTHERS FAMOUS IN THE STATE.

[image of obelisk with caption GRAVE OF CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN]

[image of larger grave surrounded by tombstones with caption GRAVE OF CHARLES SUMNER]

[image of grave surrounded by iron fence with caption GRAVE OF EDWARD OF EVERETT]

[image of stone tombstone with caption GRAVE OF AGASSIZ]

[image of grave with trees in background with caption GRAVE OF RUFUS CHOATE]

[image of cemetery entrance with caption ENTRANCE TO MOUNT AUBURN]

[image of two headstones with caption GRAVE OF EDWIN BOOTH]

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[large bolded O]NE may live as a conqueror, a king or a magistrate; but he must die as a man. The bed of death brings every human being to his pure individuality; to the intense contemplation of that deepest and most solemn of all relations, the relation between the creature and his creator. Here it is that fame and renown cannot assist us; that all external things must fail to aid us; that even friends, affection and human love and devotedness cannot succor us."

Many will recall words of Webster's when standing by the graves of the illustrious dead on the nation's Memorial day. And on that day no cemetery in or near the city will be more certain to be visited by thousands than beautiful Mt. Auburn out beyond Cambridge. It has been the Mecca of hundreds and thousands of visitors who have wanted to stand by the grave of those who have passed "through nature to eternity," and who now have "quietness at last" in this, one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world. To the rare beauty of Mt. Auburn is added the fact that it contains the graves of more famous men and women than any other cemetery in the country. On nearly all of its principal walks or "paths" one may find monuments bearing the names of men and women living in the hearts of the people, although all that is mortal of them lies in this silent city of the dead. — Mt. Auburn was consecreated in the year 1831, and it is, therefore, six years older than New York's beautiful Greenwood cemetery and five years older than Philadelphia's Laurel Hill cemetery. It was the forerunner of the system of beautiful suburban cemeteries that now obtain in the United States. There were suburban cemeteries before Mt. Auburn was laid out, but these silent cities were usually

dreary and neglected places, and it was in Mt. Auburn that the idea of making the cemetery a place of beauty originated.

From the first it was planned to give to it all the beauty that flowers and well-kept walks and shady drives and lakes could give. Its originators must have felt that anything more depressing than the ordinary cemetery of their day could not well be imagined. Granary the King's Chapel burying grounds are fair types of what the cemeteries of 70 years ago were like.

Before Mt. Auburn was laid out the dead of Boston were buried in the thickly crowded cemeteries in the heart of the city, or they were laid away under the churches. Some were buried on the old Common, where their tombs with rust iron doors may still be seen within a few feet of the public walks. Now and then, in recent years, the rusty doors have opened to receive some inmate within the damp and mouldy walls of these tombs, but there have not been many burials in them since the laying out of Mt. Auburn, Forest Hills and other cemeteries wisely remote from the noisy city.

Dr. Jacob Bigelow was the originator of the plan of having a family burying ground outside the city, and as early as 1825 he suggested the matter to a number of prominent citizens of Boston and to the city authorities. Dr. Bigelow was one of the most prominent physicians of his day. He was for 40 years physician to the Massachusetts General Hospital and he was for years connected with Harvard College. His own grave was made in Mt. Auburn six years agter the new cemetery became the burial place of the city's dead. — The Massachusetts Horticultural Society had been incorporated in the year 1829, and Dr. Bigelow sought to enlist the services of this society in carrying out his plan of establishing a cemetery. but the Horticultural Society was not at that time the wealthy and influential organization it is at the present time, and although Dr. Bigelow's suggestion met with favor, the society could not, unaided, do much toward putting the plan into execution. Meetings were therefore held, to which the general public were invited, and it was finally decided to buy the tract of ground already known as "Sweet Auburn." The tract of ground contained about 70 acres

and the purchasing price was $6000. One hundred persons were found who agreed to purchase lots at $60 each in the new cemetery, and the purchase money was secured in this way.

The new cemetery was dedicated Sept. 24, 1831, in the presence of several thousand persons. The orator of the day was the Hon. Joseph Story, whose grave may now be seen on Narcissus path in the cemetery, not far from the spot on which he stood when he gave his oration at the dedication of the cemetery. One of the best known ministers of the day, the Rev. John Pierpont, composed the following hymn for the occasion:

To thee, O God, in humbe trust, Our hearts their cheerful incense burn, For this Thy word, Thou art of dust, And "unto dust shalt thou return."

For what were life, life's work all done, The hopes, joys, loves, that cling to clay, All, all departed, one by one, And yet life's load borne on for aye!

Decay! Decay; 'tis stamped on all! All bloom in flesh and flower shall fade. Ye whispering trees when we shall fall Be our long sleep beneath your shade.

Here to thy bosom, Mother Earth, Take back, in peace, what hou hast given; And all that is of heavenly birth, O God, in peace recall to heaven. — From a description of the cemetery published at the time of its dedication the following is learned:

The purchase which has now been made by the Horticultural Society includes between 70 and 80 acres, extending from the road nearly to the Charles river. A portion of the land situated next to the road and now under cultivation is intended to constitute the experimental garden of the Horticultural Society. A long watercourse extending between this tract and the interior woodland forms a natural boundary, separating the two sections. The inner portion, which is set apart for the purposes of a cemetery, is covered throughout most of its extent with a vigorous growth of forest trees, many of them of large size, and comprising an unusual variety of kinds. This tract is beautifully undulating in its surface, containing a number of bold eminences, steep acclivities and deep, shadowy valleys. A remarkable natural ridge with a level surface runs through the ground from

the southeast to northwest, and has for many years been known as a favorite and secluded walk. The principal eminence, called Mt. Auburn in the plan, is 125 feet above the level of the Charles river, and commands from its summit one of the finest prospects which can be obtained in the environs of Boston."

This description applies very well to the enlarged Mt. Auburn of today. Long before it became a cemetery the Harvard students had given to this tract of land the name of "Sweet Auburn," and it would not have been inappropriate to have allowed it to retain that name after it became the home of the peaceful dead.

The granite gateway and lodges at the entrance to the cemetery were built 60 years ago. On the gate is this solemn inscription suggesting to all visitors their final end:

Then Shall The Dust Return To The Earth As It Was, And The Spirit Shall Return Unto God Who Gave It. —

The trolley cars from Boston to Mt. Auburn carry one by the gates of Harvard College, by the birthplace of Oliver Wendell Holmes, by Craigie House, for so many years the home of Longfellow, near the entrance to the cemetery in which he lies at rest is "Elmwood," the birthplace and lifelong home of James Russell Lowell. His grave is almost the first one of special interest that one sees when walking down the main drive leading from the gates of the cemetery. It lies under two large trees, and is marked by an antique blue slatestone monument not more than three feet high, with a round-faced winged cherubim carved above the words:

James Russell Lowell, Born 1819, died 1891. and of his wife, Maria White, Born 1821, died 1853. also of his second wife Francis Dunlap, Born 1825 died 1855.

The grass has been worn away by hundreds of feet traversing the path leading from Fountain avenue to the grave of the man lying beneath this simple stone.

Very near the grave of Lowell, on a beautiful grassy eminence called Indian Ridge, is the larger and more striking

monument that covers the resting place of Henry W. Longfellow. One may not pass beyond the granite curbing surrounding the lot, and the grass within is green and velvety, and without shrubbery or flowers of any kind. The great marble monument bears on its front the single word "Longfellow," but on one side are the words, "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born 27 Feb., 1807, died 24 March 1882."

No grave in all the cemetery has more visitors than the grave of America's best beloved poet, who left behind him many sorrowing hearts when he went to the silent land of which he wrote:

The mildest herald by our fate allotted, For all the broken-hearted O Land! O Land! Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand To lead us with a gentle hand To the land of the great Departed, Into the Silent Land. — Not far from the grave of Longfellow, on Lime avenue, is the grave of Oliver Wendell Holmes, with only a simple stone to mark it. On the stone are the words:

Oliver Wendell Holmes Born August 29, 1809 Died October 7, 1894

Amelia Lee Jackson wife of Oliver Wendell Holmes Born May 22, 1818 Died Feb. 6, 1888.

There are few stones in the entire cemetery more simple than the one marking the grave of this, one of the best known and most honored of American writers.

Equally unpretentious is the stone at the grave of Phillips Brooks, who lies by the side of his father and mother in Mimosa path. In addition to his name and the date of his birth and death, one may read on the stone: "Him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my God."

Few visitors come to Mt. Auburn without asking to be directed to the grave of the greatest preacher and one of the noblest men of his generation. Rich and poor, the learned and the ignorant, stand with tear-dimmed eyes by the grave of Phillips Brooks, and even in midwinter one may find flowers

lying on it. Standing by his grave one recalls these lines, written by one not of his own religious faith:

Great bishop, greater preacher, greatest man, Thy manhood far out-towered all church, all creed, And made thee servant of all human need, Beyond one though of blessing or of ban, Save of they Master, whose great lesson ran: "The greatest are they who serve." So now, indeed. All churches are one church in loving heed Of thy great life wrought on thy Master's plan! As we stand in the shadow of they death, How petty all the poor distinctions seem That would fence off the human and divine! Large was the utterance of they living breath; Large as God's love this human hope and dream; And now humanity's hushed love is thine! — On Eglantine path one finds the grave of one of the most popular sympathetic writers of her day, Mrs. James Parton, far better known as "Fanny Fern." Abover her last resting place is the beautiful marble cross entwined with fern leaves erected by her friend of many years, Robert Bonner. The date of her birth and death are on the monument and the line, "A tribute to the memory of a friend by Robert Bonner." Near by is the grave of a brother of Mrs. Parton, Nathaniel P. Willis, a name not unknown in the world of literature.

The writings of "Fanny Fern" brought smiles to sorrowful faces, brightened homes and lessened the burdens of life in general. She sold her first little humorous sketch to a Boston periodical for 50 cents, and was elated over her success, little thinking that the time would come when she would be paid $100 per column for her work. This was the sum Robert Bonner finally paid her for her contributions to the old New York Ledger. For 16 years her work appeared in every issue of the Ledge, and she was paid many thousands of dollars for it. She died Oct. 10, 1872.

The graves of Edwin Booth and Charlotte Cushman are not far apart. That of Booth is by the side of his wife, who died many years before her husband. The stone at the grave of the great actor has on it a medallion portrait of Booth in bronze and below it the simple inscription:

Edwin Booth Born November 13th, 1833 Died June 7th 1893.

There is also this verse from the Bible:

"I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow."

A great shaft of granite towers high above the grave of Charlotte Cushman, an actress of such splendid ability and such purity of character that she was welcomed in the best society of both Europe and America. On the last night of her appearance in New York she played Lady Macbeth, and at the close of the play William Cullen Bryant, headed a company of distinguished citizens, went upon the stage and presented Miss Cushman with a laurel crown. The Meg Merrilies of Charlotte Cushman has never been equalled by any other actress, and the stage of her day lost its most illustrious star when Charlotte Cushman died in Boston in the year 1876.

The grave of Charles Sumner in Arethusa path is marked by a very handsome stone of polished granite hearing the dates of his birth and death. Near him are the graves of Edward Everett, Rufus Choate and Robert C. Winthrop, three of the most eminent of Massachusetts statesmen.

One of the most striking monuments at Mt. Auburn is that erected by the express companies of the United States in memory of Frederick William Harnden, who founded the express business in America. Four fluted columns support a great marble canopy beneath which there is a mighty urn with a huge dog at its base. On the four sides of the canopy are the words: "Faith," "Hope," "Charity," "Justice." Below the name on the monument are the words: "Because the king's business requires haste."

A large bowlder from the glacier of the Aar marks the resting place of the great naturalist, Louis Agassiz. The pines above the grave also came from Switzerland. On one side of the bowlder are the words, "Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz," and on the other a line stating that he was born in Motier, Switzerland, on the 28th of May, 1807, and that he died in Cambridge on the 14th of December, 1873.

An unpretentious gray stone marks the grave of Jacob Abbott, father of Lyman, Abbott, and author of the "Rollo" books that were the delight in childhood of many a man now grown old in years.

The hundreds of friends of that greathearted American publisher, James T. Fields, often find their way to the little marble slab on which are the words:

"Here lies the body of James T. Fields, April, 1881. Rejoice evermore."

A rather striking monument on Pyrola path has been erected to the memory of that somewhat erratic sometimes "uncomfortable person," Margaret Fuller Ossoli, who with her husband and child, was lost at sea in July, 1850, when within sight of New York harbor.

Other graves of more than ordinary interest in beautiful Mt. Auburn are those of Hosea Ballou, Spurzheim, William Ellery Channing, Dorothea Dix, Samuel Gridley Howe, husband of Julia Ward Howe; T.P. Whipple and Mrs. Augustus Hemenway, whose farreaching philanthropies have made the world happier and better. Here are the ashes of Kate Field, and here lies all that is mortal of that one who died in the flower of his manhood, Gov. Russell. That high-minded martyr, Charles Turner Torrey, the anti-slavery agitator, who died while serving a term in prison for helping slaves to escape, lies here. He wrote on his deathbed wihin the prison walls: "It is better to die in prison with the peace of God in our breasts than to live in prison with a polluted conscience."

Here in "Sweet Auburn" rests in peace Francis Parkman, Mrs. J.R. Vincent, William Warren, Harrison Gray Otis, Chief Justice Shaw, Mrs. Theodore Parker, Christopher P. Cranch, Hannah Adams, Anson Burlingame, John G. Palfrey, Jared Sparks and other men and womenb who have counted for much in the growing good of the world of their time. Here was carried a few weeks ago the man whom our city and our state delighted to honor, Gov. Roger Wolcott, and here he was laid among his peers.

When one walks on these beautiful May days in this silent city of the dead, one calls to mind these words of Henry Ward Beecher:

"We are moving faster as every cord is loosed that binds us to earth, faster as every heart that we loved draws us upward. Let us rejoice. And as in autumn the very earth prepares for death as if it were its bridal, and all the sober colors of the summer take higher hues, and trees and shrubs and vines go forth to their rest wearing their most gorgeous apparel, as ending their career more brightly than they began it, so let our spirits cast off sombre thoughts and sable melancholy and clothe themselves with all the radiancy of faith, with every hue of heavenly joy."

MUNICIPAL CEMETERIES Cleveland, O., has a cementery maintained on a plan that is about to be imtated in Seattle. It is a large, level, well situated plot of ground, owned and maintained by the city, in which burial plots are sold for a uniform price of sevent-five cents a square foot. The matter of location does not figure in the price, although we believe that purchasers may choose among unoccupied plots. This price includes perpetual care at tbe expense of the city to the extent of seeding to grass and keeping mown and in good order. For planting flower and shrubs there is an extra price. This municipal enterprise is reported to - self-supporting, low as the charges are when compared with those in cementeries owned by private corporations when the item of perpetual are is secured. The city of Seattle has purchased a field of 100 acres to be devoted to burials at similar reasonable rates. The purpose, of course, is to enable to persons to secure private burial lots, which shall be decently cared for, at lower prices than are demanded by private corporations maintaining cementeries. It provides such a place as must be peculiarly acceptable to a large class in cities who can ill afford any extravagance of this kind, and yet desire to keep their dead from the potter´s field.

TRIBUTE TO DEA. SAWYER. ----- Warren Avenue Baptist Church Honors the Memory of a Loyal and Influential Member. ----- "Wherever he went it was sunshine," said Mr. Charles F. Parker at the memorial service in honor of the late Dea.Joseph Sawyer at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, last evening. "He was a friend in trouble, and never was he known to be other than a true follower of his divine master. Dea. Sawyer was a Christian in the broadest sense of the word. In every station of life he was known to be a gentleman." A large portrait of Dea. Sawyer had in a prominent place on the platform, and near by was a huge tribute of white chrysanthemums. Mr. John Carr, who had known the deceased for half a century, told how he had first met Mr. Sawyer in the old Baldwin Place Baptist Church, which is now a Jewish synagogue. Dea. Sawyer later was in instrumental in the building of the Warren Avenue Church. He was very loyal to his pastors and never was known to desert them when they merited his esteem. He was intrested in all his denominational affairs, being a member of the Baptist Social Union and a director of the Tremont Temple Corporation. Twice he helped to rebuild the temple when it was consumed by fire. In his address as the pastor of Dea. Sawyer, the Rev. Herbert S.Johnson paid a glowing tribute. The Harvard quartet sang several selections, and "Rock of Ages", the favorite hymn of Dea. Sawyer, was effectively rendered by the congregation. Dea. Samuel W. Cole offered prayer.

THE CEMENTEIRS OF THE FUTURE ------------------ [ From the Kansas City Journal ] Superintendent L.B. Root, of Mount Washigton Cemetery, says that mounds are fast disappering in the East, and he believes that the cemetery of the future will do away with them entirely. In their stead, all graves will be level, and only horizontal slabs of the simplest form will mark the last resting place of the dead. Many practical arguments are advanced for this radical departure from accustomed methods. One of them is that it will permit of more artistic care for the graves , which, instead of the incongrous variety which now obtains, will present a uniform and unbroken stretch of greensward. The grass can be trimmed withouth difficulty, and the grounds will be capable of tasteful adornment, which is absolutely impossible under the present system. Aside from the practical phase of the subject there are interesting ethical considerations. Death is the profound leveller. All lines are marked out, all distinctions obliterated, between those who lie side by side in six feet of earth. Under the experiment which has been tried with excellent success in many Eastern cities, the rich do not display osternation, nor is poverty empahasied. The bereavement which falls with equally heavy hand upon rich and poor alike is draped with the same emblems of sorrow, which in its very nature cannot be gauged by the size of a monument of the elaborateness of decorative shrubbery. There is an inherent desire in the human heart to lay the tenderest tributes upon the grave of its dead. All ugliness is covered up, and only the most beautifying graves is destroyed by the impossibility of symmetry or uniformity. Along the line the experiment suggests interesting and valuable possibilities.

WILLIAM S.EATON DEAD. Treasurer of National Tube Works and Son of a Rector of Christ Church. ------ Mr. William S. Eaton died suddenly, Sunday, at his home, 62 Commonwealth avenue. He was born in Boston, April 2, 1817, and had always made this city his home. His father was rector of Old Christ Church. After a liberal education in the public schools, the son engaged in the Calcutta trade, but left this to help organize the National Tube Works Company. He was treasurer of this concern for 25 years. He was also a director in the National Bank of North America. Although deeply interested in the affairs of city and state, he never aspired to a political office. He had always been closely identified with Trinity Church and its charities. Two sons and a daughter survive, William H. Eaton, Jr., Francis S.Eaton and Miss Eaton. The funeral will be held at Emmanuel Church tomorrow at 2 o´clock.

LARGE INCREASE IN CREMATIONS --------- Interesting Details in the Seventieth Annual Report of the Trustees of Mount Auburn Cemetery -------- Cremation as a custom is fast growing, according to the report of the trustees of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the seventieth annual report, which has just been issued. During the year 1901 the number of cremations was 119, and the trustees venture the opinion that every succeeding year will undoubtedly show an increasing number. The total number of incinerations as shown by the last annual report was 50. The trustees point out that the financial results of the year have been successful. The repair fund, which represents the amounts accumulated for the perpetual care of lots and monuments, amounts to $ 1,16,-517. The increase of the past year is $56,-946. The permanent fund, accumulating for the care of the cemetery after all its lots have been disposed of, amounts to $431,965, showing a yearly gain of $16,029. The general fund, from which all expenses for the improvement and ornamentation of the cemetery must be defrayed, is $143,946, a gain of $15,000. The receipts during the year were $121,300, and of this money all but $38,000 has been expended. Superintendent James C. Scorgie writes that the number of original interments in the cemetery during the year was 441, and the number of removals from other cemeteries 25. This makes the total number of interments in the cemetery 33,878.

OBITUARY ---- WILLIAM STORER EATON. June 1, 1902. So beautiful a soul must not pass into the light of the other life without a few words to record for this world an irreparable loss. For him, there can be only rejoicing; of the grief of those nearest to his heart it is not given to us to speak; but the daily walk of life for many of us is clouded by the passing of such a friend, The bright, cordial greeting, the chivairous courtesy, the instant sympathy with every form of suffering, and the generous and self-forgetting response to every appeal, were rare, indeed, in these hurried, modern days, and the number of his gentle deeds was only equalled by the modesty with which they were concealed. For younger men he had always sympathy and practical help, and they turned to him with a confidence which was never misplaced; and for children, and all young and helpless things, his great heart was warm. As son and brother he was leaned upon from his earliest youth; as husband and father, faithful supporter of his church and her charities, and public-spirited citizen, he is too well known to need more words. Heaven is the richer today for the possessions of such a spirit, and this poor earth richer, too, in memories and inspirations gathered from his noble life. He has gone in the completeness of his strenght, without one failing power, simply and instantly, to the visible presence of the Father. Blessed, indeed, are the pure in heart, who see God.

HELD BODY TO FORCE PAYMENT ----- New York Undertaker Was Reduced to Order, However, by the Police New York, May 26-Mrs. James S. Gookins, widow of a son of the late Chief Justice Gookins of Indiana, has been compelled to call upon the police in order to force an undertaker here to surrender her husband´s body. Colonel Gookins, who was a well-known civil engineer and artist, died suddenly at a hotel here Monday. When Mrs. Gookins and her son arrived from Chicago they found that the body had been removed by an undertaker, who demanded $ 380 for his services. Other undertakers told the widow $ 20 was sufficient for the office he had performed, and she refused to submit to the extortion. The undertaker decalred he would send the body to the morgue, and the police were called upon. They acted at once and the undertaker surrendered.

THE CREMATION SOCIETY. It Elects Officers and Abolishers Annual Memberships, Leaving Only Life Memberships. The annual meeting of the New England Cremation Society was held at 25 Beacon street yesterday afternoon. The secretary´s and ?´s reports were read, and the constitution was changed so that there will be no annual members admitted, but only life members who pay $ 30 on admission and no futher dues. The election of officers resulted as follows: ? president, John Storer Cobb; president, the ? Paul Revere Frothingham; vicepresidents, Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, Dr. Francis M. Bennet, Harrison Otis Apthorp; secretary, George O. Smith; treasurer, Albert C. Parsons; executive committee, Mrs Mary A. Moffatt, Prof. F.W. Taussig, William H. Hughes, Dr. Elizabeth C. Keller, Louis Prang; auditing committee, William H. Sayward, L.H. Howe and Morton S. Setchell. Last year there were four members cremated by the society. At the Mt. Auburn crematory, during 1901 and to Nov.1 this year, 232 cremations took place. At Forest Hills crematory, during 1901 till Nov.10 of this year, there were 253 cremations. Since the crematory was opened at Forest Hills in 1894, there have been 1408 cremations, and in the United States last year there were 2591 cremations . The most notable development of the cremation movement of late is the powerful petition sent to the pope praying for the removal of the Roman Catholic church´s ban against the incineration of the dead. The ban is of comparatively recent promulgation, but the ordinary form of interment has been so long consecrated by usage, and the Catholic services attending the burial of the dead are so solemn and imposing, that it is going to be hard to interfere with them.

CREMATION SOCIETY PROSPEROUS — Report of Its Condition Read at the Annual Meeting Held at the Boston Medical Library—Recent Improvements at the Crematory on Walk Hill Street — The annual meting of the Massachusetts Cremation Society was held this noon at the Boston Medical Library. Although the number of cremations has been less during the year 1901 than during 1900, the society has accomplished much toward the perfection of its establishment on Walk Hill street, and considers itself in a more prosperous condition than at any time since it was organized. President James R. Chadwick, in presenting the report of the board of directors, said: "It is now eight years since the society established the first crematory to be operated in New England. The subjoined table shows the number of cremations that have taken place at our crematory in each year since then: 1894, 87; 1985, 88; 1896, 137; 1897, 160; 1898, 167; 1889, 230; 1900, 188; 1901, 172. Our cremations are less by a small number than the previous year owing to the competition of the Mount Auburn Crematory in which during the year 120 cremations have taken place. Still we are able to announce a handsome surplus profit of ever $2000. Of this profit $1500 has been expended in decorating and painting and furnishing our chapel and in lining our furnace with glazed white brick. With all expenses paid to date we have $670.57 in the treasury.

"Our appliances for reducing the human body to ashes are practically as perfect as can be found in any part of the world; our chapel is completed and there remains only the columbarium, for the permanent preservation of the ashes, to be built. Our plans to effect is needed adjunct are made and will be carried out during the coming year if our income warrants the outlay."

At the annual election of officers the following-named were chosen for the ensuing year: Clerk, John Homans, 2d; treasurer, John Ritchie; directors, James R. Chadwick, John O. Marble, Augustus Hemenway, Babson S. Ladd, Robert H. Rirchards, John Ritchie, John Homans, 2d, John A. Higginson, Richard W. Hale.

CREMATIONS ARE INCREASING — This Is Shown by the Annual Report of the Mount Auburn Cemetery Corporation — Trustees of the Mount Auburn Cemetery Corporation have issued their seventy-first annual report. It shows that the number of cremations in 1902 was 134, as against 119 in 1901, and fifty in 1900; the recvord for 1900 covers only eight months. The total number of interments in the cemetery is 34,316, of which 438 were made last year. Financially the corporation is prosperous. The permanent fund, now in process of accumulation for the care of cemetery after all the lots have been disposed of, amounts to $445,841, the gain during the year being $13,876. The general fund, from which all repairs, renewals and improvements must be paid, amounts to $175,343. This includes $14,389 received given to the cemetery for its general uses, adornment and improvement. The repair fund amounts to $1,224,404, and shows an increase during the year of $56,887. This fund, always treated as a trust, represents the amounts paid for the perpetual care of lots by proprietors who have contributed to it. Only the income may be used. The report of John Dill, the treasurer, shows receipts for the year accounting to $140,- 989, and expenditures of $102,612, leaving a balance of $38,376.

CATHOLIC VIEW OF CREMATION — It Is Discussed by Rev. T.I. Gasson, S.J., at Church of Immaculate Conception — A discussion of the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward cremation was given at the late mass in the Church of the Immaculate Conception yesterday morning by Rev. Thomas I. Gasson, S.J. After saying that Pope Leo XIII. had put forth a decree on May 19, 1886, forbidding Catholics under ordinary circumstances to adopt this method of disposing of the dead, he said that the decree was not of faith, but of discipline.

"If experience should show," he continued, "that public health demands cremation, there is no doubt that the Church will accommodate her legislation so as to sanction any reverent manner of caring for the bodies of the deceased.

"To say that cremation would interfere with the resurrection of the body is a puerile statement. Is it any more of a miracle for the divine power to resurrect the body from the ashes which are the result of cremation than to resurrect the body from the dust which is the result of burial? Both are equally possible to divine omnipotence.

"The Church's objection is based upon the fact that burial is the practice which she received from the Jewish Church, to which she is the successor. Burial, too, was the method chosen for the disposition of the Saviour's dead body, a method naturally followed by all fervent Christians. Burial likewise appears to be the more consonant to human nature. The body is the temple in which the principle of life dwells; it itself is destined, according to Christian teaching, for an endless life, at the close of the world's soul-stirring tragedy. The Church would fain keep the shrine of an undying spirit as long as possible in its natural form, until the forces of nature have accomplished in slow dignity their work of separation. The violent hand shall be held from the form which is to come back to life. Hence the Church prefers the quiet method of placing her dead in hallowed ground, where they may peacefully rest. Hence, too, she prefers to speack, not of the graveyard, but of the cemetery (sleeping place), because the latter accords better with her idea that death is not the close of all, but only a passing slumber between this life of test and trial and the life of eternal joy.

"Nor should it be forgotten that in Europe cremation is too often regarded as an open profession of anti-Christian sentiment. Let us deal tenderly and lovingly with our dead, reverencing their bodies and honoring, with scrupulous loyalty, their memories."

CREMATION PROGRESS — Figures Show Increase in Adherents. — There is One Objection, However, and it is Concealment of Crime. — Laws in Massachusetts Are Strict as to Methods. — It is only about a quarter of a century ago that cremation of dead bodies was introduced, and this method is gradually spreading among civilized nations. Crematories have been established in Italy, Germany, England, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Denmark in Europe, and in various parts of the United States. The first crematory in Europe was established at Milan, Italy, in 1876, London in 1885, and at Paris in 1889. The first crematory in this country was established at Washington, Penn, in 1877, and the second at Lancaster, in the same state, in 1884; the cities of New York and Buffalo in 1885, Cincinati 1887, Philadelphia and St Louis in 1888, Baltimore 1889, Chicago and San Francisco in 1892. Boston 1893, Cambridge in 1890. In this country, up to and including the years 1901, there had been established 26 crematories.

The first crematory, that at Washington, Penn, in its first year cremated 25 bodies, in the next year 13, and in the following 17 years only 16. This falling off is said to be owing to the establishment of crematories with all the modern improvements, the one at Washington being quite a crude affair, when everything relating to cremation was in a transitory state.

The total number of crematories in the United States in 1901 was 26. Of this number five were in the state of New York, five in California, four in Pennsylvania, two in Massachusetts, and one each in Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Wisconsin, Washington, D C, Minnesota, Indiana, and Connecticut. At the New York city crematory the total number cremated— 1885-1901—was 4547, a yearly average of 268; the largest number in any one year was in 1901, 64. San Francisco has two crematories in which were cremated, 1893-1901, 2927, a yearly average of 325; the largest number in any year was in 1901, 757. Philadelphia, total number 1888-1901, 1028; yearly average, 72; largest number, 1891, 118. Chicago, total number, 1893-1901, 877; yearly average, 97; largest number, 1900, 142. St Louis, 1888-1901, total number, 1178; yearly average, 84; largest number in 1900, Boston, total number, 1893-1902, and three months of 1903, 1472; yearly average, 163; largest number, 1899, 230. Cambridge cemetery, total number, 1901-1902, and four months of 1903, 363; yearly average, 121; largest number, 1902, 134. In almost every instance the largest number were noted was in the past year.

At the Mt Auburn cemetery crematory the first cremation was April 19, 1900, the total for the year 50. In 1901 there were 119; 1902, 134; for the four months of 1[9?]03, 60—a total of 363 in a trifle over three years. The Mt Auburn is a private institution, established for the use of the owners of lots who might prefer cremation to earth burial, and was instituted in compliance with a demand from those who believed in this method of the final disposition of the dead. It is not restricted, however, to lot owners.

The Massachusetts cremation society is a public institution chartered by the state, its purpose being to maintain a crematory for New England. The number of bodies cremated from outside of Boston is much larger than the number from the city.

The first cremation at the Massachusetts society's crematory, at Forest Hills, took place on Dec 30, 1893. The total number for 1894 was 87; 1895, 88; 1896, 135; 1897, 160; 1898, 167; 1899, 230; 1900, 188; 1901, 172; 1902, 194; 1903, three months, 60; making a grand total of 1472. The number of males cremated is slightly under the females.

In Europe, with the exception of Paris, cremation has not made the progress that it has in this country. In London the total number of cremation, 1885-1900, was 1824, yearly average 114; largest number in any one year 301—1900. Manchester, 1902, 90, total number 465, average 51; largest 88, 1899. Paris, 18891900, total number 29,381, average 2448; largest 3049, 1900. Gotha, 1878-1901, total number 2699, average 112; largest 218, 1901. Heidleberg, 1891-1901, 694, average 69. Zurich, 1889-1901, total number 794, average 61; largest 126, 1901. Milan, 18761901, total number 1544, average 75; largest 104, 1897. Rome, 1883-1901, total number 889, average 41; largest 90, 1889. The total number of cremations since its first introduction 39,425. Of this number the city of Paris furnishes fully 75 percent.

In this country, from its first introduction 15,922 cremations have taken place, the seven cities herewith given contributing 12,087 to this number.

That cremation is gaining adherents is evident from the figures which have been given. It is admitted on both sides the question that the only difference in the final result is the rapidity with which decomposition is accomplished in cremation compared with the slow process of ground putrefaction; but there is another side to this question which is beginning to receive attention, and that is, the opportunities which it offers for concealment of crime. Revelations come to view which lead to the fear that many attempts at poisoning may succeed and the criminal go unpunished and even ususpected.

When a victim has been promptly cremated all evidence has been quickly and forever destroyed. Cases arise in which suspicion is excited after burial, and it become necessary for the court to order exhumation in search of evidence. Cremation forever destroys such evidence.

Take, for illustration, the case of Jane Toppan. If the victims of her mania for poisoning had been cremated —which happily for the ends of justice they were not—conviction would have been impossible.

In a recent English case, where a man had been convicted of poisoning three women in different parts of London, the judge, in his remarks previous to passing sentence, declared that if the women had been cremated it would have been impossible to convict the murderer, and that the case should be an example to those who wish to close the churchyards.

As bearing still further on this point, the late president of the Royal college of physicians, Sir John Russell Reynolds, according to a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, is reported to have one said that no doctor ever went through an ordinary life of practice without seeing two or three cases which he could only explain by the hypothesis that the patients were being slowly poisoned by relatives or servants.

That cremation afforded opportunities for the concealment of crime was early recognized by the legislature of Massachusetts, and provisions were made to regulate it in chapter 78, section 37, of the revised laws of Massachusetts, to wit:

"No body of a deceased person shall be creamted within 48 hours after decease, unless death was occasioned by contagious or infectious disease; an no body shall be received or cremated by said corporation until its officers have received the certificate or burial permit required by law before burial, together with a certificiate from the medical examiner of the district within which the death occurred, that he has viewed the body and made personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death, and is of the opinion that no further examination nor judicial inquiry concerning the same is necessary."

Bodies received from states in which district medical examiners are established by law have to be accompanied by a certificate from that officer, similar to that required by the state of Massachusetts, and also by the usual permit and by a certificate signed by two physicians, graduates of a legally established medical school, setting forth the cause of death, with their opinion that the body may be cremated without further examination or judicial inquiry.

The law governing the cremation of bodies from outside the state should be made to conform to the laws of this state. Bodies to be cremated are sent to Forest Hills and Mt Auburn from all over New England, and the law should be mandatory as to its application, and then there could certainly be no fear of the concealment of crime through cremation.

The crematory at Mt Auburn is located in the old chapel, and has been fitted up with the most modern accessories. Mr Scorgie, the superintendent of the cemetery, has given the work of a crematory a great deal of intelligent thought, and is thoroughly informed on the subject, both in this country and in Europe.

PAUPER AT 75 YEARS. — Widow of John C. Boyd at Blackwell's Island. — Born to Wealth in Great House in Watertown. — Later She Was a Leader in Stockholm Court Life. — [Special Dispatch to the Boston Herald.] NEW YORK, June 4, 1903. In the almshouse on Blackwell's island, Mrs. Catherine Meurling laments the fate which has brought her, at the brink of the grave, to her present lowly condition, and harks back to the days when she was a member of the court circle at Stockholm. She is the last of her family, and there is no one upon whom she can call for assistance.

Born in Watertown, Mass., threequarters of a century ago, in the old Gore mansion, her girlhood was spent amid luxurious surroundings. She married well. With her husband, John C. Boyd, she had a handsome home and horses and carriages and other accompaniments of wealth. A son was born to her. Fate then dealth her a severe blow in the death of both her husband and son. She came to New York with a handsome income left her by her husband, and met Capt. Meurling, a dashing Swedish officer.

"However unfortunate I may be now," she said, pointing to the cheap blue almshouse dress she wore, "nothing can take me from the memory of the seven happy years I spent with Capt. Meurling. He was one of the handsomest men I have ever seen, with the manners of a courtier, and with a courtier's ability to spend money. We lived well, and I used a great deal of the money which had been left me. Perhaps I was foolish, but what won't a woman do for the man she loves?

"My husband died and I returned to New York, where I have tried to live ever since. I still had money left, but gradually I have had to spend it to live, until now—opening her purse—I have exactly 33 cents."

Mrs. Meurling has the bearing of a woman of culture and refinement. Since she has been on the island she has whiled away the time by composing poems.

Boyd

HOW MT. AUBURN ORIGINATED — And Why the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Has Received More Than $300,- 000 from the Directors of That Corporation — The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has received more than $300,000 from the proprietors of Mount Auburn Cemetery. When that statement was made at the annual meeting of the society two weeks ago those who were not acquainted with the founding of Mount Auburn could not comprehend just why so much money should have been paid into the treasury by this corporation which in its purposes seemed so utterly remoted from those of the Horticultural Society. The facts are these:

In the year 1829 there was not an ornamental cemetery in the world and several Boston men, including Daniel Webster and Edward Everett felt the need of a beautifully laid out burial place. In 1831 the idea had taken shape and was presented to the Horticultural Society, to which all the gentlemen belonged, for consideration. Seventy-two acres of land that now forms the central part of Mount Auburn, were bought and the ground was consecrated on Sept. 24 of the same year, with more than two thousand people attending. Friction arose, however, between the so-called cemetery committee and the Horticultural Society proper, so that in 1834 the two were forced to separate. The terms of the separation provided that the proceeds of the sale of any of the lots in the seventytwo acres should be divided between the society and the cemetery committee who formed themselves into a corporation. This division could not be made until after $1400 had been deducted for cemetery expenses. Anything left should then be given, onequarter to the society and three-quarters to the Mount Auburn corporation.

It is thus that the $300,000 have been turned over to the Horticultural Society by the Mount Auburn committee. It is probable that they have almost reached their limit from the sale of the lots in the original seventy-two acres because that area is already pretty much crowded. They will always have, however, their quarter of the gross proceeds. The records of the Horticultural Society, in which this information is contained, give a good idea of the development of what will some time be rapid transit between Cambridge and Boston. In the year that Mount Auburn was consecrated the committee, in order to view the newly-bought ground, had to depend upon a hack which went every other hour. In 1837, even, they could only visit the cemetery by means of a coach which plied the distance every hour. In 1839 two hourly and two half-hourly coaches were running and by 1847 several rival omnibus companies were in operation. It was a strange coincidence that the Mount Auburn Cemetery Commission should have gone to the cemetery on their monthly inspection on the day when the first horse-car went over the road, March 26, 1856.

JOHN STORER COBB AND CREMATION — To the Editor of the Transcript:

The brief obituary of Mr. Cobb, who died in Northampton, Mass., Feb. 17, which appeared in the Transcript of Thursday, seems to some of us hardly to have done full justice to this "lawyer, author, editor and lecturer," as he was designated, or to have sufficiently recognized the debt we all owe him for forwarding, if not founding, a great reform.

Cremation was bound to come erelong; but here was a man who believed earth burial so serious a menace to health, through its contamination of earth, air and water, that he made it the business of his life to arouse the public to the unsuspected peril and to point to a better way. From his first arrival in New York in 1869, during his life there, and his dozen years' residence here in Boston, as well as in his quiet lovely home on Paradise Road in beautiful Northampton, up to the very day of his death, this propaganda was the one duty ever foremost and the chief thing labored for with all the zeal "the man with a nission" can feel. Cremation if not yet actually popular, has come to be an accepted fact—one, perhaps two, generations earlier than would have been possible but for his persistent and unwearied labors. After repeated failures he formed the New York Cremation Society in 1881. In December of 1883 the writer saw a card in the Transcript inviting persons who were interested in cremation to meet at the office of John Stoerer Cobb, and was one of about a score who met there. The New England Cremation Society was formed and an effort made to raise money to build a crematory. It was found that legislation was necessary before cremation could be lawfully used, and to the State House successfully went Mr. Cobb and his little group of followers. After four years of effort two hundred persons had subscribed $7000 only of the $25,000 needed and the attempt was abandoned.

Upon Mr. Cobb's return in 1890 from one of his frequent visits to England he renewed the effort, and Jan. 27, 1901, the present New England Cremation Society was formed, of which he was president or honorary president till his death, but never was there so hard working a president. With voice and pen and influence he pushed the movement, and rarely has any such reformer been rewarded with greater results in so short a time. His book, "A QuarterCentury of Cremation in America," published by Knight & Millet in 1901, tells the story of its progress (except that the mainspring of it all is modestly hidden, and, as in a watch, is known only to those who see the inside workings of the machinery).

All honor to Dr. J.R. Chadwick, the late Dr. John Homans, Mrs. M.M. Kehew, Louis Prang and others, who have done much for cremation, but here, as all over America, Mr. Cobb was the inspirer, agitator and advocate, and thirty crematories and over 20,000 cremations in the United States show what one earnest man can do in twenty years. His own body was the 1706th incinerated (on Saturday) at the attractive and appropriate crematory at Forest Hills.

His friend, Rev. John A. Bevington of Barnstable, told in fitting words the story of his life at the simple service in the beautiful chapel. It was in other ways a remarkable life. Educated for the Church, he threw aside his gown and refused to preach when his bishop (in London) asked that he preach what he did not believe. Admitted to the bar here, he used his efforts to keep his clients out of the law and so found himself out of practice. Successful as a teacher, he felt the desire to solve the problems of labor and capital, of the lower classes, and edited The New Era, The Nationalist and other reform journals. Retiring to rural surroundings for literary work and study he was induced to become a common councilman, an alderman and a candidate for mayor and representative. This high-born, finely bred, thoroughly educated English aristocrat became in America a democrat of democrats. Glad to mingle with the "common people," and fulfilling Emerson's idea of the "place and duties of a nobleman," ... "to guide and adorn life for the multitude by forthought, by elegant studies, by perseverance, self-devotion."

ALBERT S. PARSONS Lexington, Feb. 22.

TWO HUSBANDS CLAIM HER BODY — Simpson and Curran Insert Death Notices About Same Providence Woman and Announce Funeral from Same Place. — [Special Dispatch to the Boston Herald.] PROVIDENCE, R.I., Aug. 11, 1904. A singular claim has been set up in this city as to the right to bury a body. The following death notices were published simultaneously this afternoon:

SIMPSON—In this city, 10th inst., Emma, wife of Irving F. Simpson, aged 32 years. CURRAN—In this city, 9th inst., Emma, wife of John T. Curran.

In each instance the notice declares that the funeral will be held from Thomas F. Monahan's undertaking rooms at 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon.

Last Tuesday evening two women and a man escort went from this city to East Greenwich About midnight they started from home in an electric car. They were intoxicated, and behaved so rudely, besides refusing to pay their fares, that when the car reached Apponaug they were ejected.

The man wandered away, but the women, sticking to the highway, made their way to a point near Greenwood. The next car for Providence passed through Greenwood at 1 o'clock in the morning. It was travelling at a rapid pace, as there was a long stretch of straight track. Suddenly a woman appeared between the rails. The motorman applied his brakes and endeavored to avoid running her down, but she was struck with such force that her skull was fractured and she lived but a short time.

A woman who was with her said that she was Mrs. Emma N. Simpson of 323 Pine street, Providence.

The body was delivered to Undertaker Monahan by Medical Examiner Pegram, and yesterday noon it was claimed by Irving F. Simpson and John T. Curran.

Curran averred that his wife was married to Simpson in 1894, and that in two years the Simpsons separated and Mrs. Simpson married him.

Simpson declared that he has not been divorced, and defies Curran to produce a decree that would have entitled him to marry Mrs. Simpson. He has already paid the expense for the burial of his wife.

The three are said to have lived in the same house on Pine street for some time.

The police are looking for something to happen at the funeral tomorrow.

58

SEXTON REFUSED TO RECEIVE BODY — Remains of C.W. Mills, After Being Disinterred at Woodlawn, Remain Unburied Over 24 Hours in Catholic Cemetery. — UNDERTAKER APPEALS TO BOARDS OF HEALTH — Burial Finally Made—Dead Man Was a Protestant, as Is His Widow, Mrs. Brodeur—Her Father Buried in the Same Plot. — The boards of health of Winchester and Woburn were consulted yesterday by John T. Cosgrove of Winchester, an undertaker, who sought to carry out the wishes of Mrs. C.A. Brodeur of Winchester in the final disposition of the remains of a former husband, Charles W. Mills, who for years was a respected Protestant resident of that town.

Mr. Mills was killed in a railroad accident at Old Orchard two years ago, and the body was buried in Woodlawn cemetery, Everett. Mrs. Brodeur, a Protestant, purchased a plot in Calvary cemetery, Woburn, where her father, who was a Catholic, is buried, and where she also desired to be interred. It was her wish that Mr. Mills' remains should be placed there, and it is understood that she secured a dispensation from Archbishop Williams to enable her to remove the remains from Woodlawn to the lot in Calvary, the court, it is claimed, having granted her possession of the body.

Undertaker Cosgrove took the body of Mr. Mills to the cemetery at 11:45 A.M. Thursday. The sexton refused to receive it, whereupon the undertaker returned to his home and secured the services of half a dozen men to assist in depositing the box on the family plot. The box containing the body remained in plain view in the cemetery that afternoon and night and until dusk Friday. when it was buried.

In Woodlawn cemetery the body had been buried in a plot owned by Mr. Mills' mother, and it was to her deep regret that Mrs. Brodeur removed it. Mrs. Brodeur said yesterday that the cemetery authorities in Winchester and Woburn were aware a year ago of her intention to bury the body in Calvary. She also said that had the body not been buried she would have fought the cemetery authorities in court, even at the expense of her entire property.

When Mr. Cosgrove called on the Woburn board of health he saw the clerk of the board, and, as a result of the interview, he again conveyed the body of Mr. Mills to Calvary, being armed, as he supposed, with full authority in the matter. But it was then discovered that Mrs. Brodeur's plot was in the Winchester side of the grounds, and, as the sexton was obdurate in his refusal to permit the interment, Mr. Cosgrove communicated with the Winchester board of health and with Mrs. Brodeur.

Mrs. Brodeur hurried to Boston to confer with the archbishop, first notifying the undertaker to expect a telephone message from her not later than 4 o'clock in relation to the results of the converence. The body, meanwhile, was left, as stated, in the Catholic cemetery, but arrangements were made to remove it, if necessary, to the tomb in Wildwood cemetery, Winchester.

No word came from Mrs. Brodeur up to 6 o'clock, at which time Dr. B>T. Church, chairman of the Winchester health board, telephoned Undertaker Cosgrove, in effect, that the body had been interred. Undertaker Cosgrove expresses the belief that the sexton received instructions to inter the remains in the Brodeur plot.

The men in charge of the cemetery were non-committal when asked why the strange appearing box had been left so long in such a conspicuous position. The Rev. James J. Keegan of St. Charles' Church, Woburn, who is in control of business in connection with Calvary cemetery, felt disinclined to discuss the matter when he visited the cemetery, in company with Fr. H.A. Walsh, late in the day.

A person supposed to be conversant with the legal aspect of the case said that the act of the undertaker in placing the remains on the plot was sufficient to remove from him the responsibility as to its ultimate disposal. Should the cemetery managers refuse to permit burial within consecrated ground, the local board of health must be appealed to.

Mrs. Brodeur is very indignant because of the unfortunate turn of affairs. Her late husband, a farmer by occupation, and widely known as a judge of horseflesh, was attending a race meet when struck down by a train at a crossing. He was reputed to be worth $25,- 000.

MAKES SCENE AT BURIAL OF SON — John Finn Was Excommunicated for Marrying Non-Catholic, and Father Objected to Burial in Protestant Cemetery. — [Special Dispatch to the Sunday Herald.] NORTHAMPTON, July 9, 1904. The burial this afternoon of an excommunicated Catholic, John W. Finn, a Boston & Maine railroad brakeman, who was killed Thursday, in a Protestant cemetery, was the cause of a sensational scene, and it was not until the father of the deceased, a devout Catholic, had been expelled from the cemetery that the burial could take place. Finn was excommunicated for marrying about a year ago a Protestant girl, the ceremony being performed by a Baptist clergyman. The ban of excommunication was never removed, but the father insisted that the son should be buried in the Catholic cemetery.

After the death of Finn his body was taken to his father's house, where he had his young wife had lived. A wake was held, but the widow was not allowed to attend. Friday the widow had the remains taken to the home of her parents, and there the funeral services were held, with a service at the cemetery conducted by the members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and members of the Order of Eagles. As the funeral procession entered the cemetery the father of Finn shouted: "This is no place for a Catholic to be buried."

SUIT OVER CEMETERY SALE. Judge Lawton in the superior court yesterday took under consideration the suit brought by Gustave Loewe and others against Thomas F. Welch for an injunction to restrain a sheriff's sale of the cemetery of the Sons of Jacob Association, in West Roxbury, to satisfy a judgment of $2300 which Welch holds against it for work done upon the property. The plaintiffs are lot owners and claim that the cemetery, which is devoted to the burial of persons of the Jewish faith, cannot be sold on execution, and that a sale will affect their rights as lot owners. The defendants claims, however, that they are not bona fide lot owners and that they had not acquired their burial lots until after he had made his attachment. Solomon Lewenburg; Elisha Greenhood.

Dec. 14 1905.

M'VICKER WANTS MOTHER'S BODY — Son of Dead Woman Not Satisfied with Finding of Autopsy, and Has Instructed Friend to Take Charge of Remains. — DENIES DR. ZEIGLER'S RIGHT TO TAKE CHARGE — Besides Contest for Possession of the Body, Bitter Litigation Over the Division of the Estate Thought Sure to Come. — [Special Dispatch to the Boston Herald.] CHICAGO, Ill., Aug. 28, 1904. A fight for the possession of the body of Mrs. J.H. McVicker, which gives evidence of being as sensational as the sudden end of the wife of the famous theatrical manager, began yesterday.

Horace McVicker, the stepson, telegraphed to Mrs. Clara B. Game, a niece of the dead woman in San Francisco, to proceed at once to Pasadena and take possession of the body and not allow it to remain in the possession of Dr. Zeigler. Neither Mr. McVicker nor Attorney L.D. Condee is satisfied with the findings of the autopsy and every effort will be made to investigate the sudden death of Mrs. McVicker.

A telgram was received from Pasadena yesterday which said: "Family differences of years standing are said to be the reason of Mrs. McVicker wishing to disinherit Horace McVicker and Jennie Boydston. Shortly before her death Mrs. McVicker said that James R. Owen of 1902 Michigan avenue, Chicago, could explain these difficulties fully if reason ever came."

Mr. Owen, accompanied by his wife, arrived in the city yesterday afternoon from Boston. Mr. Owen is a wholesale druggist and for 20 years has resided on Michigan avenue, next door to the McVicker home. He was an intimate friend of the lat J.H. McVicker, while his wife was equally intimate with the dead woman. Mr. Owen is also a friend of Dr. Zeigler. He places no belief in the reports that Mrs. McVicker was murdered.

There is every indication that there will be long and tedious litigation over the division of the estate, if there are not more serious complications. Some time ago Mrs. McVicker drew up a will, which was witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Owen. In this the estate was divided among Horace McVicker, Mrs. Game, Mrs. Jennie Boydston and Atty. Condee, while there were a number of charitable bequests, including one to St. Luke's Hospital.

"There is nothing more to say," said Horace McVicker. "The coroner's jury has made an investigation and the physicians have made an autopsy and both decided that my mother had come to her death from natural causes. Still, I am most firmly convinced that she did not, and so are all of the other members of the family. I think that it is an outrage that Dr. Zeigler should try to take possession of the body and to have it interred in Rose Hill. I care nothing about the instructions which have been sent here by this man Zeigler. Of course, the fight will probably be in Pasadena, between Mrs. Game and Zeigler. Mrs. Game will act for me in the matter until the body reaches Chicago. I telegraphed to H.C. Wyatt at Los Angeles this afternoon and instructed him to see that Mrs. Game was given possession of the body."

James R. Owen was stout in his defence of Zeigler.

"It is a sham," he said, "that there should be even an intimation of suspicion against him. He gave up his practice here and accompanied Mrs. McVicker to California, and devoted his entire time and attention to her."

"Is Dr. Zeigler a regular authorized physician?" was asked. "To the best of my belief, he is." "Where did he get his diploma?" "I cannot state." — DR. ZEIGLER HOLDS BODY. — Declares at Pasadena That He Will Sit by Casket, if Necessary, Until Mrs. McVicker Is Buried. — [Special Dispatch to the Boston Herald.] PASADENA, Cal., Aug. 28, 1904. A sensational contest for the possession of Mrs. McVicker's body is in progress. Dr. Zeigler dramatically expresses his determination to retain the body of his wealthy benfactress in his custody as long as it remains above earth. He says it was a request made of him the night Mrs. McVicker died, and he is prepared to remain day and night by the side of the casket in the morgue.

He is determined to prevent Horace McVicker from getting possession of the remains, though he expresses fear that he may suffer bodily harm from Atty. Condee, who he says, previously threatened to kill him.

On arriving from San Francisco today Mrs. Clara Game was refused permission to see the remains. Mrs. Game says she will await the arrival of Horace McVicker next Wednesday. Dr. Zeigler says he will start for Chicago with the body on that day. A serious clash between Horace McVicker and Zeigler is feared. A second autopsy is impossible, as requested by Horace McVicker. Yesterday's autopsy left the body in such a terribly mutilated condition that physicians say such a thing is out of the question. Immediately after yesterday's examination a large amount of embalming fluid was injected into the veins, and that would have removed traces of other poison, had any existed. One of the physicians interested in yesterday's post mortem said Dr. Zeigler personally directed the examination, and in such a manner that no amount of expert testimony could possibly offset the findings in his favor.

Some excitement was occasioned today by a report that the McVicker jewels were missing. Dr. Zeigler explained their dissappearance from the hotel by saing that he had taken the gems and other effects and placed them in the custody of a local bank. The key to the safety deposit vault which contains Mrs. McVicker's valuables is among these personal effects.

An intimate friend of the late Mrs. McVicker says she was given to understand that Dr. Zeigler would be remembered by not less than $100,000, and that he was to have been the chief beneficiary had he prolonged Mrs. McVicker's life until they should reach Chicago.

59

NO CREMATION TRUST — [BOS?]TON CREMATIONISTS KNOW NOTHING OF THE PROPOSAL — Interchange of Cremation Certificates [M?]ay Be Discussed by This Year's Con[?]ntion of Cemetery Superintendents— [G?]rowth of a Sentiment in Favor of Less [O?]stentation at Funerals — [S?]ome of the people around Boston who [?]e become converted to the idea of cre[ma?]tion rather than earth-burial have been [?]erested lately by the appearance in [?]stern newspapers of a paragraph stat[?] that all the crematories of the United [Sta?]tes and Canada were to be consolidated [?] one association and that the organiza[?] of the international society would be [?]cted at the Buffalo Exposition this sum[me?]r. The interest of the paragraph lay the reason given for the association, [?]nely, that it was desired to secure a uni[for?]m price for cremations, and to make the [cer?]tificates entitling a holder to incineration a particular crematory equally good at the others in the assocation.

[?]ut, so far, Boston cremationists seem to [?]e no information about any such com[?]e more authentic than that contained the press statements. They are at a [?]s, too, as to who is behind the move[?]. It is true that G.R. Fletcher, man[?]er of the Odd Fellows' Crematory in San [Fr?]ancisco, has been endeavoring to make [cr?]emation certificates issued by the San [Fr?]ancisco association good at the other [?]ncipal crematories of the country, in [?]der that if a member should die at a [?]stance from San Francisco the body [?]ight be incinerated near the place of [?]ath instead of being transported across [th?]e country; but inquiry of Mr. Fletcher letter brings the reply that he knows [?]thing of any proposed meeting at Buf[fa?]lo or of the intentions in regard to it. [T?]here is to be a meeting of the American [A?]ssociation of Cemetery Superintendents at [P?]ittsburg, early next September, and the [?]atter of interchangeable certificates may [b?]e brought up at that time; but most of [th?]e crematories in this country now charge [?] for an incineration, and no association [w?]ill be needed in order to bring about a [u?]niform price. The associations now exist[i?]ng in connection with this matter are [ch?]iefly for spreading the doctrine of crema[ti?]on, or for securing its advantages to mem[b?]ers on a coöperative basis. In some a [m?]embership fee is charged, large enough to over the cost of an incineration; in others, [n?]otably those at San Francisco and Phila[d?]elphia, dues are paid in until they amount [t?]o slightly more than the cost of an in[c?]interation. The result under either system [i?]s that the association then issues to the member a certificate entitling the holder to [i?]ncineration at a particular crematory with which the society has a permanent arrangement. The only thing in the nature of an attempt to make foreign certificates good at the Boston crematories so far came at about the time of the opening of the Mt. Auburn institution. A cremation society in Connecticut which had been making use of the New York crematory wanted to effect an arrangement with Mt. Auburn by which its certificates would be good here as well as in New York; but the local institution was not willing to make a special rate, and nothing came of it.

A new and philanthropic plan is in contemplation for the new crematory now building at Montreal, Canada, which may in time be imitated in this country. it is nothing less than the endowment of the institution with $50,000, or an amount sufficient to enable the managers to make incinerations at a merely nominal price, say five dollars, or in deserving cases to dispense with the charge altogether. Sir William MacDonald is the originator of the idea. He believes that by its agency much can be done to stem the tendency toward extravagant ostentation in funerals among the poorer classes of Canadian people, who are largely of mixed French blood, with all the tendency which that implies toward the hysterical in emotional matters. Extravagance in the matter of death ceremonials there is carried to a much greater excess than in this country. Often a poor

family spends all it can scrape together for the sake of making a splendid display at the last ceremonies for a dear one, and the result is heavy debt and real privation for the living. Sir William believes this to be a public detriment, and he hopes his endowment idea will tend to counteract it.

This Canadian stand against ostentatious funerals is only an echo of a sentiment which has been growing in this country, particularly right here in Massachusetts, ever since crematories became numerous. Clergymen, physicians, cemetery authorities are coming more and more to exert their influence against lavish display and expense and in favor of simple burial ceremonies. Speaking of the growth of this sentiment in a talk about cremation a few days ago, the superintendent of the Mt. Auburn Crematory made this observation:

"We find that it is almost always the well-to-do people who accept the idea of simplicity. The poorer classes of people as a rule feel that they are not doing the right thing unless they spend a large amount of money. Some time ago I was asked to look into the Cleveland plan of having funeral cars on the street railway. I found that the use of the car from the house to the cemetery and return cost $10. The same service furnished by a hearse and carriages could not be obtained for less than $40. But I was told by one of the Catholic clergymen of the city that the car was used very largely by the well-to-do classes; that the poorer classes preferred the carriages."

The funeral car in Cleveland is divided into three sections. The first corresponds to the hearse and is intended for the coffin. Next is a section curtained off from the rest of the car and capable of seating eight or ten persons. This is for the chief mourners. The last section will seat twenty or thirty people and is for the people who would otherwise ride in the train of carriages. It is said to be seldom that the car cannot reach to within a short distance of a house of mourning, and the tracks take it directly to the cemetery entrance. There the cemetery authorities meet it with the cemetery hearse, and the mourners walk to the grave or the crematory. The expense covering the conveyance outside the street care is merely nominal. The use of a funeral car on the street railway has been mentioned in connection with Knollwood Cemetery in Charon, and also here in Boston. But the chief point against it here is that only one or two of the principal cemeteries are reached by the street car tracks. There are none to Forest Hills, or to Cambridge Cemetery, or to Mt. Hope, for instance, though two lines of road terminate at the gate of Woodlawn Cemetery, and the line which makes the long run down to Linden, the site of Holy Cross Cemetery, the largest Roman Catholic burial place, serves not only Boston but Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville, and all other places reached by the Boston Elevated Railway Company.

If the idea of simplicity grows only slowly among the poorer classes, it has been taken up by the well-to-do since the advent of the crematories to an extent that would have been thought radical a few years ago. Not so very long ago a funeral took place in this city at which the service was held over the ashes of the deceased, the cremation having taken place privately beforehand. People educated to the old traditions would find it hard, no doubt, to accommodate their ideas to such a method of procedure; but to the family mentioned it was the idea of a hearse, coffin, black draperies, and grave that was repugnant, and the simple urn surrounded by flowers as the only sign of the presences of death in the gathering of friends at the funeral allowed, to their minds, a much more appropriate and beautiful form of ceremony than that decreed by custom.

Cremation Is Gaining At the annual meeting of the proprietors of Mount Auburn Cemetery yesterday it was reported that the repair fund had gained $53,932.87 and the general fund $14,- 463.48 during the year. There were 180 cremations, as against 153 during the previous year. Frank W. Reynolds and Joseph B. Russell were reëlected trustees to serve until 1911.

MORE CREMATIONS — This Form of Disposition Is Increasing in Favor—Annual Report of Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

Some interesting facts will be found in the report of the trustees of Mt. Auburn Cemetery, just issued, and from which the following extracts are made. They appear in pamphlet form in the trustees' Seventy-third Annual Report. The trustees herewith submit to the proprietors the seventy-third annual report, together with the reports of the treasurer and superintendent.

The principal event of the past year has been the removal of our offices to the Sears Building. It was absolutely necessary to do this to obtain larger rooms and better accomodations for our ever increasing business.

It has not been a very active year and our receipts from sales of lots have not been as large as usual, while our expenses for repairs to buildings, for preventing the ravages of the browntail and gypsy moths and for the necessary development and improvement of our grounds have been unusually large. Still, our receipts on the whole have been satisfactory, as unexpected losses in one direction have been more than made up by unexpected gains from another.

The condition of our different funds is as follows:

The repair fund now amounts to $1,342,142.64, showing a gain of $53,932.87 the past year. It must ever be borne in mind that the income of this fund can only be expended in taking care of lots under perpetual care contracts, and if there be any surplus that it can only be applied to the improvement and adornment of the cemetery grounds.

The permanent fund has gained $14,378.03 and now amounts to $476,289.12. This fund is to provide for the expenses when all receipts from the sale of lots cease, and is safely invested in the policies of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, and its income must continue to be so invested until the limit of $500,000 fund is reached, when further action must be taken.

The general fund shows an increase of $14,463.48 and now amounts to $210,- 489.28. This is the active fund from which all expenses for construction and renewal of buildings, fences, shops, stables and improvements for the preservation and ornamentation of the cemetery, of every kind, must be defrayed. There should be a steady increase of this fund.

The cremation record is as follows: From April 1, to December 31, 1900.........50 Cremations For 1901..........119 " " 1902..............134 " " 1903.............153 " " 1904..............180 " — Total................636 Showing a steady yearly increase. The full reports of the treasurer and superintendent, to which further reference is made, seem to render additional statements unnecessary. All of which is respectfullly submitted. For the trustees, ISRAEL MUNSON SPELMAN, President.

Superintendent's Report. To the Trustees of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn:

Gentlemen: I have the honor to present herewith the annual report of the superintendent for the year ending December 31, 1904.

IMPROVEMENTS. New lots graded and bounded with granite posts........36 Old lots improved by being graded and sodded.........61 Old lots bounded with granite posts.............19 Lots furnished with granite or iron numbers...........60 Headstones erected.........296 Monuments erected...........46 Catch basins built............5

Lineal feet of concrete paths built.............226 Tombs removed...........4 Hedges removed..........1 Iron fences removed...........6 Granite curbings removed...........9

INTERMENT RECORD. Total number of interments, as per last report...........34,767 Number of original interments for the year ending December 31, 1904..............450 Number of removals from other cemeteries..........38 — Total number of interments for the year............488 — Total number of interments in cemetery.............35,255 Of the above there were deposited in the receiving tomb....34 Of the above there were interments in public lots.........20 The removals within and from the cemetery were as follows: To public lots............1 To private lots...........29 Total removals within the cemetery..........................30 Total removals from the cemetery..........................53 — Total number of removals..........83

CREMATION RECORD. Total number of incinerations, as per last report..........456 Number of incinerations for year ending December 31, 1904........180 — Total.....................636 Respectfully submitted, JAMES C. SCORGIE, Superintendent of the Cemetery of Mt. Auburn.

Officers of the Corporation. Following are the officers of the corporation for 1904:

Trustees—Frank W. Reynolds and Joseph B. Russell, terms expire in 1905; Charles H. Watson and Prentiss Cummings, in 1906; Francis C. Foster and Thomas P. Beal, in 1907; Charles F. Choate and Joshua M. Sears, in 1908; David W. Cheever and David R. Whitney, in 1909; Israel M. Spelman and Edward E. Hutchins, in 1910.

President, Israel M. Spelman; treasurer, John L. Dill; secretary, Lewis G. Farmer; superintendent, James C. Scorgie.

The office of the corporation is at rooms 601, 602, and 603, Sears Building, Boston, and the office of the superintendent is at the cemetery.