000_1882 Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings Vo 1, 2005.120.001

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his hand to his hat without raising it from the head while saying the few words that may be necessary. Certainly, common sense dictates not to stand uncovered in a cemetery or anywhere else in a bleak wind."

Rev. Minot J. Savage of the Church of the Unity, Unitarian, said: "In a climate like ours, the custom of having services at the grave is the straightest way to other services at other graves. I have always done all I could to do away with the custom. I would have the funeral service and the burial separate from each other, the latter to be attended in private, and only by friends. Or, rather, if I could have my way, I would abolish burial altogether, and establish cremation in its place. The latter is quick, clean, sweet, and healthful for the living. The former, to one with a vivid imagination, is slow, foul, repulsive as a process, and full of danger to the living."

Rev. George C. Lorimer of the Tremont Temple Baptist Church said: "I have no doubt injury often results from undue exposure at funerals in inclement weather. Reverence and respect to the dead require no man to jeopardize his health. And while I stand uncovered myself at services in cemeteries, in unsuitable weather, I always request others to remain covered."

Rev. John Galbraith of the Highland M. E. Church, Roxbury, said: "The custom of standing with uncovered head at funeral services, in cold weather, is barbarous. It is a serious menace to health. Frequently ministers are incapacitated for other services by heavy colds contracted in this way. The custom ought to be abolished. When services are desired at the grave, let the friends assure those participating that it will not be considered a mark of disrespect to the dead to keep the head covered. If this could be done for a few times, and especially by prominent families, it would soon be universally followed."

Rev. E. Winchester Donald, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, said: "After officiating at funerals in the open air for over 20 years, I am of the opinion that standing by the grave with uncovered head, in unseasonable weather, is decidedly dangerous to health, and, therefore, is not a true mark of reverence for the dead; but I am also of the opinion, that, inasmuch as uncovering the head when the body is lowered into the grave is an instinctive and unconscious act, simply proving it to be dangerous to health will not necessarily cause the custom to disappear."

Rev. W. E. Barton of the Shawmut Church, Congregational, said:

"I do not believe that one funeral should cause one or more others. In inclement weather I shorten the service at the grave, and, for the sake of example, keep my own hat on, except during the benediction, when for a moment only hats may be removed. If there is snow upon the ground, I sometimes ask the friends to remain in the carriages, and open the doors on the side next the grave. This was done at the funeral of Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin, and when the snow is deep, as it was then, it is a prudent thing to have done. I discourage the sending of many carriages to the grave, and believe in having the burial attended only by the nearest friends. I am a hearty advocate of funeral reform. Heavy mourning and expensive funerals are distasteful to me. I urge those who can afford display at such timees to refrain from it, partly as evidence of their own good taste, and partly for the sake of those who because they can least afford, are most certain to indulge in, the folly of expensive funerals."

NEW MT. AUBURN CHAPEL.

The new chapel at Mt. Auburn cemetery, now in process of erection, will be one of the finest edifices of its kind in the state, both in architecture and construction, says the Cambridge Tribune. The architect is Willard T. Sears, and the contractor Robert J. Culbert, both of Boston. The location of the new building is at the left of the main entrance, with a large space allowed for lawns between the building and driveway. The entire exterior finish is red sandstone. There are two sections to the building, one for the offices of the corporation and the other for the chapel proper connected by a wide passage. The chapel proper will face directly on the main driveway, and will be 100x52 feet in size, with a handsome Gothic tower about 50 feet high. The interior finish will be entirely of a light mottled brick.

The other section will be one story high, but conforming with the chapel in height, and 60 feet square. It will comprise a large central hall, with anterooms and lavatories, the superintendent's office, trustees' room and business office. The finish throughout will be of hardwood, and the lavatories will be fitted in the finest manner. The floors will be fireproof and the basements asphalted. Stained glass will be used in all the windows of the chapel, which are large and deeply recessed.

The old chapel will be preserved for its associations, but probably will not be put to any practical use.

MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY REPORTS.

Financial Condition of the Corporation Continues to Be Satisfactory–Something About the New Buildings.

In Horticultural Hall, Monday afternoon, the sixty-fifth annual meeting of the proprietors of Mount Auburn Cemetery was held. Among the matters of business was the reelection of David W. Cheever and David R. Whitney as trustees for a term of six years each.

The annual report submitted shows that the financial condition of the corporation continues to be satisfactory. The receipts from the sale of lots and other sources have been larger than those for the previous year. The repaid fund, the income of which is pledged for the perpetual care of lots, and which cannot be used for any other purpose, amounts to $897,413, having gained $43,441 during the past year. The permanent fund, accumulating for the care of the cemetery after all the lots are sold amounts to $364,- 461. The increase for the year was $11,159. The general fund amounts to $141,415, having gained above necessary expenditures on the buildings now under construction $6106.

The new buildings consist of a chapel and an office structure connected with it, the demands of the present time making the need of these additional accommodations imperative. Complaint had long been made of the old chapel as furnishing insufficient accommodations for funeral services. It had no cellar, and was heated imperfectly and with difficulty; it lacked a robing room and other necessary accommodations, and a disagreeable echo interfered with the voice of the officiating minister and made choir singing impracticable.

The new buildings now in process of construction are just within the gates of the Mt. Auburn entrance. The entrance to the office building is on Garden avenue. The main chapel fronts on Central avenue. The main entrance to the chapel is through a covered porch. The extreme length of the building from the front of this porch to the rear wall of the chancel is 116 feet, and the extreme width across the transept 54 feet. The office building has a frontage of 55 feet and a depth of 65 feet, and is connected with the chapel by a cloister, which also extends along the north wall of the chapel. The English perpendicular style of architecture as exemplified in many of the English parish churches built during the early part of the fifteenth century has been adopted, and the chapel has been planned to meet the requirements of all religious denominations.

Besides the work done in excavating the cellars and preparing the ground for the new buildings, improvements and repairs in other parts of the cemetery have been continued. To increase the water facilities, six new driven wells have been sunk and all the old wells rebored. To improve the water distribution fully thirty tons of eight and four-inch pipe and about one thousand feet of two-inch pipe have been laid. The wellhouse, which formerly stood on the site of the new building, has been removed to the south gate, and there, surrounded by shrubbery and covered with vines, will serve as a pleasant resting place for visitors who enter the cemetery from that side. The improvements added to other departments include the construction of shelter tents, which the superintendent supplies at a slight additional charge, to protect the mourners at the services from the cold, hot rays of the sun or possible shower. The tent has an iron framework about twenty feet square, and is covered with canvas.

The treasurer's report shows the total receipts from all sources during the year to have been $189,791, which, together with the balance from the previous year, brings the amount to $239,007. The expenditures amounted to $214,439.

The burial record contained in the superintendent's report shows that 546 interments were made during the year. Of that number, 510 were original interments and 36 were removals from other cemeteries. The total number of interments in the cemetery is 31,407.

Transcript. Feb. 2. '96.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

FROM VIVISECTION TO MURDER.

To the Editor of the Transcript: One autumn day, a few years ago, while visiting Mt. Auburn cemetery, I had a somewhat singular experience. On one of the principal avenues I was approached for information by a party of strangers. By steps which it is not important to record, our conversauib finally touched the name of Webster, the eminent physician, the graduate of Harvard College and professor at the Medical School, whose execution for the atrocious murder of a brother physician is a matter of history. "I wonder," said one of the party, "where the murderer was buried?" The question was put to an old gentleman standing near; and without a moment's hesitancy, he pointed out the tomb, distant hardly a hundred feet from where we were standing. Upon further inquiry, it seemed that we had addressed one of the oldest residents of Cambridge, and probably one of the very few now living who had personal acquaintance with Webster before he was led into crime. Someone referred to the possibility that Webster's story might have been true; that instead of murder, it might have been manslaughter; but the old gentleman scoffed at the idea. "It was murder," he said, "and nothing else. Any man who could deliberately nail a dog to a board, and then cut him up alive-as Webseter was accustomed to do-would not hesitate to kill his enemy, if he had him in his power and thought he might do it without risk." It struck me at the time as a curious illustration of the popular notion of "cause and effect." T. Nov. 2.

Increase in Cremations Probable New York, Dec. 10-If the negotiations which are now pending between the United States Cremation Company (limited) of this city and the Union Cemetery Company of Brooklyn are satisfactorily concluded, a larger number of bodies will be cremated than ever before in this country. The old Union Cemetery has been sold for building lots, and the cemetery company has employed contract Farrell of that city to remove the bodies and reinter them in Cedar Grove Cemetery. The United States Cremation Company of 62 East Houston street has made a proposition to the trustees of Union Cemetery looking to the cremation of the bodies instead of their reinterment. Nearly 30,000 interments have been made in Union Cemetery, and some of the graves have been filled many years.

Father May Say Where Child Should Be Buried A verdict of $25 damages for the plaintiff has been awarded by Judge Luce at Waltham in the case of Patrick M. Gormley of Waltham vs. Charles A. Raymond of Watertown. The plaintiff's child died last June and Raymond, who is an undertaker, was called. The father and mother have been living apart and the latter made arrangements to have the child buried at Watertown. Mr. Gormley wished to have the child buried at Waltham, but the undertaken said that he would have to show his legal right to interfere. On the day of the funeral Mr. Gormley arrived with the necessary papers too late, and he then brought suit for $500 damages. Judge Luce gave the verdict on the grounds that the father had a perfect right to say where the body of his child should be buried.

Dec. 22. '97.

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WHETHER TO BURN OR TO BURY --- Case Presented by Friends of Cremation. --- Crowded Condition of Burying Ground in and Near Boston - Growing Danger to Public Health - Movement to Erect a Crematory - How Bodies Are to Be Incinerated.

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." This familar text seems to have foretold the order which science should follow in the final disposition of our mortal remains. The earlier peoples, whether civilized or savage, sought to immortalize the body. The ancient Egyptians, with the rare alchemy of a lost art, have preserved for us the faces and forms of the Pharoahs, and the ruder hands of the Peruvian Indians have been hardly less successful in perpetuating to posterity the figures of their warriors and chieftains. Mankind has long ago learned the grewsomeness and grotesqueness of all this. The mummy does not inspire the emotions the builders of the pyramids expected. The costly processes of embalming and the rearing of massive mausoleoms have failed to accomplish their end. Men have discovered that they are immortalized by far different means. Their memory must live, if at all, quite apart from the body. The highest philosophy meets man's cravings for remembrance simply with this assurance:

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."

But men even at this late day are more ready to admit the truth of this sentiment than to accept its logical consequences. It follows, if we are to live in the hearts we leave behind, that it makes very little difference to us or to them what disposition is made of the body. That should be determined on the grounds of

The Common Welfare.

It is on such deductions as these that the Massachusetts Cremation Society has based its mission. Its members believe that the common welfare today and in this city demands cremation in place of burial. It has to meet all the prejudices that the customs of generations have established. Men have learned to look forward to dropping their weary heads at last on the lap of mother earth; to sleeping their unwaking slumber beside their kith and kin beneath the willows. They have been taught to wish, like Little Nell, to have the bright sky above them always. In pursuance of this idea, they have laid out beautiful cemeteries, a orning them with the fairest flowers, the most graceful shrubbery. To these the "storied urn" seems at first thought a harsh subsitute. To many the spot where the loved form was last deposited is the place where it always sleeps. It is hallowed ground for them.

It is only when these objectors have been led by the lamp of science to see that their cherished friends are not where they have supposed them to be, but have turned from "dust to dust" that they realize that the conditions would not be substantially altered if they had changed "ashes to ashes".

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FRONT ELEVATION OF THE PROPOSED CREMATORY

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The broad question whether cremation or burial is the better for the community is the one which must decide the issue. Boston is confronted with the question of

Crowded Graveyards.

It is not a new one.

"So far back as 1740 the selectmen received a petition from John Chambers and otehrs, grave diggers, representing 'that the Old and South burying place are so filled with dead bodies they are obliged ofttimes to bury them four deep, praying it may be laid before the town for their consideration.'

"In 1795 a committee was appointed by the town to consider the subject of the burying grounds at large, and to report on some suitable place of deposit for the dead, in order that the town may be enabled to discontinue and the opening of graves in the Common and Chapel burying grounds. The committee reported on the 6th of November, 1795, that: Having consulted the physicians of the town, they find it to be, in their opinion, that the health of the inhabitants is in danger from the crowded state of these grounds, and the exhalations which must frequently arisse from opening graves therein. In addition to which they find it is almost impossible to open new graves without disturbing the relics of the dead already interred. From an equal regard to health, for a decent respect for the living and the dead, they recommend to the inhabitants that "no new graves or new tombs shall be opened or built in either the Common or Chapel burying grounds after the 1st day of May next.'

"Then follows the recommendation that the South burying ground in sufficiently large for the present accomodation of the inhabitants, and will admit of enlargement, etc. In 1823 the proprieters of Bromfield Street Church petitioned for the privilege to build tombs under their church. This led to the consideration of the subject by the city council. The petition was referred to a committee, of which the mayor, Josiah Quincy. was chairman. The petition was not granted, and the committee, in concluding their report, recommended the prohibition of the

Erection of New Tombs

within the ancient peninsula of Boston, the adoption of measures ultimately tending to exclude all burials hereafter within the peninsula, and devising methods for applying the open perfect and satisfactory remedy, by adopting some common place of burial for all the inhabitants, selected if possible, beyond the limits of the city, but certainly beyond the limites of the peninsula, of an extent sufficient to meet the future exigencies of the population. The resolutions embodying thes recommendations were adopted by the city council, but interments continued to be made and against vigorous protest; and the sentiment aroused let to the establishment of Mt. Auburn cemetery in 1831, which in a degree met the wants of the constantly increasing population.

"In 1847 the mayor Josiah Quincy Jr., in 1840 and 1850 Mayor Bigelow, and in 1853 and 1855 Mayor Smith introduced the subject of our crowded buring grounds in their inaugural addresses. About this time Forest Hill cemetery was established; in 1851, Mt. Hope; in 1857 Calvary; and others at later dates; but the intramural interments have never been wholly discontinued.

"All this thought was given to the question when Boston's population in 1800 was but 24,027 persons; in 1810, 32,250; in 1820, 43,298; in 1830, 61,392; in 1840, 93383; in 1850, 136,881; in 1860, 177,902. How much thought is given to it now? In 1880 our population amounted to 362,839; in 1890 it was 448501, an increase of 85,- 668; in 1892 it is credited to be 466,870.

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"The 33 public and private cemeteries within the corporate limits of Boston; and Mt. Auburn (which seems to belong to Boston, so many of its people are buried there) cover an area of about 600 acres. Few persons realize that during the 10 years ending 1890-91, 75,116 persons were buried in those cemeteries and that at distance of about five miles from the State House, and within a radius of 4000 feet, lie three cemeteries - Forest Hills, containing 237 acres which may be used for burial purposes, Mt. Hope, containing 105³/₄ acres, and Calvary. containing 42 acres, in all covering an area of about 384 acres - and that in those three cemeteries during the 10 years ending 1890-91, 43,419 persons were buried, much more than half the number buried within Boston's corporate limits? At a very short distance from these three cemeteries is Cedar Grove cemetery, in which 3956 persons were buried during those 10 years.

"Those cemeteries have been looked upon as suburban. What are they today? says Mary B. Comyns in 'A Plea for Cremation.'

"On the three sides are the populations of wards 23, 24, 25. In 1880 those wards contained 37,596 inhabitants, in 1890 they had increased to 66,667, and Hyde Park, which completes the boundary had in 1880 a population of 7088 persons, in 1890 it had increased to 10,193. Can the close proximity of these cemeteries have anything to do with the unhealthy condition which we are told prevails at Hyde Park during certain seasons of the year?

"In our own city we are not pressed to consider the question of 'graveyard pollution' of the water, since almost no wells are used, and the Boston water board reports that, to its knowledge, no cemeteries drain into the city water supply, although we hear from another and very reliable source that it is suspected that our beautiful Chestnut Hill reservoir might be slowly polluted by drainage from Evergreen cemetery in Brighton; but the fact exisits that our cemeteries have no system of drainage, and hence arises the question: What becomes of their surface and subdrainage?

"Our modern cemetries are in some instances comparativey well cared for in rhe way of cemented vaults although

Noxious Gases

will escape through cement; but, when we think of the area of Mt. Hope and Calvary. which are adjacent, in which cemented vaults are doubtless few and far between. and in which 36,505 persons have been buried in 10 years, Mt. Hope averaging 1600 interments per year, and Calvary 2000, we can but question if our rules concerning the burial of the dead are fully carried out. Sec. 31 (Laws and ordinances for 1876) says: 'No person shall inter or cause to be interred any dead body in a grave less than three feet deep from the surface of the ground surrounding the grave to the top of the coffin'. The statement is made that in these cemeteries sometimes six and seven persons are buried in one grave."

It was this grave condition of affairs with its menace to the public health which led to the formation of the Massachusetts Cremation Society. The growth of the project in this state is well told by President James R Chadwick in forthcoming publications of the society. He says:

"The history of organized effort to introduce the practice of cremation in New England begins with the enactment by the Legislature of Massachusetts of a special law on May 26, 1885. On Oct. 17 of the same year the New England Cremation Society was incorporated under the presidency of John Storer Cobb. After disposing of 750 of the 2500 shares at $10 each in the succeeding three years, it became evident that interest in the subject was not

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Her [?] representation yesterday was of a gray little chanteuse, in which she showed quality good range and considerable cultivation. The followed in rapid succession the bewildering jaune et ville, the lightning tambourine dance, the dashing Spanish cachucha, the eccentric Mabille dance, the grand opera toe dancer, the agile sailor's hornpipe and sensational rainbow dance, in all of which beautiful and appropriate costumes were shown. She simply made the biggest hit.

It should be borne in mind that her en-

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sufficient to warrant further effort, so subscriptions were refunded to the shareholders, and the society resigned its charter on Oct. 16, 1888, and

Passed Out of Existence.

"In 1886 the Massachusetts Cremation Society was incorporated in Worcester with the purpose of erecting a crematory in that city. Four hundred and ninety-one of the 1000 shares were sold at $10 each, and then the society lapsed into a state of inaction until the present year.

"On Jan. 20. 1890, a third organization was effected in Boston, under the old title of New England Cremation Society, as an educational body to disseminate a knowledge of the subject, and thereby arouse such an interest in the movement as would ultimately lead to the erection of a crematory by some future corporation. Since that time monthly meetings have been regularly held, and papers read and distributed. Through the influence of this association, and especially by the personal activity of several of its lady members, the present movement to erect such a cemetery was inaugurated in the winter od 1891-92. As the Worcester so ciety still held its charter, and had nearly $5000 of stock taken up, an application was made to its governing body to combine its forces with the present movement, with favorable result. The Boston parties, consequently purchased a block of stock, their board of directors was elected, and the corporation formally changed its habitat to Boston. The capital stock was increased to $25,000.

"It will thus be seen that, although the New England Cremation Society and the Massachusetts Cremation Society are independent bodies, they have been formed for united and harmonious action toward a given end, that of providing facilities for carrying cremation into opeation in the neighbourhood of Boston. Many of the members of the former are also stockholders in the l tter, and there is but little doubt that eventually the two associations will be very largely composed of the same persons.

"The Massachusetts Cremation Society has been organized for the purpose of building and

Maintaining a Crematory

for the people of New England. Other sections of the country are already provided with such buildings and appliances for the incineration of the dead, and it is to supply the need of them in our own community that the work is now undertaken. To carry out this purpose the society proposes to raise at least $25,000 by sale of its stock, and to apply the money thus obtained strictlly and solely to the accomplishment of that end.

"The building proposed comprises a chapel for funeral services. a furnace with retort for incineration, and a sepulchral chamber for preservation of the ashes of the dead in urns or niches. It will be the aim of the society to have this buidling when completed fulfil the ends of incineration in the most scientific and acceptable way, and so be also an architectureal ornament to the neighborhood in which it is built. The crematory shall be at the service of all applicants on the smae terms, and no limitation of its use shall be based upon religious belief.

"Under the laws of Massachusetts the whole capital stock must be sold and paid for before a corporation can begin work. Consequently, no steps can be taken toward the purchase of land or the erection of buildings until the capital stock is sold and the money paid into the treasury. The first work of the society, therefore, is the disposal of its stock. This has been fixed at $10 a share, of which 10 per cent must be paid in cash at the time of subscription. The remaining 90 per cent is subject to the

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comedians, singers and dancers and pretty girls began a brief engagement at the Bowdoin Square Theatre last night, before an immense and exceedingly enthusiastic audience. Indeed so generous were the spectators with hearty approval of what was said and done upon the stafe that the entertainment was drawn out to an unusual length. It was nearly 11:30 o'clock [?] curtain was rung down. [?} cause for such demonstra[?] for the show was indeed a

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order of the board of directors. There have been sold up to the present time 1652 shares of stock."

The crematory which the society is to build will be a handsome structure, as the accompanying cut indicates. The feature which is different from most crematories is the chamber for the Preservation of the Urns. The ceremony of incineration is described by Mary B. Comyns as always decent and in order. She says:

"The body, simply clad, and placed in a coffin, is not put into the fire as many persons suppose, but into a so-called chamber of clay, little larger than itself, which is wholly closed except for a few small perforations in the top for the escape of the gases, which are conducted through the tire and consumed. This chamber is heated to a temperature of about 2000°. Nothing but heated air touches the body. It lies absolutely undisturbed, maintaining its perfect shape until the last moment, when the beautiful rosy color it has gradually assumed changes to white, and it instantly falls together in the form of pure ashes. [Sad?], yes, heart breaking it would be to watch the process, because anything which takes from us forever the forms of those we love is sad and heart breaking; but, when our dear ones have been buried, is there ever a moment during those years and years of terrible changes through which they pass, when we could bring ourselves to look upon them?

"The crematory which contains the heated chamber may be as beautiful as money and refined taste can make it. The room in which the religious services are held, may be as quiet and peaceful as the chapels in our cemeteries. As the service is solemn and reverential, so is there neither carelessness nor levity when the body is removed to its final resting place. All is tenderly done for the moment, and we know that no harm can ever again come to the forms of those we have loved. Is it so with inhumation?

"Having freed our minds of all misguided sentiment, we can more calmly study the effect of burial upon the survivors. Nor exaggerated feeling for the dead will distort our sense of Duty to the Living. Our reason, unbiassed, will point the way to save future generations from dangers most appaling to contemplate."

The Massachusetts law regarding cremation stipulates that five or more people can associate themselves together in a corporation fo rtha tpurpose, with a c[a?]pital of not less than $6000 or more than $50,000. The bar value of the shares must be either $10 or $50. The corporation can hold property not exceeding $50,000. The last section of the law provides that:

No body of a deceased person shall be cremated within 48 hours after decease unless death was occasioned by contagious or infections disease; and 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 certificate 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 opinion that no further examination or judicial inquiry concerning the same is necessary.

The society has the benefit of many distinguished names. The following are the officers:

James R. Chadwick, president, 270 Clarendon street; Stephen Salisbury, vice-president, Worcester; John Homans, 2d, clerk, 184 Marlboro street; John Ritchie, treasurer, 10 Mt. Vernon street. [Temporary?] vice presidents - Edward H. Hall, Cambridge; Charles W. E of Cambridge; Francis J. Child, Cambridge; Francis Parkman, Boston; Martin Brimmer, Boston; Miss Katherine P. Loring, Boston; Miss Mary B. Comyns, Boston; John Storer Cobb, Boston; Phillips Brooks, Boston; Samson R. Urbino, Auburndale; directors, James R. Chadwick, 270 Clarendon street; Stephen Salisbury of Worcester, Mass.; John O. [Marble?] of Worcester, Mass.; Augustus Hemenway, 91 Marlboro street; Henry P. Bowditch, Jamaica Plain; Babson S. Ladd, 10 Tremont street; Russell Sturgis, Jr., 190 Marlboro street; Mrs. William B. Rogers, 117 Marlboro street, and Miss Alice M. Longfellow, Cambridge.

CITIES OF THE DEAD. - The Growth of Mt. Auburn, Forest Hills and Mt. Hope. - How They Illustrate Modern Methods of Burial-Sanitary Precautions in the Interest of the Living-Cremation Practised Abroad, but Not Popular in the United States.

In Boston, as in all other communities which have had dead to take care of, the gravedigger began his work within urban limits, and only later, through stress of population, migrated to the outskirts of the city. How this practice of intra-urban burial arose constitutes an important chapter in the history of interment. It is well known that the ancients were especially careful not to bury within their cities, and this exclusion of the dead from populous communities is to this day practised even by savages. The chief burial places of Jerusalem were in the valley of Jeoshaphat and in the sides of the adjacent hills; the Thebans excavated their graves in the distant mountains, and chose the borders of a lake for the site of the great cemetery of Memphis; the Greeks interred their dead in the Ceramicus; the Romans, prohibited by the 12 tables from intra-urban interment, laid the bodies or ashes of their departed relatives along the Appian, Claudian and Flaminian ways; even the Turks have long used as their cemetery ground for Constantinople a part of the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. The practice of burying within the city began in the second century of the present era, through the Christians being compelled, by persecution, to worship among their dead in the catacombs, and the association then established between place of worship and place of interment became thenceforward a feature of the Christian church. It is thus a suggestive fact that the modern relegation of the cemetery to the exterior of cities in the interest of public health is simply a return to the natural precautions taken in disposing of the dead by the untutored of every age.

Cemeteries, like societies, are growths, and to sketch how Modern Burial Grounds, such as those of Mt. Auburn, Forest Hills and Mt. Hope became possible, would be to traverse the whole field of historical ethnology. From the tombs of palaeolithic cave dwellers of France and Belgium, who buried their dead in crevices of the rock and natural grottoes, to the stateliest mausoleum ever sculptured by the American stonecutterfrom the cradle burial of the Indian to the tower burial of the Parsee, and from the use of river and sea in the disposal of bodies to the consumption of them by fire - the needs and ingenuity of man have given rise to countless methods of interment. The commonest mode of burial in every age has no doubt been that of inhumation, and it is this form of burial which constitutes the modern cemetery problem for both Europe and the new world. Yet even inhumation varies with varying conditions, nor are restrictions imposed upon burial in the earth the same in every country where it is practised. In the New Orleans cemeteries, owing to moisture of the soil, the tombs have to be placed above ground, most of them being structures about 8 feet high, and consisting of cells just large enough to admit a coffin. In some countries there are restrictions defining the time at which a grave may be reopened; in others no such limits are imposed; the Msolem grave has over it, metaphorically speaking, a perpetual "touch not on any pretext." The cemetery of the Campo Santo Vecchio in Naples is remarkable in several ways. It contains 366 deep pits, one of which is opened each day, and in it all the interments of that day take place. At night the funeral service is performed; the pit is then filled up with earth and lime, and can only be reopened a year later.

In burial grounds like Forest Hills, Mt. Hope and Mt. Auburn, the modern spirit is seen in many ways. They contain first of all not the faintest suggestion of the ancient churchyard, with its symmetrical rows of gravestones, from beneath which bones would now and then peep forth. Where once the old gloom of the charnel house reigned, "a laughing light of flowers along the grass is spread." Under the system of "perpetual care," the lots are kept green and freshly blooming, and no faded shrub or withered wreath is ever permitted to dangle here in the wind. Nor does the modern cemetery wear the aspect of a stonecutter's establishment. The monuments that used to rise in such bewildering frequency, and with such contempt for surroundings are here reduced to order. The partition walls with which some graves would insist upon shutting themselves off from others have disappeared; in place of the angularities and rudenesses, even the positive exclusiveness, which once isolated tomb from tomb, there has arisen, out of strife for place and rank, a fine sense of community of interest, a sweet spirit of consideration for the symmetry and

neatness of the society of graves as a whole. In some cases, nevertheless, this sense of equality has not yet pervaded the entire territory of the modern cemetery. The city poor in Mt. Hope, for example, are not yet fairly provided for; the rows of white stones that mark the unglorified dead might be tolerated, but not so easily the manifest neglect of ground to which Supt. Morton is forced through sheer lack of funds with which to grade, level, surface, and do other work that is needed. Here and there, too, the visitor sees fluttering feebly from one of These Neglected Graves a tattered flag bearing the stars and stripes, and it flutters there simply because the hero who sleeps beneath happened to be too poor to pay for his interment in teh city lot reserved for the more pecunious soldiers and sailors who went to the front from Boston. Perhaps these abandoned poor are just as well off as the richer dead who sleep beneath costly monuments; at the same time, it is well to know that the city fathers are already considering how they may use some of the public money in the improvement of the pauper ground at Mt. Hope, and how, by simple enlargement of a well-kept plot, all Boston's veterans at the war may attain even in death to something of the equality which they fought for when alive.

Another important advance made by the modern cemetery relates to the actual care of the bodies interred - a care directed to the end of lessening as much as possible those exhalations which, under faulty methods of interment, are sure to find their way into the atmosphere. It is true that under the present system of inhumation - burial of bodies, that is to say, in coffins - absorption of the decaying elements by the soil is long and injuriously delayed. The only rational method of interment is burial of the body in immediate contact with the soil, or in some form of casket which opposes no substantial obstacle to that contact. But, while interment remains as it is, care has to be taken that the graves shall be deep enough to obviate as far as possible all chance of noxious matter escaping into the atmosphere. The soil in all the three cemeteries named is carefully prepared for interments by being frequently turned over with the spade; the land is drained in accordance with the most advanced methods; and the possibility of offensive accumulations of water, that constituted so hideous a feature of the old graveyard, has been there completely eliminated. The graves themselves, in their shape and structure, have been adapted to sanitary requirements, and where insanitary arrangements have existed it has been the policy of the trustees to bring about the needed change as rapidly as possible. In Mt. Auburn, for example, a number of reinterments were carried out without charge in order to do away with some old-fashioned tombs that consisted of a single vault for the reception of coffins, with a door opening above the surface of the ground. In giving reasons for this step the trustees said: "Modern science emphatically teaches the danger resulting from decomposition and the escape of germs of infectious diseases, and to this danger neither the proprietors nor the employes of the corporation ought to be exposed when it can possibly be avoided."

An important aspect of the life of cemeteries as institutions is their growth, and its relation to the development of the communities which they serve. Increase in the population of Boston's three great cities of the dead has been literally enormous. Forest Hills cemetery, for example, consecreated in 1848, nearly doubled its interments in the course of two decades; by the year 1870, about 10, 260 bodies had been buried within its inclosures, representing 22 years of interment; in 1876 this number had risen to 14,545, while at the present time the cemetery contains about 24,000 bodies. The Mt. Auburn burial ground was consecrated in 1831; 25 years gave it a population of 7235; in 1862 its interments numbered 10,732, and in 1873 18,039; the total went up to 22,623 in 1881, and continued to increase until the present time, when the number of the interred is 27,610. But even these figures are Left in the Shade by the statistics of Mt. Hope. Before this cemetery - first used as such in 1852 - came under the care of the city, the interments were few and far between; but after 1858 the number rapidly increased. In the years 1852 and 1853 only 73 bodies were deposited in the grounds; in 1858 the number of interments was 605; by 1884 the yearly reception of bodies had reached 1728. The total number of persons buried in Mt. Hope is now over 40,380, as given in the last annual report, including 15,170 private interments, and 25,210 burials by the city. It is a noteworthy fact that, for all three cemeteries, the general average number of interments is maintained pretty constantly from year to year - that, in other words, the gradual annual increase is added to a mean which does not sensibly change, and certainly does not fluctuate to the extent of the average mortality for each 12 months. The Forest Hills average for the year, beginning with about 544 in 1861, was for a long period maintained at about 600, and has only in recent years risen to a pretty constant 700. Mt. Auburn, also beginning early with 500 interments a year, has maintained this general average closely, up to the present time, when the annual interments number about 536; from 1863 to 1876 a tendency manifested itself to increase this average to 600, 700, and in one case, 800,

but was not sustained, as the interments soon fell down to their average figure. In the case of Mr. Hope there have been slight fluctuations in the actual number of burials, from year to year, and decade to decade, owing to the character of the interments, yet even here the increase has been steady from the beginning.

The three cemeteries thus have a total population of about 100,000, and, as there is a constant annual increase in the number of bodies interred in them, the question of their capacity to provide for future burial needs is one of considerable importance. As, moreover, public opinion becomes more and more adverse to the maintenance of graveyards and the burial of the dead within cities, and even in proximity to habitations on the outskirts of great centres of population, the demand made upon strictly rural cemeteries must increase at an even greater rate than the increase of mortality. In Mt. Auburn, Forest Hills and Mt. Hope there still remain unoccupied large tracts of ground that are destined for use in the burials of the future. The proprietors of Forest Hills cemetery have added to their land from time to time, as the demands made upon it increased. In 1861 they had 126 acres, augmented to 175 acres in 1871, and to 226 acres in 1876. At the present time this cemetery has an acreage of 228. There is still plenty of room for interments in the 125 acres which constitute the burying ground of Mt. Auburn, while at Mt. Hope, with an acreage of 106, large tracts have not yet been touched by the gravedigger. Making every allowance, it may be said that in any of these three cemeteries there is land enough to provide for the interments of the next 10, 20, or even 40 years, while all of them are capable of enlargement.

The local problem thus raises the question of the general problem as it awaits solution in all communitites. Deaths increase, of course, as population increases, but with the increase of population, and with the extension of town and city boundaries which it brings in its wake, there takes place a gradual narrowing of the rural spaces capable of being utilized for purposes of interment. To describe the process roughly, it may be said that grave land decreases in amount as the demand for it increases, while any general resort to city land for interments of the future is out of the question. A problem of the near future for all growing communities is thus the problem of how to dispose of their dead. In various European countries, most of them overcrowded, return has been made to the ancient Practice of Cremation. In Italy, where cremation has been legalized since 1877, about 1000 bodies have already been burnt within crematory furnaces erected in such towns as Milan, Lodi, Cremona, Brescia, Padua and Rome. Agitation in Germany has led to the erection at Gotha of a large mortuary and crematorium, where, between 1878 and 1888, more than 550 bodies have been burnt, the ashes of the dead being subsequently lodged in the columbaria of the crematory temple. In 1888 the authorities of Pere la Chaise erected two crematory furnaces in that cemetery, just 10 years after crematory apparatus had been purchased for use in the English cemetery of Woking. The governments of Belgium, Russia and Austria have not yet legalized cremation, but societies for the promotion of the process exists in nearly every country of Europe. Cremation is legal in the United States, but it has thus far not found much favor, though crematories are said to be in frequent use in various states of the Union.

The opponents of cremation base their opposition on the ground of tender feelings for the dead, and of religious considerations connected with the belief in resurrection; while the advocates of the practice urge its adoption on sanitary grounds, claiming that the opposition is of no utility to the dead, and against the interests of the living. There is also a medico-juridical objection to cremation on the ground that, if nothing were recoverable of a body but its ashes, many murders, especially those by poisoning, might escape discovery; but against this danger the cremationists provide by a medical examination of the body before it is burnt.

It may be here of interest to recall the fact that in 1886 the trustees of Mt. Auburn gave considerable attention to the subject of cremation. In compliance with instructions "to consider the expediency of establishing a crematorium, or of adopting any other method of taking care of the dead, so that sanitary law shall not be violated," a committee appointed by the trustees reported as follows: "The usual method of disposing of the bodies of the dead in this country is by interment. Such has not only been the practice here for generations, but has also been the usage of the Christian world for centuries. It is only within a few years that the subject of cremation has been brought to public notice. Our own corporation was formed for the purpose of interment. It is so stated in our acts of incorporation, and we have no other powers. Should the public require cremation of us, our powers would have to be enlarged. There would seem, however, to be necessity for this. Since our lsat annual meeting cremation has been legalized by the Legislature of Massachusets, and provision made by general law for the formation of corporations for that purpose, under the supervision of the board of health, lunacy and charity. The corporations already organized under this law are sufficient for the present need, and were this not the case, our friends could easily organize a corporation under the provisions of this act, in connection with our own cemetery.

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We are at present prepared to receive for sepulture the ashes resulting from inceineration. We are ready to go further, and prepare Depositories Above Ground, or columbaria in our hillsides, for the reception and preservation of urns and other memorials. In the mean time we are not prepared to recommend any action upon the part of the proprietors, but to wait for the further development of public sentiment." It is scarcely necessary to add that, thus far, the authorities of Mt. Auburn have not been called upon by popular need for any action in the direction indicated.

That serious injury is often done through burials in too close proximity to the habitations of the living is unquestionable. In times past, when interments took place within the church itself, the bodies being often those of saints or persons eminent for their piety, the congregation did not fail to be affected by the resulting exhalations, yet the practice in England required the vigorous opposition of sanitary reformers before the Parliament of that country could be moved to the simplest sanitary precautions in the interest of the public health. With the stoppage of intramural interment came measures for closing graveyards in crowded cities, and the placing of interments in open cemeteries under sanitary control. In England thousands of chruchyards have been closed, yet the country is dotted everywhere with cemeteries, some of them under the control of burial boards, others managed by private companies; while under the English law, as it now exists, a burial ground may approach within 100 yards of any dwelling house, and it may stand much nearer with the consent of the owner of the domicile. Facts like these are cited to show that in countries so crowded with the living as in England the problem of how to provide for the dead is much more urgent that it can be for many years to come in the United States. Yet even here there are cities as densely crowded as any in the old world; even here the interests of public health are arrayed against intra-urban interments; and even here, in spite of abounding territory, the problem of what to do with the dead that, out of regard to the living, can no longer be interred even in the rural cemeteries, will at no distant date be one to tax the wisest sanitary intelligence and the highest administrative skill.

CANNOT MOVE HIS WIFE'S BODY - A Policeman Goes to Court to Solve a Peculiar Problem - In the Superior Court, today, before Judge Richardson, a case which has some peculiar features, was heard. The plaintiff is Charles L. Howell, a policeman attached to Divison 4. The defendant is the Forest Hills Cemetery Corporation and Albert Helmboldt, a baker living in Roxbury. Mrs. Howell, who was a daughter of Helmboldt, died in 1896 and was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. The deed of the lot was taken in Helmboldt's name, and he says he paid the money for it. He and Howell have had some disagreement since Mrs. Howell's death and Howell wishes to remove the body of his wife to another lot, but the cemetery corporation refuses to allow this to be done without the consent of the owner of the lot, who is Helmboldt. Howell says he has no authority now even to put a monument over his wife's grave. Howell wishes the Court to order the cemetery company to allow him to remove the body. The Court reserved his decision.

[handwritten] Afterwards decided against plff.

BEAUTIFUL FOREST HILLS. - A Model Cemetery, Where Loved Ones Sleep Well. - Graves Well Cared for, and Ornamented with Flowering Plants and Vines - A Walk Through Its Winding Avenues - Tombs Embowered in Trees - Distinguished Dead.

Our modern "cities of the dead," as cemeteries are sometimes called, unlike the older graveyards of the country, seem to be made for the living as well as for the dead. The new light which affection sheds upon the memory of those once dear to us has made of the tombs an attractive rather than a repulsive place, and has given to sentiment an object and a field in which, while giving expression to feeling, taste can be cultivated and imagination satisfied, in a degree, at least.

And what, after all, would be life without sentiment? Mere animal existence. We live for affection, and when those we love are taken from us, we mourn for them - we do not forget them, and it is a gratification to us that we can cherish their memory in such acts as the beautification of their graves by planting them with flowers, or giving, by ornamentation of some kind, a distinctive character to them. Of course these attentions to the dead do not affect them. Not so the living, however. It is to them that all the ornamentation and beautiful surroundings appeal, and to them the credit of the expressions of their sentiment belongs.

Therefore, the modern city of the dead is in reality the city of the living, where their most precious treasures are laid, beside which they expect, sooner or later, to lie down to their eternal rest.

We see the busy man in his counting room or workshop maturing projects or building for the future. But, busy as he may be, when we inquire closely we find that he has a family burial lot in some modern cemetery, for which he appropriates yearly a certain amount to keep it in good condition and have beautified with flowers and vines, a tribute of his affection for a loving father, mother, sister, brother, wife or son or daughter who may be buried there. He will visit this cemetery at certain times of the year to pay memory's tribute of affection to those who have gone before. But the time comes when he, too, is called away, and Some Loving Heart takes up the work he has been doing for others in the care and ornamentation of his grave. And thus it goes on from time to time, from generation to generation, from age to age. The older memories fade with their possessors, but new ones succeed, as in the general order of nature, and the care for the resting places is continued. This is the way it now appears in the light of the modern cemetery, which, after all, like other sentimental results, is typical of the taste, as well as the affection, of the age, for, though affection was no doubt was strong in the breast of the Puritan who made his graveyard a most forbidding looking place, it found with him a different expression because his taste was different from that of our age.

Even as late as nearly half a century ago many of the burial places of this country were described as "only desolate graveyards, overgrown with long grass and noxious [image of receiving tomb of Forest Hills with caption Receiving Tomb, Forest Hills.]

weeds, and with little else of vegetation save, perhaps, here and there a neglected tree which shaded some forgotten grave. Dilapidated fences, crumbling tombs, prostrate headstones, neglected grave on which no turf has been laid or stone reared, made such spots gloomy and repulsive." With this picture in mind, the visitor to the beautiful cemetery of Forest Hills, in West Roxbury, can see a contrast that is as amazing as it is gratifying.

This crowning result of sentiment was not a thing of sudden growth, however, but came gradually. "The good taste and reverence for the dead which led to the establishment of Mt. Auburn, the first cemetery of the kind in the country, has extended far and wide," and Forest Hills was one of the earliest and best fruits of the new departure. This cemetery "is believed to be the first one of the kind established by any city or town, in this section of the country, at least, as a public burial place of its inhabitants."

In his readable work on this cemetery, published in 1860, Mr. W.A. Crafts says: "When the municipal authorities of Roxbury, with an enlightened foresight and good taste, purchased and laid out the cemetery of Forest Hills, they commenced a good work, and set an example which may well be followed by other municipalities, and has, indeed, produced its proper effect on some. Although the measure may possibly have been a little in advance of public opinion at that time, the result has shown that it was 'not done too soon, nor on too large a scale, nor at too great cost.' It has found increasing favor with each succeeding year; it has awakened within the sphere of its influence a more general regard for The Sanctuary of the Grave; it has called into life pure and elevated sentiments that else might have slumbered forever; it has in a great measure changed the feelings of a community with regard to the place of burial, and the tomb which was once visited only to lay a new treasure there, has become a hallowed spot, to which the mourner may come to indulge his grief, or find consolation for his sorrow amid the beauties of nature. Year by year it will become more sacred, more endeared to the hearts of the living as the sanctuary which contains an ever increasing company of departed friends; and it will be looked upon by those who have followed their beloved ones thither, as a place without which the associations of home and of country would not be complete, though around it cling only sorrowful memories."

The origin of the movement which led to the establishment of Forest Hills cemetery dates back to October, 1846, when Hon. John J. Clarke was mayor of Roxbury. At that time he laid before the city council a communication in relation to the public burial grounds of the city, and recommended that the council consider the expediency of purchasing a tract of land for a new place of interment. The idea thus presented was not a broad one, but the subject was referred to a select committee of the city council, and subsequently there was referred to them a petition of Hon. H.A.S. Dearborn and others for the establishment of a rural cemetery.

The subject was not allowed to rest, and in 1847, when Gen. Dearborn was mayor [for?] Roxbury, steps were taken to secure the Seavern's farm, together with one or two smaller lots adjoining, belonging to other parties. This of course was not at once consummated, but by persistent work and influence of Ge. Dearborn and others, the subject was finally acted on in the city council on June 26, 1948, when the council authorized the purchase of 14 1/2 acres of land belonging to John Parkinson. The Seaverns farm, which contained about 57 acres, had been acquired by deed previously, viz., on March 28, 1948. The cemetery land as now secured contained something over 71 acres, and cost the city $27, 894.66.

This land, lying about three-quarters of a mile southeast of Jamaica Plain, was as central as could reasonably be expected. A considerable portion of it was wild and rugged in appearance, hilly, rocky and precipitous, but well covered with wood - veritable forest hills in fact. Another part wore a less rugged aspect, and was Clothed with a Grove of Pines. Still another part was open and cultivated ground. The whole together had made a favorable impression, and by its diversity [image of receiving tomb of Forest Hills]

of scenery and natural adaptation for the work of the landscape gardener, especially pleased the fine taste and judgment of Gen. Dearborn, whose agency in laying out the grounds and adapting them for cemetery purposes will be noted later on.

The Legislature in 1848 passed an act providing for the appointment of five commissioners, to be elected by the city council. This board was to have "sole care, superintendence and management" of the cemetery, the laying out and embellishment of the grounds, the conveyance of burial lots, and the establishing of such bylaws, rules and regulations as they might deem expedient. The act further provided that a portion of the cemetery should be set apart as a burial place for the use of the inhabitants of Roxbury, free of charge; and, also, that the proceeds of sales of lots and rights of burial should be appropriated "to the liquidation of the debt in the purchase of the land and the improvement and embellishment thereof"; and it forbids the appropriation of any moneys from the city treasury for such improvement and embellishment.

The act was accepted by the city council soon after its passage, and on the 30th of March, 1848, the following gentlemen were appointed to constitute the first board of com missioners: Henry A.S. Dearborn, Alvah Kittredge, Francis C. Head, Henry Codman and George R. Russell. This board organized by the choice of Gen. Dearborn, whose skill in rural art had developed the beauties of Mr. Auburn cemetery, and was universally acknowledged.

Gen. Dearborn, says Mr. Crafts, "undertook the work with a zealous interest, and that delight in nature which made it more of a pleasure than a task. He devoted to it time and toil; studied the character of the ground, explored every part of it, made himself familiar with all its beauties and capabilites, observed each rock and tree and shrub, as well as each hill and slope and opening vista, and then traced out the avenues and paths so as to reveal those beauties, and to prepare a garden where the living might well choose a resting place for their dead."

When the land was secured for the cemetery it did not abut on any highway, and the idea was at first entertained to have the entrance on the southern side over the right of way on the Dr. John C. Warren land, but by the liberality of the adjoining landholders the commissioners were enabled to open a broad avenue from Scarboro street to the northwestern part of the cemetery, where they established The Main Entrance. After the acquisition of the Parkinson land the work of preparing the grounds proceeded rapidly. The whole ground was inclosed by a wooden fence, and the principal avenues and paths laid out and partially constructed to make ready for consecration. An imposing Egyptian gateway was erected at the main entrance and more simple ones at the southern and eastern entrances. The gateway was of wood, but this has been superseded by one of stone, as shown in the accompanying engraving.

The work of preparing the grounds was begun in April, 1848, and several hundred burial lots were laid out at the time, choice lots being offered to subscribers to the purchase fund. The name "Forest Hills" was selected by the commissioners from a number which was proposed as the most appropriate and harmonious. This name was afterward more formally adopted by an ordinance of the city. This work being sufficiently advanced by the 28th of June, 1848, that day was chosen for the consecration of the cemetery. The day was a beautiful one, and a large number of people were present. The place selected for the performance was in the northerly part of the cemetery, at the base and on the side of a hill, which has received the name of Consecration hill. A procession, consisting of the city government of Roxbury, and others, was formed in another part of the grounds, since named Fountain hill, and proceeded to the place set apart for the services, where a large audience had already assembled. The dedicatory services were of an elaborate nature, and were satisfactorily carried out.

The necessity of an addition to the original area of the cemetery was soon apparent, and in 1852 about 32 1/2 acres, being the balance of the Seaverns farm, were acquired, making the total area of this time about 104 acreas. The area of the cemetery has been added to at various times since 1852. Among the additions is a tract of some 30 acres south of Canterbury street, and the Milton and Peters estates of some 25 acres, all of which have enlarged the territory of the cemetery until it embraces about 201 1/2 acres. The two latter estates have a frontage on Morton street of about 2000 feet, and when the contemplated improvements are carried out at the intersection of Forest Hills avenue with Morton street, which will in a measure correspond with the entrance to Franklin Park on the opposite side, it will add very materially to the already attractive appearance of the entrance.

The Embellishment of the Cemetery was provided for in the act of the Legislature of 1852, which authorized the commissioners to take and hold any grant, donation or bequest of property upon trust, and to apply the same, or the income thereof, for the improvement, or embellishment of the [?]

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[image with caption GATEWAY, TOWER AND CORPORATION BUILDING, FOREST HILLS.]

tery, or for the planting and cultivation of trees, shrubs and plants in or around any lot, etc. A perpetual care fund was therefore established, and, according to the last annual report, the number of lots now under such care is 2320, while 602 are cared for annually, leaving 1181 lots for whose care no provision has been made by the proprietors, but it should not be understood from this that these lots are neglected. Far from this. As a matter of fact, there is not today a lot in the cemetery which is not cared for and maintained in good condition; but those lots for which no provision is made have no special work in the way of placing ornamental plants, shrubbery, etc., done on them.

Legislation in regard to Forest Hills cemetery was had from time to time, an act to incorporate the proprietors having been passed in 1863, said act being amended by subsequent legislation, the object being to place the grounds in the hands of a board of trustees, representing the proprietors of the cemetery, and defining their powers and duties; also directing the manner and place of investment of funds. The present board of trustees is composed of the following gentlemen; Gorham Rogers, William A. Gaston, George K. Guild, Joseph H. Chadwick, James Bennett Forsyth. Charles M. Clapp and L. Forster Morse. The officers are: Joseph H. Chadwick, president; Edward B. Reynolds, treasurer; Arthur R. Potter, secretary; John G. Barker, superintendent.

The water formerly used in the cemetery was pumped from Lake Hibiscus, a beautiful sheet of water in the grounds, which is herewith illustrated, but city water was introduced about a year ago, and a tank and standpipes located at different points in the cemetery. This summer a system of water pipes is being carried through all the avenues, with small hydrants at convenient intervals, to which hose can be attached for watering purposes in dry weather. Watering carts keep the avenues in fine condition in the hot weather.

The Improvements in Contemplation at Forest Hills are many. Among them will be the building of a splendid stone bridge across the ravine separating the newly acquired Milton and Peters properties from original cemetery grounds. This bridge, which is to be built from a design of Architect W. G. Preston of Boston, will be about 175 feet in length by 25 feet in width, and will be built of Roxbury stone, quarried on the ground, with Medfield granite trimmings. It will be ornamented by several handsome vases for flowers, and will be somewhat ornamental, in keeping with the various structtures on the place.

A visit to Forest Hills cannot fail to impress the visitor with the natural beauty of the situation, as well as the improvements which have been made by those having charge of it in the past as well as those now in charge of it. The approaches to this lovely spot from all sides are through pleasant and quiet roads. The main entrance leads from Morton street, and can be reached by several avenues, and is one of the finest approaches to a cemetery to be found in the country. On the Union terrace is located, on the right, the corporation building, in which is the office of the superintendent and other departments. This and the gateway are shown in our illustration. Before reaching the entrance there are seen some very fine specimens of carpet bedding. On the right of the gateway is the chapel, and in the rear of the corporation building are greenhouses and cold frames, where the numerous flowering and other plants employed to embellish the squares, walks and burial lots are propagated. The receiving tomb is located south of the chapel.

The first impression which the stranger would receive on visiting this place would be the wonderful combination of art with nature which is there shown. As few as possible of the natural features of the grounds have

been disturbed, while there have been added everywhere, in appropriate places - localities where they seem to belong - beds of shrubbery, vines, flowering plants, clumps of rhododendron or mountain laurel bushes, while intermingled with the evergreen and deciduous trees, natives of the soil, are large numbers of rare trees, shrubs, etc., derived from other lands and latitudes.

The various avenues lead off to the right, left and in front, and wind around in the most charming and abandoned way; curving here around the base of a hill, and there winding to the top in graceful sweeps, with no notably steep gradients.

The Geological Formation [image with caption THE OLIVER DITSON MONUMENT, FOREST HILLS.]

is that known as the Roxbury or pudding stone, and many of the hills are composed largely of this material. Where it crops out in ledges, or in ridges or boulder form, it is either covered with vines, or made to afford background for tombs or burial lots which contain monuments. Formerly it was the fashion to surround the burial lots with iron fences, but these unsightly things are being rapidly gotten rid of, granite curbing, etc., taking their place.

There are several fine eminences in the cemetery, from which views of the surrounding country can be obtained, while from the tall stone tower on Consecration Hill a wide view is obtainable, not only inland, but seaward. Another of the eminences in the cemetery is known as Mt. Warren. In a tomb on this hill are gathered and deposited the re-

[gap] and here, near the monument erected in his honor by his friends and fellowcitizens, repose the remains of Gen. Dearborn, to whose zeal and labors so much that is now enjoyable in the cemetery is due.

The employment of rough boulders for headstones to graves is a notable thing in Forest Hills. One of these is on the burial lot of the Warren family, on the summit of Mt. Warren. It is an irregular block, with a level top, and seems designed by nature for a pedestal. But it will probably not be used for such a purpose, as the Roxbury statue of Gen. Warren is to be placed on the street which bears his name. Among the other eminences in the cemetery are the Eliot hills, four in number, in the southwestern part of the cemetery, which derive their name from the apostle Eliot. The summit of this hill is of solid rock.

Among the water attractions of the cemetery are Lake Dell, a small pond of water, and Lake Hibiscus, which is a fine sheet of water, fed by natural springs and adding largely to the beauty of its surroundings. The view of this lake, given herewith, is only one of many enjoyable ones that can be had across its surface. In the view given, the tomb shown is that of Maj. Chadwick, the president of the corporation. There is on one portion of the shores of this lake some of the finest specimens of Norway spruce to be found in New England.

Formerly Forest Hills, in contradistinction to Mt. Auburn, was not distinguished for artistic scarcophagi or splendid monuments. But of late years this has been changed to some extent, and now there can be seen in sufficient number not to satiate, and in variety enough to please and hold the eye, many fine tombs and monuments of artistic design, and even original conception. On the southwesterly slope of Mt. Warren is the fine shaft of westerly granite erected to the memory of that noble man, Marshal P. Wilder. Further down the slope is the tomb of Miss Susan Dimock, who was lost on the steamer Schiller, on Scilly rocks,

May 28, 1875. She was surgeon and physician to the New England Hospital for Women and Children, and did a noble work in her day.

It is not a little curious to reflect how Men of the Most Diverse Views and Opinions lie here, almost side by side, resting quietly and peaceably. Here, for example, can be found the monument, surmounted by a bronze bust (an excellent likeness, by the way) erected to Karl Heinzen, who in life was a free-thinker, and in his native country a revolutionist of the most radical kind. Not far away, on Cornell path, is the monument erected to Ned Kendall, the famous cornet player. A plain slate stone, on Smilax path, marks the resting place of a man who was a power in his day - the best execrated and the most blessed man in America - William Lloyd Garrison. He sleeps beside his faithful wife, Helen Eliza, who preceded him to the grave by about three years.

On Ageratum path, under a granite sarcophagus, erected by his society, lie the remains of Dr. Jacob Merrill Manning, so long the pastor of the Old South Church in Boston. Near by a polished granite stone marks the resting place of Rev. James Freeman Clarke, author and pastor of the Church of the Disciples in Boston. All around are graves and monuments of men of note, soldiers, scholars and successful business men in their time. On an eminence beyond, in a fine location, is Roxbury soldiers burial lot, with a soldiers' monument in it. The lot is railed in with granite. South of this lot, on Cypress avenue, is the granite sarcophagus below which rest the remains of ex-mayor of Boston, Samuel C. Cobb. On Larch avenue is the sarcophagus of Col. Charles O. Rogers of the Journal.

The Oliver Ditson monument, on Poplar avenue, which is herewith illustrated, is a marble statue of St. John, of fine artistic merit. Near by is the beautiful red granite shaft erected to the memory of Col. William M. Rumrey of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. Below this, on Lake avenue, is the Partridge monument - representing an angel with uplifted head and finger pointing upward. On the junction of Forest and Lake avenues is the line monument erected to the memory of Andrew Carney, found of the Carney Hospital.

Opposite the Carney monument is the notable monument of O. H. Davenport, in the rear of which is the monument of that sterling man and patriot, Gen. William H. Schouler. Among the notable monuments - more notable, however, for what it commemorates - is that of the late Horace Seaver, well known as the editor of the Investigator for 60 years - a man who was as honest as he was fearless in the expression of his radical opinions.

Many Fine Monuments might still be noted, did space permit, among them some works of art, chiefly notable as such, others because they mark the graves of men who had done something in their day for the benefit of their fellowmen, among the latter a monument to John T. Hancock, inventor of the Hancock inspirator.

In front of an ivy covered boulder, facing on Orange path, repose the remains of the gallant commander of the Kearsarge, Rear Admiral Winslow. On Lautana path a granite shaft marks the grave of Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher.

There is a number of so-called "fields" in Forest Hills, where single graves are disposed of, one of the oldest being the Field of Ephron; then there are the Field of Machpelon, and Field of Manoah, which is inclosed with a spruce ledge, and the Field of Heth.

The superintendent of Forest Hills, Mr. John G. Barker, seems to be a man who is exceptionally well qualified for the position he holds. He is a true lover of nature, adorned as well as unadorned. With a full knowledge of botany, a good, practical training in the growth of trees, shrubs and plants and a fine taste in landscape gardening, Mr. Barker brings to his work an untiring industry and exacting performance of duty on the part of those under him, as well as a knowledge of human nature and a kindly and obliging disposition, which enable him to deal with the public successfully and please them. Under his master hand Forest Hills is one of the finest and best kept in the country, and when, in their last report, the committee on the cemetery said the following about him, they had good reason to mean every word of it. They said: "The committee wishes to repeat its acknowledgment of the able and efficient services of the superintendent, Mr. John G. Barker."

A visit to Forest Hills in this summer weather will well repay any one who undertakes it.