Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-11-02

SPRING GRovE CEMETERY-A Visit TO a
NecrOpoLS.-The Queen City of the West
has many things of which she may be justly
proud, but among the number there is none
more worthy of cOmmendation than Spring
Grove Cemetery. The exquisite taste in
which it is laid out; its long, smooth ave-
nues; its rolling lawns with their green vel
vet carpet; its lake, dotted with islands; its
shrubbery and monuments, and its location
render il so attractive that one would almost
wish to die that he might become an in
habitant of this beautiful Metropolis.
After having visited all of the principal
cemeteries in the United States-for we have
an innate love of walking among the ruins
of mortality-we feel convinced there is no
rural city of the dead that can compare with
it in beauty. II is true there is some bad
taste manifested by many of the lot-holders
in their selection of designs for monuments
and in putting fences around the graves of
loved ones, as if fearful that their ghosts
would escape from the narrow home to
which their bodies have been consigned; or,
as if there were some danger of their tomb
stones. mausoleums or statues walking
away; but as a whole, viewed from an ar
tistic aDd-point it is an optical banquet at
which any lover of the beautiful may feast
with delight.
Aside from what nature has done for
| Spring Grove, most of its beauty has been
| impaired by Mr.. Strauss, the landscape
| gardener, TO whose taste and judgment it
owes its present condition and the place it
occupies among the cemeteries of the coun-
try. His long experience, varied culture,
| natural taste for art and unbOunded love oi
the beautiful have combined to render him
eminently fit for the position he occupies
| and enables him 10 blend the natural lowell
ness of the landscape with his Purist ideas o.
art, so that Spring Grove seems to be gate.
way to Paradise.
In company with number of invited
guests, we spent yesterday afternoon in wan
dering among the billocks that mark the las
resting-place of the 8, 900 or 5000 bodies tina
lie in this magnificent Cemetery, and in ad
miring the works of art with which thu
scene is dotted.
What is good in the nature of man is al
ways aroused, and holy thoughts are Away
suggested, by gazing on beauty. No somber
ness in the mind, no malice in the heart, NJ
sadness in the soul, when she fills the sens
and thus enraptures the being. High abov
the clouds and storms of life the spirit scars
and in the empyrean lives, while in he
mystic presence, beneath the sunshine OF he
pensive eyes.
So felt we as we wandered. Death scenes
a benison and graves boon for the calm
blue sky, and purple hills, and dancing rivu
lets of the Alden TO which the spirit looks fO
rest, was painted on the canvas OF the sou
in colOrs delicate as rainbow-hues, and beau
tiful as angels dreams.
Mr.. Strauss entertained his guests in th
most sumptuous manner, after they ha
examined the grounds and feasted on the
beauties, and late In the evening we left th
Cemetery highly delighted with our visi
and with determination to repeat it at a
early day. Spring Grove may be improve
by a number Of dark-colored granite monl
ments to contrast with the numerous marb
ones; but this depends entirely upon the 10
! holders. The work of Mr.. s. has been adm
rably done, and in every respect is creditab
in the highest degree, not only TO his tas
but also 10 his skin. ta