, 1862-12-05
our two cemeteries.
DEFECTS IN TEE PLANS Or
GAWfZING THE CEhETERY
COMPANIES.

COMPANIES.
Bryan's Addition and Benson's
Addition to Chicago.
AN APPEAL FOR A NEW SYSTEM OR a
NEW CEMETERY.
The pride that the people Of Chicago alresdy
begin to feel In their two Cemeteries
land and Rosehill-and tue amount of money
expended and to be expended in each of these
places, IN adjoining the homes Of the dead,
reminds uB Of serious ta1lt In
the charters under which the cemetery com
panies are respectively organized. We are
willing to believe that the motives which I'M
Delled Sheee organizations, for a purpose 30 !
sacred. was not wholly speculative and mer-
cenary; that pious regard for what has be- |
come part Of our civilization, and certain |
love Of the beautiful were lying behind the
effort to make q successful business tr1n11e-
ton; hut we are compelled to Say that, if We |
attach NO value to the sense Of honor by
which the names of the owners Of these GEM
eteries are associated, the companies are,
when estimated each by Its charter and Its
corEorate obligations, just as purely asBoci-
ations for money making as any other within
our knowledge. And further, that in framing
the laws under which they are operating,
special care seems 10 have bosn taken to ex-
empt the corporate property from any ob1iga-
tiors to holders of lots, that may not at any
time be shaken of. The case stands thus:
The prop1ietors Of these cemetery grounds
are selling burial lots for prices that are,
to esy the least, re1nuneratiVe-as high
certainly as three thousand, possibly FIVE
thousand dollars per acre. As long as they
have lots to sell, it is for their interest to
keep their improvements In good order-to
maintain the walks, fences, gateways, grass
plots, and trees and shrnbbery, by a consid-
cradle expenditure, 60 IS to make their places
attractive. In this they have exercised the
judicious ibe,a1ity that has already made, We
believe, handsome return. But the day Hill
come when the lots will be all sold. To
whom, then, will the people, who have buried
their dead there, look to do all these things.
Can they expect a1r. Bryan Of Graceland, or
11r. Be,Eon Of Rosehil1, to incur an annual
charge ofthree thousand to five thousand do
lars each fer doing. that which will yield no re-
tusn2 Or will they be content to zee the
rsace upon which their tenderest affections
| are fixed, and upon which they have, in the
| aggregate, expended an enormous sum,
| GO back to the Wildness Of nature
to see the fences broken down, the
| little Enclosures violated By the intrusion Of
! beasts, the graves oyergroWn with weeds and
| grass, and..an air Of desolation and decay per-
,adiug the sacred spot. This latter, or new
| association coiupo:ed Of lot holders, for the
| protection Of what they supposed was already
secure, is Inevitable In saying SO, We Judge
the present proprietors without harshness,
and as We judge other men. When fhen
| function as sellers has ceased for want oi
more lots to sell, they, OF perhaps their heirs
will do that which their pecuniary interests
demands-Withdraw from all connection witt
the property and absolGe themselves, rs they
have the legal right to do, from all o5liga
,tions to care for what they have sold.
The fatal defect in each organization, then
Is this: there is no provision in either charte
compelling the proprietors, as they sell lots
to place certain PR centuns Of the proceeds
OF each sale in the hands Of trustees for in
vestment, the income Of which shall be deYo
ted, forever, to the decent maintenance Q
these grounds. That is the obligation tha
the stockholders have not incurred, AMI
which buyers Of lots have not insieted upon
Hence the probability, nay, the certainty, O
the impoverish1neDt and decay in all thes
improvements which are now 80 gratifying t.
the eye and so charming to the cultivate
tastc.
It will not do to say,;,taat tic intent Of Pre-
prIetocs viii be perpetual; that as tue specu
1atioD proves to be good one, and as al
ground is sold off, contiguous property vii
be aGded, and the old and new be maintained
1t will not do to say SO; because the interes
Of proprietors forbids it. When the land no.
devoted in ci:her OF these cemeteries t
burial, Is disposed Of, new cemeteries adjcis
ing may be laid out and new companies o.
ganKed; but it would be a hazardous specl
lation that in the outset would saddle itsc
s with large annual outlay for a purpose tn
would bring nothing back; and the iEapro,
+ ing and adornipg OF these old grounds Woul
:" not yicld cent It Will not do, either,
trust to the effort Of any voluntary associ
on to keep up and extend what the propri
tors have begun. Our people are migratory
families are scattered to the cnde OF the earl
: and become Impoverished; the Affection
+, / erandchildre is unreliable. Or the tiftes
! hundred OF two thousand lot owners il Il
!, two cemeteries, in 3 quarter Of century til
l. representatives who will have both ii