The Portland daily press., 1867-10-18
Terms Eight Dollars per a,snus,.. d, odyo,,ce
oommsa Grave.yards.

hnou Sr0vesynFdas =
Every community cannot have a Mount
Auburn For the most part rural towns
must be content with common orayavardS
for the resting places OF their dead, Private
burial lplaces on the home farm are not to be
commended. In the course OF years those
grounds pass into other hands, and the graves
will be neglected and ultimately ploughed
over and obliterated. In selecting locations
for public burial places, we think there is a
common error; we mean those not attached
to church edifces, which, after all. we must
think are the most appropriate abodes for the
bodies of a Christian people. In selecting
grounds elsewhere, generally some level field
Is chosen, where almost everything must ne
cessafily be monotonous. The old patriarchs,
and the Jews in Solomon's time were risht,
We think, when they entered the valley of Je
hosapLat, that deep, irregular ravine which
separates Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.
and made the sepulchres Of their dead in the
cavernous side of that dark, shadow yaHev
We would advise the selection of broken and
uneven grounds, where an opportunity can
be furnished for divers views of Glen and
plateaux, that may tax the ingenuity and
taste of such Jas have the means of. pre-
pairing family burial lots. But in common
graveyards there is little change for variety,
excepting in the form of monuments, head
stones, hedges, shrubbery and flowers. They
are not the ''oalley of the shado,o of death >
for they are in no vdie, and there is no shad-
ow but such as is produced by artificial
struc, ,ures or cultivated trees.
On the subject of gravestones, &C.. we
think variety should be studied as much as
possible. The visitor, as he passes amongst
the graves, should have his attention arrested
by some new but appropriate design. No
two stones OF monuments should be
much alike. Common marble or slate
stone slabs get thrown down, or stard
askew by the action of frosts ard
even in the course OF few years the white
and polished surface becomes dingy and looks
foul and uuseemly. In devising something to
rest upon, or stand at the head of graves,
persons can exercise their own ingenuity but
let them try for something different for other
designs. Besides common slabs standing up
right or half bent, we have seen small sauc- {,
lures OF pyramidical and conical form, min
lature temples, granite coffins resting upon
the graves, green mounds guarded by statu-
airy OF angel form, floral vases, harps, cruci-
fixes, anchors, &C., &c. I. ..... ...as
Public cemeteries, judiciously laid out,
handsomely, ornamented and care
fully kept in good order are amongst the
highest evidences Of refined and well culti-
waited Christian sense amongst the living Land
we are happy to see of late years, an increas-
ing interest and an improved taste manifest
ed amongst us to beautify the resting places
of the loved and lost OF earth. They are rin-
der the blessed light of ofChristianity, the places
of Hope; and no design, therefore, fostering
the spirit of sadness, of gloom or of despair,
should ever be permitted to enter them.
We know already many public graveyards in
our country towns, which by the improve
ments which both ladies and gentlemen have
made upon them, are as beautiful as miniature
Mount Auburn. We hope every town will
have its annual Fair to raise the means of or
and keeping in repair their settles
of the dead"