The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-03-20
CEMETERIES.

Read before the Lyon County Horti-
cultural Society, March IA, 1874, by
Rev. w. E. Copeland:
The ancient, and it seems to me the
better custom, was to burn the body
after life had departed; the ashes
placed in urns was afterwards careful
ly preserved, and we were saved from
the always sad spectacle of the body
shrouded and cramped within the mar
row coffin. We were spared the re-
voting thought of the body preyed
upon and devoured by worms. Moth
ing impure and unclean touched the
bodies which once contained the souls
we loved. But gradually has grown
become universal among all races.
Perhaps it has some connection with
the doctrine taught by some that the
body is to be raised; and at first it
seems a good custom to preserve the
body so that ittnay bs ready for use
when the last trump sounds. But
when we remember that the body, in
the course OF ages, becomes entirely
absorbed into other bodies, the argu-
ment loses its force, and more particles
are preserved in the urn than in the
grave.
The old idea, taught by the Mani
cheans, was, that the body Was the
source OF all evil and we were well
rid of it. This seems to be in the
minds of many when they select n
place for grave yard and to influence
them in their attention to the place Sc
lected. A bleak, barren hill top, en-
closed with cheap fence, where weeds
and rank grass grow, is the burial
place. Death seems to many the most
terrible of events. The funeral is
made Us gloomy as possible, the most
revolving incidents attend it, and the
place where the body is. laid is the
most dreary to be found. This idea,
borrowed from the Pagans, has no
place in christian practice; death is
but the beginning of more glorious
life, and the entrance to a more beau
tiful world. Better the Chinese Gus
tom of dressing in white and celebrat-
ing the souls entrance into the world
of spirits almost with rejoicing. At
all events, there is no need of making
the grave yard a rcpulsive place, dis
agreeable to see, Il terror to the chill
drcn, q blot on the surface of the cOun-
try. If we cannot have Lha crema-
refine Of the ancients wherc the funeral
urns were placed, we can at least make
the burial place attractive. hail the
use of the word cemetery instead of
graveyard; it means n place beautiful
to see, where we delight to go aud take
our friends.
In the east every city and most
towns have now cemeteries, laid out
with care, placed in beautiful situa-
ton, planted with choice trees and
adorned with flowers. Some of these
cemeteri es are the most beautiful spots
in the neighboThood OF the city, as
they should be. Greenwood, Laural
Hall, Mt. Auburn call to mind natural
groves improved by art until they ex-
Gel in beauty the most carefully kept
park of noblenan or prince. Ny pur-
pose in addressing this society on the
subject of cemeteries is first through it
to awaken an interest among the citi-
zens of Emporia in the selecting of an
appropriate place for a cemetery and
in the adjoining it so that in the future
it may become q park to which we
shall be always glad to go, and where
we shall be pleased to lay away the
bodies of our friends, and secondly, to
induce the people living in the country
to make the neighborhood burial
places not dreary blots on the beauty
of nature, but ornaments.
4 little time and slight expense will
accomplish this transformation. That
is, so far rs neighborhood cemeteries
are concerned. Surround the ground
chosen with hedge; plant on it quick
growing trees and lowering shrubs /;
soon you win have 4 spot always beau
tiful and attractive, which win seem
like n pleasant garden rather than a
dreaded burial place. Every COM
mIInity can thus make = cemetery
which, as the years pass on, in this
prairie country, at least, will be the
most beautiful spot in the neighbor-
hood.
The cemetery of n city must be a
more ambitious affair, larger in extent,
more money must be invested and
more time spent in its adornment. A
neat fence should be placed around the
land selected, walks and drives ar
ranged under the direction of COM
petent landscape gardener; trees must
be planted and gardens arranged.
This will of course cost money, but l
know of no direction in which money
can be better invested. To change
an unsightly spot, now neglected, and
to children terror, into a garden or
namented and attractive to young and
old, growing more beautiful as the
years pass, is surely good work.
Nothing bespeaks the humanity and