The Newtown bee., 1893-08-25
Editorial Ink Drops.
WHO WILL KEEP MY GRAVE GREEN. D

A great many people have heard or read the sentence, "I am forgotten as @ dead man out of mind." But few appreciate the sad ness and the mournfulness of the fact of for gettulness concerning the dead until they look at the way some of the cemeteries in our country towns are neglected. If men were to depend for tame on what was written on their tomb-stones, they would speedily find that their tomb b-stones were hard to find if located fin some of our cemeteries, Take as an in stance the burying ground which lies between the Brooktield Iron Works and South Lanes vile. The brush and trees have so filled the yard that the stones are hardly discernable, while many Of the stones have toppled over and are being covered with moss and brush, thus covering the inscriptions. Now in civil ized Christian communities which believe in the resurrection of the dead, such thing is a disgrace to the living and a dishonor to the noble dead. For while many of these fathers and mothers in Israel whose graves are thus neglected were not famous the world over, they did serve God and their generation no ply ana were the builders or the hutloH' Hence their ashes deserve a better care.
 The cemetery noted is only one of many which any peripatetic editor will observe as he walks in the valley and among the hills of the Housatonic. And the question is why do people SO neglect the resting place of their dead2 There are to be sure many eNtenua- ting circumstances in the case. It has often happened that every member of certain tam flies has either died or left the place where rests the ashes Of their friends. Other people feel as though 1t was almost sacrilege to touch the graves Of people not relatives to them. So as a rule the brush grows up, the tomb stones topple and fall and chaos reigns. Be sides in many of our communities the spirit of public improvement has not been tostered and the people have lived on the principle that 1t was every man for himself and let Fate catch the unfortunate. In such Il condition of things when even living neighbors have been neglected because of quarrels and family feuds,ht is not to be wondered at that the graves Of the dead have been neglected.
 In this season of the year when the farmers are finishing up odd jobs before the fall work TIE BEE would like to start crusade in all our towns for u better care of the resting places of the dead. There ought to be a sys tematic effort on the part of those who are d all alive to care for the memory and the graves of the dead. Two or three things arc suggested; Let the men of the school dis triata bara t,ara ara ,,,aat on I a Dor day, September l, and with scythe and ax' and hammer mow the yard, cut the brush ant fix up the fences. Let committee be appoin ted in every town of earnest, active men ant women and let them do what they can this iall by personal correspondence with former residents to get them to raise a fund for tn, care of the graves Of their friends.
 Where the towns control the burying place: of the community get them to appropriate 6 small sum every year for the care of this part oftheir property. And above all let each man woman and child follow the noble example ot the old soldiers and devote Memorial Day May 30, to caring for the graves of theil friends. Also the people who have prop erty, let their attention be drawn to the matter that they may leave a small amount in theil wills for the perpetual care ofthe cemetery ir whick their bones rest. In this way and by these means one of the disgraceful sights in too many of our communities might be for ever done away with, and the Gods Acres O our towns become places of beauty and an ob iect lesson for the whole community.