The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-11-06

grounds with rows of even white mark
ers flush with the ground instead of
the jagged spectre like lines made
by shafts of all sizes and mounds
which cannot be moved and which,
therefore, cannot be kept in perfect
condition. In our national cemeteries,
where the proposed system prevails,
Its superiority is shown, as no burial
grounds are more beautiful than those
IN which the nations heroes rest.
The no monument, no mound plan
has been adopted in cemetery in
Cleveland, Ohio. and the result has
been most convincing of it's superiorl-
~. Greenwood Cemetery. Brooklyn.
has long been regarded as the most
beautiful of the older cities of the
dead. yet sterioptican slides show that
IN comparison with the tievelond
Cemetery. it looks like a marble yard.
With level ground and no Enclosure
of lots, the whole cemetery could be
moved and Kept in perfect condition.
Display at a cemetery is out OF place
and in time the partons of the burial
ground companies may be convinced
of this and converted to the marker
system
The tall ghost-like. slab grave
|
times, when in the rough. undevelop.
ed country of those times, modern
beautifully developed parks and Gene
teries we're not thought of and the
people buried their dead in any out
Of-the-Way place and marked the
graves with wooden slabs, that they
might not be lost among the tall
growing grass and weeds. The mod
ern raised headstone is but modi-
fication of it's ancient prototype and
the custom of marking graves with
headstones, undoubtedly, began in this
way.
Had those ancient people commence
ed burying their dead in park like
cemeteries like those of modern times
they would not have thought it neces-
~0'-- - ~'a~k thoi" graves in the way
indicated, nor indeed, marred the
5uautv of their cemeteries by the
erection of such slabs and then the
raised headstone would have been an
unknown thing.
The idea of the tall mound arose
out of the same causes that gave to
the headstone. A glance at the tall
ugly mounds in regular order makes
one shudder as much as if they were
so many corpses lying in full view.
How much more agreeable to the hui
man senses would be the appearance
of this view if all those graves were
Just raised trife, with the grass
growing green and closely moved
and here and there clumps of shrub
berry to break the landscape Did any
one ever see a tall mound nice and
green in the hot summer months :?
Tall mounds always look more dried
out than the surrounding lawn. An
other cbjectionabl feature of the old
style cemeteries is the Enclosure of
lots by placing coping around the
edge of each lot. This idea had it's
origin in the rural districts where
cattle. roamed and to protect the
graves picket fence was built
around them. The progressive ide~
being to mark off and distinguish
each lot by placing flush with the
ground small marble post at the
corner of each lot. Carved in the
top of each post is the lot number
mits of the easily kept beautiful law
which is always pleasing and attrac-
tive.
Is it then a senseless fad or hobby
which persuades the superintendent
to keep out these disagreeable fea-
lures in a cemetery? Isn't it rather
in keeping with the progress of mod
ern civilization? We don't generally
fence in our houses and yards any
more, simply because our forefathers
did to keep out Indians and intruders,
neither do we carry guns to church
with us. as they did, to be prepared
for Indian attacks. Those and other
conditions of crude civilization have
disappeared and the cus.o-~e which
disappeared with them and given way