| Show fc JJ l arlu te dt lc CEN a r 1 P C ofa cJ il fefe P ef J i c t Ultra Modern d C GEME M TERY H S Family nR c R sl 7 1 HY BY should not our cemeteries be something something some some- W WHY thin thing more than the mere resting places of our OUI bones bones' The savage tribes of Borneo Bor Bor- Borneo neo bury their dead with quite as much ceremony AS that with which we escort the remains of those dearest to us to the grave They erect sticks over 1 those these burial places and they soon forget them just lust as we do Who has not hunted in vain through a great cemetery for some granite shaft that looks almost like scores of others but which is precious because because be be- bey cause it witnesses the spot where some earthly form loved when alive disappeared forever int into the earth from which it came Scattered in more or less or orderly erly groups over a hillside lie these spots each sacred to some one each ach visited p perhaps perhaps per per- er- er haps on birthdays or marriage days by the living souls in whose memory the image that lies buried is fe slowly fading T The theories of or de descent cent and of or the continuity 1 i i of the germ have brou brought ht the realization J that the living descendants of the dead are imI imperishable imperishable im im- I perishable parts of them which go on living on t- t this earth and ar are an e extension tension a projection of ot the life which sho shone e out through the eyes and found expression sion in the voices of forms which lie liec c buried beneath the cemetery sod To know to understand those who arc are living we must know about the dead who bore them It is not only the i very Y few distinguished members of a family who vho J leave Jel their mark mak upon their descendants we are f JU just as n much uch influenced by tho those e who live their s' s i lives i q quietly and having done nothing spectacular 3 jai Ins pass n na away a without leaving lea any account of t. R themselves in literature or art or business F The growing conviction that we cannot understand understand un un- t p people oI le unless unless we k know ow their ancestry t. t writes David and Marian Fairchild in The Jour- Jour b 1 tai 1 of Heredity is making it more and more mora 4 ry that the records record s of our ancestors ber bo be I r r kept Jept but wr where re The mot most sacred spot appears INa 4 t to to-be to be bc that beneath which they Ware are ire buried but r. as a t the c graveyard is organized today this sp spot t re re- H I thin thin- whatever teaches whatever teaches nothing Ned Ni-eil fJ i i i 1 ti i r r 4 I f I f h thi this be so Need ou our our graveyards be so far a aa as s teaching is concern concerned d as silent as the barbaric graveyards of the thc savage tribes Can we not arrange arrange arrange ar ar- ar- ar range to have ave th them thiem m instead storehouses of all possible irl information about the dead who are in them 4 The Pharaohs of Egypt thought to live on into eternity and day by day built their tombs more deeply into inter the solid rock inscribing an on n the walls their deeds They left accounts of themselves themselves themselves them them- selves which thousands o of years later have bave been deciphered and have ha revealed th their ir lives lies What they did years ago and for a different reason reason rea rea- son Eon and at great reat expense th the poorest of us now might do leaving our images in the silver of photo photographic prints and accounts of what we did and who we were to guide mankind in its lon long studies of that great science of inheritance What it required hundreds of slaves to accomplish in inthe inthe inthe the days of the Pharaohs the printing press and the camera can do for us all This record of life is made for many of ua us but th accounts are scattered after we arc dead and our graveyards instead of being the places where our deeds are arc recorded and where those imperishable shadows our photographs may be bo teen seen arc are cold dreary silent and speechless We Ve cannot help feeling that those who con con- our cemeteries have an opportunity here to exert a truly great influence for the betterment of our race If they should gather for all who are buried in their confines all the data available at the time of the persons person's death including photographs photographs photographs photo photo- graphs and store stoic this thi data as our libraries store books book boo having it in shape for easy display would not such places become the centres of information regarding the stocks from which we C came A system of c. c exchange change could easily be worked out which would make it possible to trace the heredity heredi heredi- ty of all nIl i There comes to most of us at some time the desire to se see where our ancestors arc are buried and r r 1 I F 1 5 fw M il- il Js x l i if X fr M. M v s i I i r fIU Architects Architect's Drawing Shows the Ultra UHra Ultra Modern Modern Cemetery as a Cluster of Beautiful Buildings in Which Priceless Priceless' Family Records Are Arc Stored in Readily Accessible Fireproof Vaults P nr Sn kt e e. e 1010 1020 1 S we go to some village cemetery or perhaps to some little churchyard abroad and succeed in finding finding finding find find- ing the gravestones Perhaps in the church warden wardens warden's wardens warden's war- war den dens den's s registry or the town clerks clerk's office we find i recorded the birth or marriage or death of some someone someone someone one of our name What a satisfaction it would be if instead we could go into some quiet room and md have bro brought t to us to look at to hold in our hands and md to show to our children the tho actual s photographs of our forefathers the accounts of ot what they had done and incidents of their lives Let fiLet us picture in our Imaginations such a a graveyard as could be made providing someone who could do it were convinced of its value Somewhere in it there would be a beautiful Build Building build build- ing ing-as ing as beautiful as art can make it and it-and and in it ita ita ita a seri series s of halls with alcoves and quiet places like a n great library Instead of books however here here would be stored away in fireproof vaults vaulti the priceless records of the men and women women- the he families who families who lie He buried in the cemetery and at a any time these would be available to any ono ona who had a right to them and they could be taken into one of the rooms or oral alcoves o es to be looked over There would be quiet reading rooms and special viewing contrivances where mO moving mOng ng pic- pic tares tUles of families could be seen and places place fitted 1 up so that phonographic records of the voices at atthe atthe atthe the past could be heard There would he be photo photo- photographs photographs graphs and accounts also of the uncles and aunts and of the little children who died young so that we ve could get an actual tangible idea of at the fam ily fly It would help us realize our place in in the bD family and our responsibility to it There need be noth nothing ng dreary or morbid about such Mich a n place indeed if it were so the whole object would woul be defeated It should p be the natural place puce to which one would take visiting relatives and these who were coming into the family by marriage and the children would go too and realize that it means something to belong to a family that it is a pleasant thing t to be proud pi of or ones one's family and that one would like to add to t to tl the o family prestige go oneself r I |
