Our Town Cemetery.

The attention of the incoming Town Council for the present year is earnestly called to the condition of our cemetery, and to the taking of immediate steps to put it in such condition as becomes a civilized and Christian people.  The site which has been selected and used for many years, is beyond doubt the most convenient and eligible position.  Lying on an elevated plateau, between the State and Cartersville & Van Wert R. R., and overlooking the Fair grounds, easily approached, and visible from all points of the compass, it is, from its location and surroundings, capable of being made a most charming and sacredly lovely spot.—Conveniently situated in proximity to the settled portions of the town, neither too near nor too far removed, it may be made, and if the proper steps are taken, it will be made an ornament to our place, and a credit to our taste and our humanity.  As it is, it is a disgrace to our civilization, and tells a sad tale for regard for our buried dead.  No order has ever been had in the burying of the departed.  Here and there they lie in promiscuous confusion, all in the underbrush and uncleaned woods, tangled thickets, decaying logs and unsightly stones, stranger lying by the side of stranger, and friends sleeping apart from friends, and the whole ground unenclosed and open to the tread of the beasts of the field, and the uprooting of the very swine.—Really it is almost against humanity itself, to suffer such things to be; it is too bad.  This state of things has been observed and talked of by almost everyone of us, and yet very little if anything has been done towards correcting the evil.  It ought to be remedied at once, and it is desired on all hands that the board of councilmen elected, will, without delay, proceed as soon as they may be in office, to the discharge of a duty which Christian intelligence and the commonest affection points out as absolutely imperative.  Let the best judgment be displayed in the case, and let it go into instant operation.  Allow us, then, to suggest that the Council have the whole ground surveyed and divided into lots of the proper size for families, some larger, some smaller, with proper room or walks between them and let the Council then offer these for sale to our citizens, giving the purchaser a title to his lot.  As it is, you may go and bury your wife or child there, and any one may come and bury on each side of them, thus precluding the possibility and propriety of burying any other members of your families by their sides.  Any one can bury anywhere, because each one has the same right to each portion of the grounds that every other person has, and no one could have the right to object.  Nay, if you were to go and pale in any portion of the ground, and there deposit your dead, any person would have the right to go within the enclosure which you had put up, and bury there whom they pleased.—This ought not to be, and the only way in which such utter confusion can be prevented, is by giving the legal title of these lots to purchasers.  There are many persons at this time anxious to purchase.  The sale of the lots would raise the money going largely to defray all expenses of the Corporation on this behalf, and a work will have been accomplished, which a little reflection will approve as altogether proper and right.  In addition to this, let the whole of the grounds be surrounded with a neat and substantial railing, forever securing the last resting places of those silent sleepers, our beloved dead, our husbands, wives and little ones from all rude intrusion.  We can then improve each lot as we may desire, erect our monuments to departed worth, testify our love to the lost by the sweet flowers and shrubbery that shall adorn their dreamless beds, and make this spot as lovely to the eye as it shall be dear to all our hearts.  It is shameful that the Fair grounds designed for the exhibition of beasts, should be so tastefully arranged, while just outside of its beautiful railings, be all exposed and uncared for, those who once nestled in our bosoms or played around our knees.  Come then, gentlemen, right up this work at once, instantly without delay, and have it done, and done well, and you will meet the approval of every man and woman in this community, who is worthy of the name of Christian, and our word for it, if any man should object, he would be ashamed to let it be known.  The very heathen would, and do, do better.

If there should be any too poor to buy a lot, then, if you please, reserve such space in the grounds, to be considered free, as may be necessary, and leave every one at his or her option, to buy or not to buy.

We conclude this earnest appeal with the remark that we are satisfied that the object here sought is desired by, we may say, the whole population of Cartersville, to-wit: a decent care for the remains of the dead.  It is your duty to see that care should be given, because you, and you only, have the power.  Will you do it?