many a rural community.
If the fighting spirit of the past can be enlisted in a well-rounded
program for social welfare in every community where there is a Union,
this organization will continue to be a powerful factor in uniting the
women in many a rural community.

_The Cemetery Association._--Finally, the influence of the Cemetery
Association as a community organization, should not be overlooked. The
"Friendship Village Married Ladies' Cemetery Improvement Sodality,"
which Miss Gale has made famous in her delightful stories of village
life,[71] well illustrates the influences which have been started by
many a cemetery association. Not infrequently the one thing which
evinces some civic pride in an otherwise stagnant community is its
well-kept cemetery. The condition of the cemetery is a good index of
community spirit. When people neglect the resting place of their dead
they are not apt to do much for the living. But once arouse a feeling of
shame for such neglect and the effort to clean up and beautify the
cemetery has often brought all elements of the community into a common
loyalty as nothing else could do, and the satisfaction from such an
achievement may sufficiently stir community pride as to encourage other
enterprises.

The cemetery itself has a not inconsiderable influence in bringing about
the integration of the rural community. In early days every farm had its
own burying lot. Nothing is more pathetic than the abandoned burying
lots--often two or three of them--on many a New England farm. In many
cases rural neighborhoods have had a local cemetery by the country
church or district school. These, too, are increasingly neglected. On
the other hand the village cemetery is more largely used merely because
more assurance is felt in its permanent maintenance. It needs no
argument from history or from the customs of other lands, to show that
the people who bury their dead in the same place are bound together by
the most sacred ties, and that the cemetery which serves the whole
community is one of its primary bonds.

FOOTNOTES:

[68] "The Community," p. 119. New York, Association Press. 1921.

[69] See T. C. Atkeson, "Semi-centennial History of the Grange." New
York. Orange Judd Co.

[70] In "The Country Gentleman." Oct. 8, 1921, p. 17.

[71] Zona Gale, "Friendship Village"; "Friendship Village Love Stories";
"Peace in Friendship Village." New York. Macmillan Co.

CHAPTER XV

THE COMMUNITY'S DEPE