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    It has been our purpose for several days to call attention to the letter of Dr. S.M. Ford, Secretary of the Board of Health, addressed to our City Council at its last meeting. There was much matter and suggestions in that document of sanitary importance to this public in general, where this subject has been brought to the surface again in regard to the vault in Springdale Cemetery and the relation it bears in its deleterious sanitary condition.
   In the first place, that vault it [sic] entirely private property. The ground upon which it stands was bought by Mr. John Marks, then sexton of the cemetery, thirty odd years ago. He built the vault, not for private use, but as a vehicle of profit and gain in receiving dead bodies as storage, and charging and collecting fees in that line. It has continued in that use solely from the time of its erection, and is still devoted to that purpose. Now there are many points of significance and public bearing in reference to this vault. The city has no ownership or control of it to any extent. Mrs. Scheibblevein, who was first the wife of Mr. Marks, owns the vault, and she receives all the rents and profits accruing from it. Dr. Ford, the Secretary of the Board of Health, says there are now eleven bodies in the vault, some of which have been there at least two years. We know this to be a fact, and they are piled one on top of the other in a repulsive mass. For handling those dead bodies the owner of the vault gets three dollars in fees for the first month and fifty cents a month so long as they remain there afterward. The city gets nothing. But if it happens, as now it is about to happen, the city or township causes the removal and interment of those defunct bodies, then the township trustee has to issue his order covering all the expenses of the interment of those bodies. The private owners of the vault, who have received all the emoluments for its use, are placed at no expense whatever. This opens a broad question. There should be no private vault in a public cemetery used in any such way. If the city or the township is ultimately responsible for the expense of the burial of the contents of that vault, then they should control that dead house entirely. The tax-payers should not be left in the position they are now. And furthermore, the vault we regard as entirely unfit and unsuited for the purpose for which it is now used. Where the bodies are deposited is simply a square shallow cellar, and the bodies are placed on top of each other. The upper part is in an open condition, and permits all the noxious gases to pass out.
    The letter of Dr. Ford is an excellent one, and we are glad he has brought the subject up in the manner he has, but we think he has overlooked a fact which is apparent and convincing to us. All the noxious and poisonous gases in a dead body accumulate and explode within a month after death. Within or about that time gaseous combustion takes place and the body collapses, and no harm in a sanitary way may be expected afterward. Therefore the bodies should not be permitted to remain in the present recepticle in such a critical period. We are writing in only one line of duty, and that is towards the public. We have no interest in this matter beyond that. We throw out these suggestions for general reflection. We are glad the Secretary of the Board of Health has brought these things before us, and given us this opportunity to present them to the public.

    The article in THE COURIER of last Saturday in reference to the vault in Springdale Cemetery used as a public recepticle for storing the dead before ultimate interment, has created much notice and comment. It was not our intention to stir up any excitement by the article. It was a matter of inherent public interest, which we thought it our duty to take up for comment. Since the appearance of our article of last Saturday, we have called on Mrs. Sheibllevein, the owner of the vault in Springdale Cemetery, and she informs THE COURIER reporter that the statement in regard to the charge of three dollars for the first month's storage of a corpse in the vault is incorrect in supposing that she gets all of that money. She informed the reporter that the statement that three dollars was charged for the first months' storage of the body was no doubt correct, but she got only one dollar of it, and the other two dollars must certainly go to the sexton of the cemetery for handling the body. She was well satisfied with the statement in THE COURIER last Saturday except the inference that she charged three dollars for the first month's care of a dead body and only fifty cents for each succeeding month so long as it remained there. She says the extra charge of two dollars goes to other parties. She says the vault returns to her very little money. Many bodies goes into it and remain there a long line of months for which she gets no pay whatever. The friends of some of the deceased are so poor that they cannot pay anything. She says she has no control over the vault; does not keep the keys; the sexton of the yard keeps the keys, takes care of the bodies placed in the vault and pays to her what he can collect at the rate of fifty cents a month. The sexton, or the city, uses the upper part of the vault as a storage room for tools, implements, and any other purposes convenient to them, for which she gets nothing. She recently spent sixteen dollars on the vault out of her own funds, for which it will be a long time before the vault will remunerate her. She does not consider the vault a comfort to her in the way of pecuniary gain.
    THE COURIER reporter interviewed Township Trustee Dorsey this morning in regard to the interment of the dead bodies from the vault. He said he had not issued any orders as yet for the expense of placing the bodies in graves, but that he had directed the Sexton of the Cemetery to have them interred and bring in a bill of expenses to him. He said the cost would be three dollars for each grave, and no more. The township was bound to go that far and no further. It is well that this whole matter has been brought before the public, as it will enable our citizens to understand it, and will be productive of good.