90 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[March, 



one of the oldest settlements in the United 

 States, and, though bearing an air of moderate 

 comfort in all its surroundings, has yet a popu- 

 lation of probably not more than 8000. Yet 

 though not a very large town, its inhabitants 

 have always had a taste for tree planting, and 

 these trees, so many of mature age, growing in 

 many cases far up above the houses, give the 

 town from the point I am speaking, a particular 

 air of beauty I have seldom seen when looking 

 down from some height on other and more re- 

 cent places. The town has long been famous 

 for its schools ; for here education has been in 

 some measure divested of fashionable follies 

 which seem inseparable from school life near 

 more pretentious cities, and for this reason has 

 been very acceptable to some. Kumbers of ex- 

 cellent ladies all over the Union boast of their 

 education at Bethlehem, and though first-class 

 schools of the plainer sort have been estab- 

 lished in other places, and thus now compete 

 with the older ones of Bethlehem, somewhat to 

 its disadvantage, they are still popular ; some 

 100 being in one which I had the pleasure to 

 visit. Boys will in the future have an equal 

 chance with girls to boast of Bethlehem, since 

 the University of which I am now speaking, 

 and of which this library is a part, was founded 

 by Judge Asa Packer. Starting in life with but 

 a limited education, like many of his class he 

 believed that if he had had more he would have 

 been more useful ; hence it is very natural that 

 in his desire to show his gratitude to that hu- 

 manity on which he throve, he should see no 

 better way than to give to others forever the 

 advantages of which he himself was deprived. 

 Unfortunately that which comes easy is not 

 often valued, and I could not but wonder how 

 many of the boys I saw studying here at almost 

 no cost, would prove Packers in their turn. 

 Still as one cannot take their riches with them, 

 and most will want to dispose of their treasures 

 where they will do the most good, what is more 

 likely to be of service than institutions where 

 ignorance may be dispelled, the poor or the 

 suffering have their wants relieved, or where 

 the young and unthinking may learn to become 

 self-reliant, and do good to their less fortunate 

 fellow creatures in turn ? 



The Lucy Linderman Library is another ex- 

 cellent idea. It is a monument erected by a 

 gentleman to the memory of his wife. It is 

 filled with a great number of excellent books, 

 and many young men were in it studying at the 



time of my visit. How much more sensible are 

 useful monuments like these, and how much more 

 enduring, than the huge piles of cemetery marble 

 which oflend the eyes of people of taste and senti- 

 ment all over the land. The grounds around 

 the Institution are being laid out in an ex- 

 cellent manner by Mr. Chas. H. Miller, of 

 Philadelphia, and will do full credit when com- 

 pleted to the tasteful architecture of the Uni- 

 versity buildings. 



Bethlehem is not only remarkable for its 

 well planted streets and " yards," but for its 

 remarkable success in window gardening. I do 

 not remember to have seen any town in which 

 so many houses had window flowers. In most 

 large cities, and in the newer cities that envy 

 the larger ones, the houses of the wealthier are 

 kept dark most of the year round. In the Sum- 

 mer the best rooms are closed to keep out 

 the sun, and in the Winter are so encumbered 

 by upholstery, that although the windows are 

 large enough, only a few square feet of glass 

 get the opportunity to light the room. They 

 are made to look well by gas light, and people 

 rarely go into them by day. But the middle 

 and poorer classes who mostly have houses in 

 order to enjoy life with their own families, are 

 the chief ones who have their rooms gay with 

 plants and flowers, and which keep out the sun 

 and bright light quite as well as the upholsterer's 

 art can do. This the Bethlehem people seem to 

 understand, for, as I have said, window flowers 

 are everywhere, — in the houses of the very rich, 

 as well as in those of the very poor. It was in- 

 deed a very pleasant sight for one from a fashion- 

 slave city to enjoy. 



Many of the richer people however arrange 

 then- plants in side rooms specially constructed 

 for flowers. Small conservatories they are in 

 fact. A very neat one of this sort I had the 

 pleasure to see attached to the house of Dr. 

 Linderman. I suppose it was not more than ten 

 feet square ; but the tubs of oranges and lemons, 

 agaves and yuccas, and similar plants, used for 

 summer decoration, were so arranged that it 

 looked very much larger. In it was a small 

 fountain with aquatics, ferns, fish, and other at- 

 tractions for the partially shaded places, and 

 those which flowered and needed more light 

 were arranged around the windows on the sides. 

 A door opened into the dining room at one end, 

 and another on the opposite side to some 

 kitchen offices by which the conservatory could 

 be reached by the gardener without having to 



