August 31, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



293 



Dreers Specml Offer 



OF ARAUCARIAS 



Our stock of Araucarias is exceptionally fine this season, the plants are well 

 hardened off and if you anticipate to lay in a supply, now is the time to buy. 

 We are in position at pressnt time to give you much better values than after the 

 plants are placed in winter quarters. 



ARAUCARIA EXCELSA 



4 inch pots, 6 to 7 inches high, 2 tiers 35 cents each 



5 " " iotoi2 " " 3 " 65 " " 



6 " " 12 to 14 " " 3104 " 75 " " 



6 " " 14 to 16 " " 4 " $1.00 



6 " " 16 to 18 " " 4 " 1.25 " 



ARAUCARIA EXCELSA CLAUCA 



5 inch pots, S inches high, 2 tiers $0.75 each 



^6,". " 12 " " 3 " 1. 00 " 



'6""f' " 131015 " " 3 " 1.25 '• 



ARAUCARIA ROBUSTA COMPACTA 



6 inch pots, 10 to 12 inches high, 2 to 3 tiers .$1.25 each 



6 " " 141016 " " 3 " 1.50 " 



For a complete list of Decorative Plants as well as a full line of other seasonable 

 stock in P.ants, Bulbs and Seeds see ourcew Wholesale List issued September 1st- 



HENRY A. DREER, 7 1 4 Chestnut St. , Philadelphia, Pa. 



of the people who need them the most. 

 Large parks are all right, but unless 

 they are within easy reach of the 

 poorer classes, they will be compara- 

 tively little benefited by them. 

 Twenty-five or fifty cents are soon 

 spent for ear fare alone by even a 

 small family for occasional visits, 

 while they ought to he able to get the 

 benefit of such a breathing spot at no 

 cost, and at all limes within easy walk- 

 ing distance. 



The up-to-date neighborhood park of 

 today embraces more than well kept 

 lawns, attractive flower-beds, screen- 

 ing shrubbery plantations, shady walks 

 and rest-inviting settees. Some of the 

 most useful innovations are the play- 

 grounds, in and outdoor gymnasiums 

 wading and swimming pools, etc., and 

 in some systems of our larger cities, 

 we find libraiies, reading, club and 

 meeting rooms, indoor swimming 

 pools, baths and shower-baths, etc., 

 and the regularity with which they are 

 visited by numberless thousands the 

 year in and out. since their inaugura- 

 tion, shows convincingly that they fill 

 a pressing demand and receive thank- 

 ful appreciation. 



The larger parks of most cities are 

 equipped with bandstands, and con- 

 certs are given at frequent intervals, if 

 not every day during the summer sea- 

 son. Those concerts ought to be free to 

 everyone everywhere, but I want to go 

 further than that and say that such 

 concerts ou,ght to be given at such 

 neighborhood parks as often as pos- 

 sible. Of course it will be impossible, 

 and it is by uo means necessary, that 

 such concerts be given every night. 

 but if they could be had one a week or 

 so, it would give a lot of pleasure and 

 untold happiness to a class of people 

 who have not the time nor the means 

 to attend such concerts in parks far 

 from their homes. Such musical en- 

 tertainments bring together all the 

 families of entire neighborhoods. They 

 will come, young and old, and they 

 will feel that in their neighborhood 



park, they have an institution that is 

 worthy of their appreciation, support 

 and care. They will look forward to 

 those concerts as a large joyful fam- 

 ily gatherin.g and they will go home 

 each time happier and elated, because 

 we are all susceptible to the tender, 

 inspiring influence of music and forget, 

 under same, our cares and worries, and 

 become happy and joyful. It will 

 bring the love for music to every home 

 and make them happier; it will mean 



Theodore Wirth 



musical education for the masses for 

 the love of music itself. 



Such concerts in local parks do not 

 call for an extra large expense, for it 

 is not necessary that each park be 

 equiijped with a costly bandstand; in 

 fact such structures may well be 

 avoided, for they are, under the very 

 best conditions, no ornament to any 

 park. The main thing is a well or- 

 ganized band of good musicians who 

 are willing to play wherever the band- 

 stand is erected. The latter can be 



movt=c; from park to park, and need not 

 be ■iery cumbersome. 



We have tried the experiment of 

 such free concerts in our small parks 

 in Minneapolis this season. 



It has been a constant pleasure to 

 tne to observe the enthusiastic enjoy- 

 ment of the music by the thousands 

 who have attended every concert. This 

 is particularly true of those given In 

 outlying parks, in parts of th* city 

 remote from its center of entertain- 

 ment, populated by people whose in- 

 come will not permit the expenditure 

 of much money for amusement, and 

 whoso undirected tastes would lead 

 them to spend what little they might 

 afford on enteitainments of mediocre 

 it not of dehasing quality. The free 

 concerts have temporarily depopulated 

 the neighborhoods in which they were 

 given. Everyone came to the park 

 to hear the band — fathers and mothers, 

 grandfathers and grandmothers, young 

 men with their sweethearts and in- 

 numerable children in assorted sizes. 

 Their attention to the music was closer 

 than that of the more cultivated audi- 

 ences at Lake Harriet, their applause 

 more enthusiastic and their pleasure 

 franker and more apparent. Sordid 

 cares were forgotten under the spell 

 of outdoor music on a summer night 

 The programs have been of standard 

 and light music and many of the stand- 

 ard works have proved themselves 

 favorites. 



The chief purpose of the concerts, of 

 course, has been to imt>a.rt pleasures, 

 and in this alone they have repaid 

 over and over again the expense of 

 giving them. They will have, further- 

 more, two secondary or future ef- 

 fect?, which cannot be calculated, but 

 which may be considered as interest on 

 investment. One of these is their 

 educational and refining influence, and 

 (he other is the popularizing of the 

 parks by bringing to many people a 

 first realization of their beauty and 

 of their resources as places of recrea- 

 tion. 



