1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



•MZ 



DISGRACEFUL PUBLIC PARKS 



In the Xovember number of the Gardener's 

 Monthly I was much interested. After havinfj 

 taken a walk with you from the Chinese pagoda 

 down and around Kew Gardens and through the 

 park in Paris^, I felt just beside you as you sat 

 down upon the round stump in that Philadelphia 

 square and took good heed as you began to look 

 around you and repeat " because the park was 

 now wholly run in the interest of politicians," 

 and I would just ask you Mr. Editor, where is 

 the public business in this great America of 

 ours that is not to-day run by politicians? And 

 while 3fou " blame that system which makes such 

 a success to individual effort possible," how 

 is it in the present state of the morals of the 

 country to be prevented? Your perception, Mr. 

 Editor is not so blunted, but that with your ex- 

 perience you can comprehend the whole situa- 

 tion at a glance. Being in Kew York in 1842, 

 I called upon an Irish friend who was a house 

 painter, and after inquiring how he was getting 

 along, he said that at the present time that he 

 was doing very well, but that for a long lime 

 after he came to Kew York he had fared badly. 

 In giving bids for jobs he said that some how or 

 other he was always unfortunate, some one or 

 other was sure to head him off. Complaining 

 one day to a friend, he was told that if he went 

 and joined a certain Odd Fellow lodge he would 

 no longer have any complaint against his bad 

 luck. He said that he had done so, and in his 

 experience had found that it was impossible for 

 any man in Kew York except that he belonged 

 to a secret oath-bound society (Masons or Odd 

 Fellows) to get any office of profit; not even, he 

 said, charge of a squad of street scrapers. Se- 

 cret societies hold every office of profit in Pitts- 

 burg, and I believe over the nation from Presi- 

 dent down. But I may be in my innocence writ- 

 ing to a brother of the " mystic tie." There is 

 however one thing sure that your expressed 

 opinion is correct, as to having the right man in 

 the right place, and that no superintendent of 

 public works is dealing honestly with the public 

 who pays worthless hands ; but let you be what 

 you may, I believe you to be an honest man 

 who despises all trickery. 



[The editor has a high regard for " mystic " 

 members. He is not a member of any one of 

 these bodies, and yet he has been elected to po- 

 litical office. Once on a time it was urged on 



him to accept a nomination for a leading office 

 under the city government of Philadelphia, es- 

 pecially in view of this very question of public 

 parks, on which it was supposed he might have 

 some direct inlluence. For this reason, and this 

 alone, he consented to be a candidate. He was 

 nominated for the position with no thought on 

 the part of the political body that nominated 

 him that he was not "an Odd Fellow," a 

 " Mason " or any other thing. In fact the edi- 

 tor can speak from personal experience, having 

 made politics a study in science as well as some 

 other things, that the question of public otflce 

 is one of hard work and industry. The nice 

 good man who wants to have nice good public 

 parks and gardens, and "good men and true" 

 to manage them, will never accomplish his pur- 

 pose by sitting down in his library and giving a 

 growl. While he is sighing and sorrowing, the 

 other fellow is out and around talking with and 

 influencing voters, and will beat the nice good 

 man every time. A magazine like this is not 

 the place for a discussion of the "ways and 

 means." If the editor was in a " social science 

 meeting," he believes he could show how the 

 right men could be got into the right places ; 

 that is, in a general way. All that is germane 

 to a horticultural magazine is to show that pub- 

 lic parks and gardens are mostly in a scanda- 

 lous condition, and that this cannot be reme- 

 died while the good people take no interest in 

 public affairs beyond growling, and leaving to 

 others the hard work and expense. Depend on 

 it, it is as true in public affairs as in any other 

 business that the most perfect machinery, is the 

 most likely to win ; and the engineer of the 

 machine, who ever he is, is bound to see that he 

 gets his pay, and he will reward those first and 

 before all, who help him to carry the machine 

 along. We repeat emphatically that public 

 office as it is now, means very hard work, and 

 great cost, and the worthy men who are not dis- 

 posed to this sort of thing necessarily give place 

 to the unworthy ones who are.] 



THE FLORA OF THE STATE OF TEXAS. 



TRANSLATED FOR THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



FROM THE "ANZIGER DES WESTENS." 



NO. IV. 



Amongst the representatives of the under- 

 brush along the Guadeloupe we find one from 

 the tropics. Yucca filamentosa, ten to fifteen 

 feet high, straight sword-like leaves of four to 

 five feet in length all around the top of the stem, 



