PLANTING AND CARE OF A NEW PARK OR CEMETERY. 329 



from any perceptible abruptness, at the same time bringing to view 

 the various points of natural and artificial adornment. 



The primal object of a public park is to offer to its patrons not 

 only a place of recreation but of rest for body and mind as well, so 

 that going out for an afternoon or evening to commune with nature 

 amidst the beauties of trees, shrubs and flowers, it is the desire of 

 all to be hidden, as it were, from the busy cares of office, shop and 

 street. With this object in view the planting should be so arranged 

 as to assist the \-isitor in feeling that he is free from invasion of 

 the cares and annoyances which beset us in every day life. This is 

 best accomplished, especially if the park is centrally located, by plant- 

 ing vour larger growing trees and shrubs on the border lines in 

 clumps and hedges for the double purpose of artistic arrangement 

 and shutting out from ^-iew buildings or other objects which would 

 have a tendency to remind us of the things we wish to forget for 

 the time being. 



I feel some reluctance in censuring the people of our rural towns 

 and villages where land is inexpensive for not providing for their 

 people a public breathing spot, but as the doubter in many instances 

 has been the cause of setting people to thinking, thereby replacing 

 ancient lore wth modem logic. I feel partly justified as their apology- 

 is not a good one. They tell you if we are to have a new park 

 artistically fitted up it will cost us several hundred dollars. Yes, it 

 will, but there are many other things for which you spend large sums 

 of money for the gratification of the eye. You must remember you 

 build homes which cost goodly sums which would be just as com- 

 fortable and you might cunail tlie expense which goes to make up 

 the artistic finish; you build costly opera houses which are seldom 

 if ever visited by the poorer classes : you build city halls and court- 

 houses which cost tens of thousands and are permanently occupied 

 only bv a half dozen able bodied men ; you build places of worship of 

 the latest and most expensive architectural design where people 

 spend but a few short hours of one day in the week ; but you hesitate 

 when asked at the expense of a few hundred dollars to provide a 

 place where young and old, rich and poor, may revel in the beauties 

 of nature and breathe God's free, pure air. 



Give vour people more parks and your children more open play 

 grounds away from dust\- streets and alleys, and I assure you that 

 €ver}- little town of twelve or fifteen hundred inhabitants will cease 

 to be a refuge for three or four doctors ! Well has some writer said 

 ■"Rob the world of its sylvan beauty, fill it \\-ith pure utility and what 

 a desert you would make of it." 



Much the same may be said of platting and planting a new ceme- 

 tery. It has been a common custom in the past to survey the 



