SOME IMPROVED HOME GROUNDS IN MINNEAPOLIS. 469 



Better than this was the old gentleman who had abundance of 

 time and of energy, both of which he had used to such good advan- 

 tage that he had made his cool, well shaded corner lot so charming 

 that Mrs. Nye, who was the general of our party, had to remind us 

 again and again that we must move on or we would not get through. 



Then there was the busy foreman who had made such beautiful 

 rustic vases and boxes and baskets, all filled with flowers and ferns, 

 and who had for years supplied his neighbors with cuttings, seeds 

 and bulbs until the whole district was a garden. When he learned 

 that the mayor's wife was a member of the committee he picked 

 his choicest rose for her, and as he presented it to her, together with 

 a tuberose, said: "The mayor is the father of the city, isn't he?" 

 Which remark we thought quite equal to the "friend of flowers." 



There were, besides, the gardens of the women, and the gardens 

 of the boys, and of the girls, and of the men, the gardens where as 

 members of one family and one household they all worked together, 

 and it is not strange that the two which proved to be the most inter- 

 esting and attractive of all that we inspected belong to this group. 

 One represented aesthetic endeavor, the other utility combined with 

 a due regard for aesthetic effect. They were both in the same dis- 

 trict, each confined to a single town lot, each perfect in its way — 

 together they proved to be an unsolvable problem for the committee. 

 It is impossible for me to give an adequate description of either of 

 them, but perhaps I may be able to convey a faint idea of their 

 nature. 



The first when we inspected it in the spring was a neat, orderly 

 home, with good, well kept lawn, fine shade trees, house in good con- 

 dition, everything homelike and comfortable in appearance. When 

 we called in August the front yard was not conspicuous, although 

 the effect was harmonious and in good taste — a rustic basket, some 

 choice plants and ferns that were attractive but not brilliantly so. The 

 lawn was like clean, bright velvet, the lot enclosed by an iron fence, 

 perfectly plain, made of small iron pipe welded to plain iron posts 

 with no adornment at all, but — here is the beauty of it — red honey- 

 suckle had been planted at regular intervals and trained over and 

 about the rail, and there was nothing to detract from its delicate 

 beauty. At the side and next to the house were the flowers, many 

 varieties of choice plants, a large number of them in this climate 

 associated with hothouse culture. My notes contain the words, 

 "Cannot be described, must be seen to be appreciated." In the 

 back yard there were some arches over the walks and also as a 

 foundation for screens made of the same iron piping, with vines 

 climbing over them. Sheds and woodpiles that were in the corner 

 of the yard directly back of the house were completely screened in 

 this way, leaving the intervening space with grass plot and place for 

 drying clothes. At the other side of the back yard and let into the 

 velvety lawn were three large square tanks of neatest masonry, all 

 cemented and enclosed like the lot with an iron rail, over which 

 trailed beautiful vines. These tanks contained gold fish, which could 

 glide through little channels from one tank to another and around 

 and back and must have believed themselves in a large lake. The 

 tanks also contained exquisite aquatic plants; in one the familiar 



