100 LANDSCAPE GAllDENIN-Q. 



air is doubtless quite as harmful to those who are accus- 

 tomed to it as to tliose who notice it more. It must be 

 regarded as a prolific source of disease. Such air, how- 

 ever, when it has room to circulate, purifies itself with 

 comparative rajndity ; and the usefulness of even a small 

 open space may exteud to a considerable circumference. 



The public park offers the only outdoor recreation 

 room for very large numbers of city dwellers. This is 

 not the jilace, nor is it necessary here, to argue that the 

 hurried, Avorried city population stands in great need of 

 such rest and recreation. It 'may be regarded as self- 

 evident. One who looks about in any city park on any 

 reasonably fair day will find how large a number of peo- 

 ple have felt such a need ; and he is much more likely 

 to conclude that hundreds of others should have come 

 to the park, than to think that those whom he sees have 

 no business there. If one thinks about such things 

 while he is in the parlv and sees the mothers with their 

 babies, the girls and boys picnicking, the young people 

 on their bicycles, the families in carriages, and the hun- 

 dreds of others of every age and estate relaxing from 

 the stress of ordinary care, he must conclude that these 

 peoi:»le get some good out of it, which, in the sum total, 

 makes a rich interest on the park investment. 



By far the most important purpose which the park 

 serves, however, is that of mental sanitation. The 

 merest novice in city living knows how wearing upon 

 the mind, and \i]}on the nerve centers generally, are 

 the din and hurry and unrest from which no one has 

 immunity. When continually exposed to such condi- 

 tions, the mind and the senses become dulled and 

 dimmed by the multitude of offensive impressions which 

 they are obliged to bear. Tlie senses need rest and the 

 mind needs renovation. The man who does not bathe 

 his body once a week is not thought res2:)ectable ; yet no 

 one blamxcs him for letting his mtellect go uncleansed 



