PARK UTILITIES 



PLACES OF REFRESHMENT 



One of the well-developed facilities of European park design 

 which should by all means be introduced in this country is that of 

 places of refreshment. The great open-air cafes and eating pavilions 

 of foreign parks, such as those of the Pincian Gardens at Rome, the 

 Bois de Boulogne, in Paris, the Tiergarten, at Berlin, and the Stadt- 

 garten, of Vienna, are always favourite haunts of Americans abroad. 

 It is too soon to hope that such fine establishments may be made a part 

 of American parks, but smaller places of refreshment are possible of 

 immediate realisation. In American parks, soda water and indigestible 

 notions must be accepted in substitute for wholesome edibles by those 

 who may have neglected to bring lunches or had not intended to re- 

 main for any considerable length of time. It would be very desirable 

 if wholesome refreshments could be obtained in several different places 

 within a park and at a reasonable price. 



One of the fine features of European parks in this respect are the 

 booths where milk may be obtained with some simple form of cracker 

 or small cakes. They are of inestimable value, not only to the chil- 

 dren, but to the grown-ups; and a drink of warm or cold milk, as 

 individual taste may prefer, is a splendid substitute for the sweet soda 

 drinks of this country. In the Public Garden at Milan the Latteria 

 has been made an especial feature of interest by being designed as a 

 model dairy on a small scale; one may look over the serving counter 

 directly to where the cows are being milked, and everything is kept in 

 such a state of spick-and-spanness that one drinks cool milk there on a 

 hot day as though it were a special nectar. The walks of the park are 

 led by the open windows of the cow stanchions and serve as a never- 

 ending source of excitement and interest to the great numbers of 

 small children always congregated there. Similar milk houses, though 

 on smaller scale, are to be found throughout the parks of Germany and 

 Austria, and the fact that a generous glass of milk may be obtained 



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