November, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



453 



from the Salem home of Mr. 

 Richard Stearns. This house, 

 built more than a century ago, 

 has remained in the same family 

 ever since, as the daughter of 

 Joseph Sprague, who built the 

 house, married a man named 

 Stearns. Joseph Sprague, the 

 original owner of this handsome 

 lamp, was a captain in the first 

 uniformed company of Salem 

 militia, and proudly wore his cap 

 of black beaver, with its four 

 ostrich feathers, his short green 

 coat with gold trimmings, and 

 his white underdress with ruffles 

 over the hand. He claimed to 

 be the first man in this section 

 to shed blood in the Revolution- 

 ary War, as he was hurt in the 

 skirmish at the time of Leslie's 

 retreat, two months before the 

 battle of Lexington. 



An ornamental steel, upon 

 which the flint was struck to 

 make a flame, was employed 

 before the introduction of the 

 "lucifer" or "loco-foco" matches, 



about the year 1837. The use of flint and steel necessitated lights must have been of material assistance in the develop- 

 also the "tinder-box," with its store of charred linen, to ment of such necessary and standard virtues as patience and 

 catch the tiny spark as it leaped from the steel. Old-time perseverance. 





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9 — Lamps in the Collection of Mr. Arthur West, 

 Salem,IMassachusetts 



1 1 — Lamp in Mr. Richard Steam's 

 Collection 



Water Parks 



{Concluded from page 446) 



the eight houses built on the sides of the canal. It would 

 have been better if one-third of the marsh had been taken 

 to fill on top of the sand after pumping it out, in order to 

 make a little soil. The soil in a marsh, above the clay or 

 sand which underlies it, is pure humus, and with proper en- 

 richment makes good top soil. 



It is very easy on the south shore of Long Island, for 

 instance, to dig a lake either by excavating marsh or sand, 

 and if the level is not much above the mean tide, it will fill 

 with fresh ground water. The ponds in such a place should 

 not be circular, but sinuous, more like lagoons than ponds. 

 They should have many islands and many overgrown pas- 

 sages and short cuts from one broad place to another. The 

 treatment of the banks is always a problem. Wooden dykes 

 are very ugly and hard, and there they are inexcusable, be- 

 cause there are many shrubs which could be used to hold the 

 bank more cheaply. Sod banks are very difficult to maintain 

 in good order. 



The button bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) will grow in 

 a foot or more of water. The sweet pepper bush (Clethra 

 alnifolia) likes damp places, and there are many alders, wil- 

 lows and cornels which are suitable to plant at the edge of 

 a lake. Besides these shrubs (and there are many others) 

 the Pickerel weeds, Sagittaria, Papyrus, Sweet Flag, Irises, 

 and other grasses, including the bamboo, can be used to 

 soften the shore line. 



There are two methods of planting such an artificial water 

 park; one, and the best, in which the water is considered the 

 main thing and the land between counts for nothing except 

 that its thick foliage frames the stream. It is then a canoe 

 park and its beauties are only to be enjoyed from the water. 

 The other way attempts to bring land and water together 

 in the scene — always a difficult matter when both are on the 

 same level ! 



Paths leading through such a park usually necessitate 

 bridges, which are expensive and may not be beautiful. The 

 few paths which are necessary should be back from the 

 water, leading from one sandy beach to another. Observa- 

 tion towers and rustic bridges savor of the beer garden. 



The planting to be done on a reclaimed marsh is a little 

 easier, because there the land is a hundred times as much as 

 the water and both must be in the picture. In this case the 

 planting would not be dense, as in the canoe park, but the 

 trees would be single or in groups on the meadow and the 

 banks of the stream would be left to take care of themselves. 

 Elms can be planted in such a meadow and will not prevent 

 one's feeling the large expense or from enjoying the flat 

 horizon. 



A small marsh where the boundaries can not be controlled 

 entirely had better be planted more thickly, especially at the 

 edges, but leaving enough of the broad meadow to keep the 

 character of the place. 



