Park Department 
25 
A new concrete bandstand was erected and the walks on the 
outside of the park resurfaced. This brings to mind that it would 
be a splendid thing, and is in fact a necessity, to have these walks 
surfaced with concrete, which would afiford a splendid place for 
the children's recreation of roller-skating and games of different 
kinds, and would make that space much more useful than it is 
at the present time. 
The west end of the park was given over to the children as 
a playground, and teeter-totters and sand piles placed in this 
location, which has had a tendency to draw from the streets and 
the gutters a great many children who, up to that time, had only 
these as a possible playground. In this little corner of the park at 
all times of the day, from early morning until late at night, you will 
find great numbers of children congregated, playing ball and 
using the paraphernalia that is supplied by this department for 
their enjoyment. 
During the heated term of July and August we had a night 
police force, who reported that there were during that time 
nearly sixteen hundred people who found great relief sleeping 
and resting in the parks, when it would have been utterly im- 
possible to have had any sleep in the hot tenement-houses of the 
West End. 
The bandstand, refreshment-stand, and shelter-house were all 
painted to conform to park surroundings, as were the entire lot 
of park-benches also. 
The planting at this park consisted of canna, ageratum, 
echeveria, and alternanthera. We expect to take up the labeling 
of the trees and shrubs during the coming summer, and have 
also made preparations to build a concrete dock to replace the 
wooden dock that is there at the present time, which will be 
more serviceable, as the existing dock is in such condition that 
it is dangerous to leave it in its present state any longer. 
The lake afforded skating during the past winter which was 
