PARK AND CEMETERY. 
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IMP 
'ROVEfflTASSOraONS 
The Municipal League of Greenville, 
S. C., has offered prizes aggregating 
$225 for the most original papers on 
the improvement of Greenville. Tire 
plans must be in conformity with im- 
provements suggested in the report re- 
cently prepared for that city by Kelsey 
& Guild, of Boston. 
^ 
A handsome bronze fountain was re- 
cently formally unveiled at Biggs, Cal. 
It stands in front of the public school 
building, and cost $i, 200 , which was 
raised entirely by the ladies of Biggs. 
The mayor and other prominent offi- 
cials of the place took part in the un- 
veiling ceremonies. 
* * ♦ 
The Greater Des Moines Committee 
of the Commercial Club of Des Moines. 
Iowa, is to offer $100 in prizes for the 
cleaning up and improving of the city. 
The club has appointed the following 
committee to have charge of the . work : 
W. B. Keffer, chairman ; W. H. Brere- 
ton, Eugene Waterbury, A. K. Stewart, 
M. J. Wragg, Mrs. W. G. Johnson and 
James Morgan. 
^ V ¥ 
The Improvement Society of Dar- 
lington, R. I., has recently been devot- 
ing its attention to inducing the city 
council to provide a proper collection 
of garbage for that section of the city. 
The city administration had been very 
lax in this respect, but the association 
after circulating a petition and arous- 
ing the interest of the citizens secured 
a remarkable improvement in a short 
time. 
♦ * * 
The Oak Lawn Improvement League 
of Dallas, Tex., has paved two streets, 
let the contract for paving another and 
for 2, .500 feet of concrete sidewalk. 
The League maintains committees on 
.streets and alleys, schools, sidewalks 
and parks, fire station and police, street 
railway and gas, and sewer, water and 
lights. The officers are C. B. Gillespie, 
president ; Curtis Scovell, vice-presi- 
dent; and T. L. iMonagan, secretary. 
* 5k * 
The Civic Improvement League of 
Big Rapids, Mich., has in its three years 
of life, among other things, secured a 
new park, erected two drinking foun- 
tains, planted three hundred street trees, 
placed waste paper receivers on the 
street, lined the avenue leading to the 
cemetery with trees, and done much 
work in educating public sentiment for 
a cleaner city. Mrs. F. W. Jbslin is 
president, and Mrs. C. F. Karschner, 
secretary. 
* * * 
'I'he annual convention of the Ameri- 
can Civic Association is to be held in 
Providence, R. I., in the week begin- 
ning Nov. 17th. in conjunction with the 
meeting cf the National Municipal 
League. A large number of civic or- 
ganizations have joined in an invita- 
tion to the two organizations and an 
interesting and inspiring meeting is as- 
sured. The definite dates and the de- 
tails of programs have not yet been 
announced, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, 
of Philadelphia, is secretary of both or- 
ganizations. ' 
* * * 
Prizes for photographs of the ugliest 
spots in Los Angeles, Cal., are being 
offered by the Municipal League of that 
city. The collection is expected to in- 
clude such objects as billboards, tumble- 
down sheds or buildings, bad streets, 
dirty alleys or sidewalks, vacant lots 
covered with rubbish, neglected growth 
of trees, hedges or weeds or any other 
views showing the injury to decent 
neighborhoods by unnecessary disfigure- 
ments. The first prize is $20, second 
$10, and third $5. 
* 
.An interesting experiment in the value 
of publicity as a means of correcting 
public abuses is about to be. tried by 
the Improvement League of Superior. 
Wis. After politely requesting prop- 
erty owners to clean up rubbish in their 
back yards and giving them a reason- 
able time to reined}’ the unsightly con- 
ditions, the league will engage photog- 
raphers to take pictures of the prem- 
ises. The Telegram wi'I reproduce 
these pictures, with a description of the 
location and the names of the owner 
or the lessee of the property. 
President John H. Patterson of the 
National Cash Register Company, at 
Dayton, O.. has originated an excellent 
plan for encouraging the study of land- 
scape gardening work among the child- 
ren of Oakwood, O. . Four prizes of 
,$2.5 each are to be competed for and 
the subjects will include decoration of 
the home grounds generally and the use 
of shrubbery as lot boundaries. 
'I'hroughout the summer, photographs 
will be made of the lawns and grounds 
entered for competition and at the time 
of the aw'arding of prizes in the fall 
each child will be given a large photo- 
graph of his or her own garden. 
% ^ 5k 
The District Commissioners of Wash- 
ington, D. C., have received a resolu- 
tion recently adopted by the board of 
education which recommends that in 
the future all school sites should con- 
tain at least thirty square feet of play- 
ground for each cliild in the school, 
and, as far as possible, provisions should 
be made for additional ground for the 
existing schools. This communication 
was forwarded to the Commissioners by 
W. W. Conner, secretary of the board 
of education, who urged in defense of 
this movement that thirty square feet 
is the London minimum and the amount 
given in an enactment which Massachu- 
setts sought to adopt for the state at 
a recent session of the legislature. 
5k 5k ^ 
The Alunicipal League and Civic Im- 
provement Convention held at Valley 
City, N. D., Tune 4th to (ith, is encour- 
aging evidence of the growing interest 
in civic improvement in that state. The 
Valhey City Improvement League was in 
charge of the meeting and a wide range 
of sul)jects, including city beauty, im- 
provement of streets, parks, river banks, 
and the co-operation of civic societies, 
was discussed. .-Xmong those who were 
on the program for addresses w'ere : 
Frederick Nussbauiner, superintendent 
of parks. St. Paul : Hon. C. M. Loring. 
of Minneapolis ; J. Horace McFarland, 
president of the .-Vinerican Civic As- 
sociation ; Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane, 
of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Hon. John 
McVicar, secretary of the Lea,gue of 
American Municipalities. 
5k 5k 
The Civic Improvement League of 
Denison, 'I'e.xas, is doing very effective 
w’ork as is evidenced by the marked 
improvement of the condition of the 
city. Trees have been planted, clean-up 
campaigns have been inaugurated anrl 
siiccessfirly waged. Last year the asso- 
ciation .scored a .great success w’ith a 
dower show, wdiich proved the prettiest 
event ever held in this section. This 
year the league is planning an even 
greater show' and a large list of prizes 
has been announced. The catalog will 
soon be ready for distribution, and the 
show will Ije held Nov. 0, 7, S. The 
league has distributed more than five 
thousand packets of flower seed among 
the public school children for p’anting 
in the home yards, 1'hc school grounds 
liave been beautified and inucli interest 
has been aroused. 
