221 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
mowmiASsociMioNS 
The Village Improvement Associa- 
tion of West Haven, Conn., maintains 
a library from which 1,050 people are 
drawing books, and a fund for the 
erection of a new library building is 
nearly completed. The work of plac- 
ing street signs on every corner in 
town is progressing rapidly. 
* * * 
The New Society of Dublin, Ire- 
land, has found a new use for aban- 
doned gas lamp standards. They 
are surmounted by baskets of cast 
iron or burnished copper, in which 
growing flowers and green trailing 
vines make a splendid display. 
* * * 
The Court House Park of Sumpter, 
S. C., has been turned over to the 
Sumpter Civic League, whose mem- 
bers propose to transform it into a 
beauty spot that shall be an object 
lesson to the citizens and city ofticials. 
They have employed a landscape gar- 
dener and gone about the work with 
a zeal that ought to teach the county 
commissioners a lesson. 
* * * 
At the recent annual meeting of 
the South Woodlawn Improvement 
Association, Pawtucket, R. I., John T. 
Morgan was elected president and 
Clarence Aldrich secretary. The re- 
port of the sanitary committee show- 
ed efficient action on such matters as 
contagious diseases, sewage disposal, 
water supply, garbage collection, dust 
nuisance, and pure food. 
* * * 
The Fair View Improvement Soci- 
ety, Jamesville, Mass., have appointed 
a committee to select a site for a so- 
ciety building similar to that in 
Greendale. The latter society has a 
hall where the residents can meet for 
social purposes, and it is also used 
for Sunday school sessions and enter- 
tainments. This committee will re- 
port several sites that are available, 
leaving the question of selection to 
the entire society. When the site is 
selected, the society intends to ar- 
range a series of socials to raise a 
fund to pay for the new hall. 
* * * 
The little triangular flower garden 
at the railroad station at Pawtucket, 
R. I., was recently threatened with 
destruction because the fence around 
it did not give room enough for pe- 
destrians to pass around the car 
tracks, but the interest of a few per- 
sons in the little beauty spot saved it 
and induced the street car company to 
move the fence and keep the flowers. 
It only remains for other public-spir- 
ited citizens to induce the officials to 
supplant the fence with a hedge and 
provide for the systematic improve- 
ment of the tract, which owes its 
present beauty to the efforts of an 
enthusiastic amateur gardener. 
^ ^ 2ft 
A “city beautiful” commission has 
been appointed by the mayor of Grand 
Rapids, Mich., to make plans for the 
general beautifying of that city. The 
commission has organized with He- 
man G. Barlow, secretary of the park 
and cemetery commission, as secre- 
tary, and is divided into committees 
as follows: The civic center; the 
business district; the factory district; 
residence districts and small commer- 
cial centers; smaller civic centers; 
transportation and distribution; the 
river; parks, parkways and boule- 
vards; and street decoration. The 
other members of the commission 
are: Charles M. Wilson, Bishop John 
H. McCormick, Rt. Rev. Mgr. 
Schrembs, Thomas D. Perry, Van A. 
Wallin, Charles E. Fink and John B. 
Martin. 
* * * 
The Ridge Record, of Morgan 
Park, 111., tells the following little 
story which contains a suggestion 
for improvement workers: “An im- 
provement company subdivided a 
farm and in place of cutting down a 
large tree in the sidewalk they went 
to some expense to lay a stone walk 
around both sides of it. As no one 
purchased the lot by the tree in time 
it died from lack of moisture. Some- 
one removed it for the wood and a 
family near planted flowers in the 
circle. Then the family left the 
neighborhood and attending to the 
space was ‘nobody’s business.’ Year 
after year hundreds of people walked 
by the place daily. This year a man 
a half block from the circle had a tree 
planted in it. The tree is growing. 
A great many have spoken well about 
it. He did not have to do it but he 
did it. He does not expect to buy 
the lot but his little girl sees the 
tree every day. Every locality has 
little opportunities for all who are 
willing to do such little things.” 
* * * 
On account of the backward con- 
dition of chrysanthemums, the dates 
of the Denison (Texas) flower show, 
in charge of the Improvement League, 
have been changed from November 
6, 7, 8 to November 20, 21, 22. This 
action was deemed necessary for the 
success of the show, for which many 
chrysanthemums are being grown. 
THE BILLBOARD NUISANCE 
A renewed campaign against tele- 
graph pole advertising is being start- 
ed by the Improvement League of 
Minneapolis. C. M. Loring, chair- 
man of the billboard and illegal ad- 
vertising committee of the league, said 
recently of the work: “It is an of- 
fense punishable by a fine to paste 
or tack any kind of a card or poster 
on any pole in the streets, but we do 
not intend to arrest and prosecute 
anyone if the end can be obtained in 
other ways. In the last few weeks 
we have prevailed upon a leading ba- 
ker, a packer with a national reputa- 
tion, and the agent of a big baking 
powder concern to send out men to 
remove their cards from the poles. 
There is, however, less trouble with 
the large concerns than with the 
smaller ones which confine their ad- 
vertising to a limited district. The 
habit is contagious and one card on 
a pole brings others. In the past the 
most effective method was to organ- 
ize the boys into a volunteer police 
force and pay them for all the cards 
removed from poles. Formerly we 
paid 100 cents for each 100 cards and 
effectually rid the posts of the defac- 
ing cards.” 
Three hundred billboard advertis- 
ers in Cincinnati have signified their 
intention of ceasing that mode of dis- 
play, and have so stated their inten- 
tion to the Municipal Art Committee 
of the Business Men’s Club. At a 
meeting of the committee a pledge 
bearing the names of the 300 Cincin- 
nati business men was presented, in 
which the signers agreed to drop that 
form of advertising as soon as their 
contracts with advertising firms ex- 
pire. The crusade against the bill- 
board nuisance is being carried on with 
unabated vigor and with the agree- 
ment of these to stop this method of 
advertising many more are expected 
to follow suit. 
At the recent convention of the Ill- 
inois Federation of Woman’s Clubs, 
resolutions were adopted deploring 
advertising on billboards and calling 
upon advertisers to avoid their use. 
