PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PARK NEWS. 
38 1 
Some idea of the cost of the project- 
ed parkway from the city hall to Fair- 
mount Park, in Philadelphia, may be 
had from the fact that already proper- 
ty owners have been paid $1,182,340 for 
properties west of Logan Square, and 
that land damages amounting to $715,- 
591 and tenants’ damages of $19,207 
have been awarded by the road jury, 
making a total estimated cost to date of 
$1,917,138, the money to come from the 
$2,000,000 provided in an old loan for 
the purpose. Real estate dealers fa- 
miliar with land damages claim that to 
complete the big road fully $12,000,000, 
in addition to the $1,000,000 in the new 
municipal loan, will be required, and the 
money already expended will bring the 
total cost to about $15,000,000. 
The Fairmount Park Board is seri- 
ously embarrassed for funds. There 
is no money to provide for the destruc- 
tion of insects that attack the thousands 
of trees throughout Fairmount Park, 
and about sixty laborers, carpenters and 
mechanics have been laid off through 
lack of cash to pay their wages. Coun- 
cils, it is claimed, is responsible largely 
for the necessity of laying off the men. 
When Councils increased the pay of 
park employes from $1.50 to $1,75 per 
day, they failed to give the Commission 
any greater appropriation to meet this 
increase. In the annual budget the 
Commission also asked for $10,000 for 
maintenance of river walls. This item 
was cut to $2,000, anl $9,000 asked for 
to plant trees and shrubs was reduced 
to $6,000. A small plot of ground at 
Johnson street and Lincoln Drive has 
been added to Fairmount. The Phila- 
delphia Playground Association will es- 
tablish a model playground at Starr 
Garden Center as an object lesson to 
the public. 
* * * 
As was recently noted in these pages, 
W. S. Egerton, formerly superintendent 
of parks at Albany, N. Y., was removed 
from office under charge of certain ir- 
regularities in his administration. Mr. 
Egerton is ex-president of the American 
Association of Park Superintendents, 
and one of the best known and most 
highly honored men in his profession in 
the country! His friends among the 
park men will be glad to hear this opin- 
ion of Mr. Egerton’s case from Wm. P. 
Rudd, one of the leading attorneys of 
Albany, and will join in the wish that 
the court proceedings now under way 
will clear Mr. Egerton of all suspicion : 
Mr. Rudd writes as follows : “There 
have been charges of irregularities made 
against Mr. Egerton, but from my ex- 
amination of the facts it does not ap- 
pear to me that they are anything but 
errors, and are entirely free from an 
improper motive. Mr. Egerton has been 
almost forty years connected with the 
park system of this city, and has been 
a man of the most upright character 
in all his relations, and it seems almost 
impossible that any irregularity which 
involved in the aggregate $41.00 could 
be the result of an intent on Mr. Eger- 
ton’s part to do an improper act. I 
wish that it might be possible for you, 
if you think it is proper, to make some 
statement in your publication which 
would indicate that the irregularities 
charged may after all only be what I 
really believe is the fact, the result of 
an error. Mr. Egerton is sustained by 
the respect and sympathy of a large 
body of our citizens today.” 
* * * 
P. O. F. Menton of Santa Clara, Cal., 
brought suit against the trustees of that 
town to prevent the erection of a water 
tower in the public park, and Judge 
Richards of San Jose, who rendered 
the decision, held that town trustees 
have no right to erect the proposed tow- 
er, because to do this would be a diver- 
sion of the original use of the park. In 
delivering the opinion Judge Richards 
quoted largely from a decision rendered 
by Judge Lorigan of the Supreme Court 
of the State, who wrote the opinion of 
the famous Spires vs. the City of Los 
Angeles case, in which the Supreme 
Court held that the erection of any build- 
ing which was to be used for any other 
purpose than for the recreation and en- 
joyment of the public was a diversion 
of its original use, and therefore un- 
lawful. Even the erection of a library 
or art museum, should any portion of 
the building be used for purposes not 
directly connected with the work of 
these institutions, would be a wrongful 
use of the park. Any purpose wholly 
for the enjoyment of the people who 
have the right to the park is held to be 
lawful. 
* * * 
Park Commissioner Kennedy, of the 
Borough of Brooklyn, N. Y., recently 
decided to take heroic measures to 
check vandalism and rowdyism in Pros- 
pect Park, and the police have been en- 
forcing the ordinances to the letter with 
the result that 128 arrests were made in , 
the park in one day. Serious conditions 
in the park did nol develop until the 
Williamsburg bridge was constructed 
and paved the way for a five cent fare 
trip from the east side of Manhattan to 
the park. Thousands of foreigners flock 
to the park oh Sundays. They rarely ' 
appear on other days. They have heard 
much about American freedom and 
many of them believe that it gives them 
a license to do as they please with park 
property. Of the 128 prisoners caught 
one Suridaj^ there were 100 Russian 
Jews, 13 Austrians, 4 Italians, 2 Rou- 
manians, 2 Spaniards, 1 Turk, 1 Pole, || 
1 German, 1 Englishman and 3 who said 
they were Americans. , " 
jjj ^ sK 
Theodore Wirth, superintendent of 
parks of Minneapolis, (has recommended 
to the board that good drinking water 
in all parks should be provided for at 
any cost. He made a request for au- 
thority to proceed at once to drill the 
wells deeper, and to provide for an ef- 
ficient system of drinking fountains. In 
his communication to the board he calls 
attention to the fact that Dr. P. M. 
Hall, commissioner of health, has closed 
wells in Loring Park, Logan Park and ‘ 
Murphy Square, and then he gives a 
list of all park wells in the city and 
their depth. This list shows that all 
wells, with the exception of those at i 
Fairview, Murphy and Windom parks 
are less than fifty feet deep. 
* * 
Work in the city parks of Pittsburg 
authorized last spring under the emer- 
gency bond issue of $220,000 to provide ^ 
employment to the idle is progressing 
rapidly. Superintendent George W. 
Burk, of the bureau of parks, has nearly 
completed improvements in all the parks 
with the exception of Arsenal. About 
800 men were on the emergency payroll. 
Little remains to be done in Highland, 
McKinley, Central and in Riverview 
parks, Northside, while at Schenley 
the improvement program will be 
wound up when two bridges now under 
construction in Panther Hollow are fin- 
ished. 
* * 
An important concession to automo- 
bilists has been made by the Metropoli- 
tan Park Commission of Boston in the 
opening to motor vehicles of the Revere 
Beach driveway on every day during , 
the summer except the afternoons and 
evenings of Saturdays, Sundays and 
{^Continued on PV/!) 
