PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Vol. XVIII. Chicago, September, 1908 No. 7 
The Recent Conventions 
The reports of the proceedings, in this issue, of the Asso- 
ciation of American Cemetery Superintendents and the Amer- 
ican Association of Park Superintendents, held respectively 
in Kansas City and Minneapolis last month, will be attractive 
reading for all interested in cemetery and park development 
and improvement. Both conventions came fully up to the 
expectations of those concerned in their management and 
many new members were added to their lists from the West. 
The plans of the park superintendents were carried out quite 
closely in accordance with the outline given in our June num- 
ber, and was pronounced to be the best convention the Asso- 
ciation has ever held, the local park commissioners doing all 
that seemed possible for them to do to make the occasion a 
success. The same may be said of the local cemetery men 
at Kansas City, who showed the real western hospitality to 
the cemetery superintendents. The work of civic improvement 
habs been prosecuted with vigor for many years in Kansas 
City, and the visitors were surprised not only at the extent of 
the park and boulevard system, but equally so at its pictur- 
esqueness and finish. To these annual gatherings of men de- 
voted to their work of park and cemetery improvement, with 
the added forces of association to stimulate, is unquestionably 
due the marked and rapid progress in that higher development 
of outdoor art so apparent in all our larger cities. This 
progress is not altogether confined to the cities of great and 
crowded population, however, but is spreading slowly but 
surely to the smaller places. The contrast between the old 
and the new is so striking that no intelligent citizen of any 
community, once realizing it, can remain impassive to the call 
of the more beautiful. 
Ng Ng 
Convention of the Playground Association of America 
Great progress has been made in the movement to establish 
children’s playgrounds in our cities and towns since the mem- 
orable first convention of the Playground Association of 
America held in Chicago last year. At time of writing the 
second annual convention is in session in New York City, and 
delegates are present, not only from societies and organiza- 
tions immediately interested, but from state and municipal 
governments in various parts of the country and from socio- 
logical and educational bodies as well. It has assumed the 
proportions of a congress, and is of necessity divided up into 
a number of special conferences sitting simultaneously. The 
recretation of the young has thus almost suddenly become a 
most important question involving intricate problems which 
demand the deepest thought and broadest discussion by those 
capable of the effort to solve them. It is gratifying to note 
that the work accomplished during the past year is of such 
an encouraging character as to afford inspiration for attacking 
the problems that a practical beginning of the actual work has 
developed. 
ve Ng Ng 
Statuary in the Parks 
The park authorities of Baltimore, Md., since the success- 
ful sculpture exhibition of last spring, have been much dis- 
turbed over the proposition to install some appropriate sculp- 
ture in a small section of Deruid Hill Park, and to place it 
amid surroundings, and under conditions most desirable for 
the display of outdoor sculpture in the parks. It will, of 
course, be of pronounced educational value in that it would 
show to visitors how appropriately for park decoration certain 
lines of sculpture may be modeled. It would necessitate, how- 
ever, to a greater or less extent the introduction of a section 
of formal gardening into possibly a distinctly natural land- 
scape park, and it is against this invasion of natural beaut>‘ 
that the opponents of the scheme vigorously protest. We 
belie\-e, on the other hand, that in the interest of our national 
art, opportunities should be afforded in our larger parks for 
the introduction of sculptural embellishment, and it could be 
as readily provided for, and with quite as potent reasoning, 
as the athletic field, the refectory and other features of popular 
entertainment. With the planting material which our land- 
scape gardeners have at their disposal, it would be a simple 
matter of design to include a section for sculpture, and this 
section so completely hidden in the planting scheme as to 
practically have no noticeal le effect on the general laiidsctipe 
scheme. 
The Massachusetts Playground Law 
In accordance with a law passed by the Massachusetts Legis- 
lature, the citizens of every city or town of the state, of over 
10,000 population, must decide by vote the coming Fall or 
Spring, whether or no they will accept the provisions of the 
Act. This Act decrees, upon acceptance, that by the first of 
July, 1910, at least one playground for the first 10,000, and one 
other for every additional 20,000 population shall be pro- 
vided. The law sa^-s further, that such play grounds "must 
be con\-enicntly located and of suitable size and equipment for 
the recreation and physical education of the minors of such 
city or town. Llpon this question of acceptance. North Adams, 
Mass., has been engaged in a spirited argument, the one side 
claiming that the city is well provided with school playgrounds 
and recreation facilities; the other that too much cannot be 
done for the children in the way of encouraging healthy out- 
door exercise. Very few school yards, or so-called playgrounds 
of the old type, approach in any way the modern requirements 
for such additions to educational facilities. 
The Cemetery as a Part of the Park System 
In the convention proceedings in the following pages will 
be found many suggestions of pointed and practical interest; 
moreover, one may, by putting on the studying cap, under- 
stand the tendencies of the times in the matter of outdoor 
development and the interrelationship between cemeteries, 
parks, parkways and boulevards in the general question of 
civic embellishment and its citizens’ rights therein. 1 he 
future position of the cemetery as a component part of the 
park system, discussed in Mr. Kessler's paper, read l)eforc the 
cemetery superintendents at Kansas City, is a very important 
proposition, and from the fact that the development of the 
boulevard sysem in certain places has been made to include 
adjacent cemeteries, takes the matter out of the theoretical 
into the practical. One cannot fight ;ig;iinst actualities, and 
however much one might be opposed to reino\ in,g the ceinelery 
from its sheltered retirement, where old associations empha- 
size comparative solitude amid natural beaut\’ as a comforting 
solace for bereaved humanity, other means and methods of 
development and management will be found to offset such 
innovations as they present themselves. The cemetery will 
gain in importance in its new relationship, and the necessity 
of maintaining it in the best possible condition ;it all times 
will tend to uplift it in all its relations to the connnuniy, and 
morally compel strict attention to all proper pnlilic dem.ind-. 
