PARK AND CEMETERY. 
418 
quiring a somewhat more extensive list 
of refreshments. 
Consideration of the bills of fare 
•will show that the prices are the very 
lowest. Particularly is this so at the 
lunch counters in the play parks 
where the people are not overly 
blessed with the world’s goods. At 
the other places, the prices are gen- 
erally about 20 per cent lower than 
charged for equally good service in 
private restaurants in the city. 
The following prices at the Washing- 
ton Park lunch counter are typical : 
Cold Meats with Bread and Butter ; 
Roast Beef 30 
Corned Beef ^20 
Ham 25 
Tongue 25 
Salmon, per portion 25 
Pork and Beans 15 
Chicken (canned) 30 
The very best men obtainable are 
placed in charge of the different 
places, with one general manager in 
charge of all, who does the buying 
and makes requisitions for all fur- 
nishings and supplies needed. 
The receipts are recorded in cash 
registers, and when the business is 
large cashiers are employed at the 
registers. An auditor visits each place 
every day, checks up receipts and 
brings the money to the general of- 
fice. 
The commissioners require the very 
best service, absolute cleanliness, tlie 
best of everything served and ample 
waiter service. In order that the best 
ice cream may be served at the low- 
est price, the commissioners installed 
and operate an ice cream factory from 
which all the lunch counters and re- 
fectories are supplied, at a cost last 
year of less than 7c per gallon. Noth- 
ing is spared to make the best cream. 
As to row-boats and launch service. 
In the first place, excellent boats are 
used. The best obtainable launches 
are in service, and sufficient men are 
employed to give prompt and efficient 
service. The men are all in attractive 
uniforms. Cleanliness in everything is 
required, and all employes about the 
boats and landings must be good 
swimmers, capable of assisting any 
who may fall into the water. No ex- 
pense is spared to keep the boats and 
launches in the best possible condi- 
tion. 
The charges for boating privileges 
are: 
Single row-boat per hour, holding 
three 15c 
Double row-boat per hour, holding 
five 25c 
Children’s bafges, round trip 25 
minutes 5c 
Electric launches, round trip 2^2 
miles 10c 
Naphtha launches, round trip into 
Lake Michigan, 5 miles 20c 
In the winter the skating houses, 
the renting and grinding of skates, re- 
freshment counters and the renting of 
toboggan sleds are handled by the 
commissioners at a minimum cost to 
the public. 
No intoxicants are on sale in the 
parks. 
The lunch counters in the recrea- 
tion buildings are open the year round 
every day from 10 a. m. to 10 p. m. 
That at the Golf Shelter from April 
15th to Nov. 15th, from 5:30 a. m. to 
dark. The refectories and soda foun- 
tains from June 1st to Sept. 20th an- 
nually. 
The receipts from the small lunch 
counters range from two dollars to 
seventy dollars each per day. The 
larger refectories, including the soda 
fountains, from twenty-five dollars to 
five hundred and seventy-five dollars 
each day. The aggregate receipts 
from lunch counters, refectories and 
soda fountains for the year ending 
November 30, 1907, was $82,480. The 
receipts during the same period from 
row-boats was $18,858. The receipts 
during the same period from launches 
and barges was $8,055. 
Some years the aggregate charges 
against all trading accounts, as they 
are called upon the books of the com- 
missioners, somewhat exceed the ag- 
gregate receipts. Other years’ the 
accounts are about even. 
The investment in equipment for the 
various facilities operated by the com- 
missioners ranges from $325 for one 
of the small lunch counters to $5,500 
for the largest refectory, the aggre- 
gate being $55,455, including boats, 
barges and launches. 
The unreliability of the patronage 
in any park business being so entirely 
dependent upon the weather, having 
generally no steady support under 
all conditions, makes it most difficult 
to stock up with supplies and help 
sufficient to properly meet possible 
demands, provided profit and loss are 
the governing factors. It rains in the 
morning; the concessionaires think 
there will be no one in the park; at 
2:30 it clears, is beautiful; thousands 
clamoring for refreshments ; few wait- 
ers; “just out” of most things on the 
bill of fare; public growl. The super- 
intendent calls up concessionaire — 
what does he mean by such service? 
He can’t order waiters and stock up 
on a rainy morning and lose all he 
has made in a week; he can’t make 
the weather. Result; park officials ac- 
cused of being interested in conces- 
sion, everybody unhappy. 
The serving of refreshments, fur- 
nishing boats, skates and toboggan 
sleds should be considered as much 
a part of the duty of the park authori- 
ties as the supplying of beautiful, 
well mowed, shady lawns, benches, 
sanitary accommodations and other 
pleasures and conveniences the public 
expect to find at their disposal in 
parks, and should be furnished in the 
best possible manner at the very low- 
est cost to the people and be always 
available, no matter what the weather 
may be, for they are necessities if a 
visit to the parks is to be completely 
enjoyed. But if these things in parks 
are to be considered entirely as busi- 
ness propositions, and run on the 
principle that they must be made to 
pay, the result must either be prices 
so high as to be prohibitive to most 
people, or most of the time poor and 
inadequate service. Operated by park 
authorities with the object of meet- 
ing the people’s wants, meeting the 
profit or loss as it may come, will al- 
ways give satisfaction to the general 
public who have intrusted the man- 
agement of these things to the park 
officials; that is, provided satisfactory 
service is given. 
People seldom criticise large expen- 
ditures if satisfactory results are ob- 
tained; but small expenditures and 
rigid economy with poor and inade- 
quate results will always bring forth 
the query, “What in the world do they 
do with all their money?” 
Park authorities should not under- 
take to do anything for the people’s 
pleasure which they have not the 
money to do well, particularly in the 
way of service. A park is not a com- 
mercial enterprise; is not a banking 
business. 
The best is none too good for the 
poorest and worst people. 
The desire to show a great income, 
such as induces the trustees of one 
of the oldest and richest churches in 
the country to rent to the unfortunate 
poor almost uninhabitable disease in- 
ducing apartments, is about as great 
a sin as I can think of. It is the same 
spirit which would demand a profit in 
park business, and while, unfortu- 
nately, it cannot in this particular 
work do so great an evil, it can, and 
I am afraid in places does, place per- 
sonal credit for a good financial show- 
ing above the welfare and i)leaMire of 
the people. 
