PARK AND CEMETERY 
830 
a picture, at once, and they will neither understand it nor ap- 
preciate it. The thing is a matter of education, and to com- 
plete it there must be the primary parks, which are small 
parks, and the advanced parks, which are the large, forest 
parks. The worker in confined quarters needs sunshine rather 
than shadow at the first. By shadow I do not mean shade. 
That must be had, of course. He must get a little at the first, 
and when he knows the beauty of color in the flower and 
of form in the tree he is ready to grasp the greater things of 
nature, the solemnity of the forests and effectiveness of vista 
and of landscape. The small park, from my point of view, 
should be an outdoor social settlement, where a man may meet 
his neighbors, smoke his pipe and absorb beauty. These parks 
are effective good-citizen makers. 
“He will prefer these smaller parks at first, and then grad- 
ually the change will come as his thoughts and appreciation 
of nature expand, and he will get the fuller and the deeper en- 
joyment which comes from the great trees, the shadows, with 
.openings of light and color here and there. The best of the 
West Side pleasure grounds is Humboldt Park. It is nearer 
nature than the rest. It has no streets cut through it, and it 
has consequently an isolation which makes for good in the out- 
door life. 
“These big parks are easier to maintain than the smalt 
parks, a fact, I think, which is not generally understood. 
The close touch with civilization which is a necessary con- 
dition of the small parks, scattered as they are through the 
city, wars against the life of tree, plant and flower. Smoke 
and bad odors play their parts. In the larger parks, on the 
other hand, the trees and shrubbery and flowers keep in bet- 
ter condition with comparatively little care. I do not care to 
outline my plans just yet with reference to my work in the 
West parks, but there is every opportunity to make of them 
what the people wish and what the people need. 
Nature should be directed rather than curbed. Art is, or 
ought to be, her servant. I -am not enthusiastic when it comes 
to the question of primness in gardening. I love the peren- 
nials, the old-fashioned flowers, if you will, the kind that 
appeal in color and in bloom. I detest that form of landscape 
gardening which makes cemeteries out of the parks — the set 
mathematical precision which certainly is not nature, and which 
is a bad brand of art.” 
* * * 
“ GARDENESQUE.” 
Permit me to protest most emphatically against the sense 
in which Mr. Frederic Low Olmsted makes use of the word 
“Gardenesque” in the June. Atlantic Monthly, quoted on p. 
30 of the July Park and Cemetery and Landscape Gardening. 
I think J. C. London coined the word, but whether he did or 
not it is applied to gardening of a vastly different character 
than that described by Mr. Olmsted, moreover there is already 
more than sufficient murdering of the King’s English. The 
type of gardens known as gardenesque have for their feature 
the individualization of the plants whether trees, shrubs, or 
herbs, nor does it matter whether they be homogeneously or 
heterogeneously grouped. Round beds in the grass are sub- 
stituted for the difficult and rarely satisfactory herbaceous 
borders, and if these are properly distributed and furnished 
with taste and a due knowledge of climatal limitations, they 
are productive of a type of gardens evidently unknown to 
many designers of large grounds in the United States. A 
hint of them may, however, often be seen around the houses 
of well-to-do farmers, for the common labour saving in- 
stincts of the husbandman teach that the type can be man- 
aged much better than most others, and that it looks infinitely 
better withal, for there is no crowding where the grounds are 
gardenesque. Not only are the beds easily formed with simple 
line and pegs, but they are easily enlarged or changed as to 
position when required. Besides, a round bed can be better 
mown around with a horse or hand mower than any other.- 
If made six feet or so in diameter, they are easily planted, 
easily weeded, easily worked in every way and give the amount 
of form or colour which is most desirable, but which most 
Atlantic coast gardens sadly lack after June. In conclusion 
let me advise Mr. Olmsted to try his hand on the garden- 
esque style, not on paper, not as he makes it in the Atlantic, 
but in its purity. James MacPherson. 
* * * 
A new rule recently adopted and enforced with poor suc- 
cess in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N. Y., forbids the carrying 
of parcels in the park on music days. The idea of the com- 
missioner is to stop the custom of lunch eating in the park, 
but the new rule has aroused much protest from citizens. 
• 1 = * * 
The park commissioners of Guthrie, Okla., have started out 
well by adopting a general plan for their park system and are 
operating under a progressive park act. The Board consists 
of three members appointed by the mayor and serve without 
salary with the exception of the secretary. Highland Park, of 
which a plan is shown here, is the largest of the tracts, of 
which there are three others connected by a well-planned sys- 
tem of driveways. No telegraph, telephone, electric light, or 
other wires can be erected upon park property without written 
permission of the Board. Another enlightened provision is 
found in Section 12, which says that “All plans for new work 
or changes in park or parkways shall be examined by the land- 
scape architect in charge and his report be placed upon the 
records of the board before plans can be adopted.” 
* * 
There is a measure before the Legislature of Connecticut 
for the preservation of some of the Sound shore front for the 
public. Commencing at the western end of the Connecticut 
shore almost all the shore front for many miles is owned by 
private parties, mainly New York sojourners, who have 
erected high fences, shut off the beach, and even tried to stop 
the people digging clams out on the flats. This system has 
worked steadily along toward the eastward, and the very 
few places on the shore which are open to the public are 
growing less and less every year. Judge H. W. Doolittle, 
of Branford, has introduced the bill which asks for an appro- 
priation of $15,000 for a park, situated somewhere along the 
shore, and possibly more may be secured later. Judge Doo- 
little says : “In every town in Connecticut bordering on the 
Sound there should be reserved a liberal acreage of land, 
open and free to the use of all who may desire a temporary 
sojourn at the seashore, either for camping or for a day’s 
outing. The se reservations should be under state control and 
permanently secured to the people of the whole state.” 
