349 
PARK AND CE-ME-TE-RY. 
f 
Annual reports or extracts front ihem^ historical sketches^ 
descriptive circulars^ photographs of improvetnents or dis- 
tmctive features are requested for use in this departnient* 
The directors of the Public Library of Chicago will install 
branch libraries and free delivery stations in field houses of 
Hamilton Park, Armour Square and Davis Square, three of 
the new small parks of the South Park System. The Library 
Board will furnish the books and pay the attendants, and 
the Park Board will furnish the rooms and equipments. 
^ ^ 
Experiments in sprinkling oil on the roadways of the 
South Park System to lay the dust are being carried on 
under the direction of Supt. J. F. Foster. The Midway and 
certain stretches of pavement in Washington Park for several 
weeks have been administered with a solution of the fluid, 
which is known as “Westrumite.” So far the use of the 
liquid has not passed the experimental stage, yet it is be- 
lieved that it will come into general use next year. 
The Kansas City Park Board is also considering the ad- 
visability of using oil for sprinkling its roadways, and an 
official of the Standard Oil Company in that city has offered 
to sprinkle a section of road free for a test. 
* * ^ 
The Special Park Commission of the City Council, of Chi- 
cago, has issued a report and an appeal for funds for estab- 
lishing play grounds in the slum districts of the West Side. 
The Board has an appropriation of only $22,000 for this work 
and is maintaining nine playgrounds besides meeting other ex- 
penses. They are considering a plan to levy a special as- 
sessment upon all property within one-half mile of the pro- 
posed playgrounds, to raise money for purchasing sites. The 
corporation counsel is to give an opinion as to the legality of 
this plan. 
^ ^ ^ 
The Thirty-sixth Annual Report of the Buffalo Park Com- 
mission consists of a brief summary of the receipts and ex- 
penditures for the year. The receipts for the year were 
$i 73 - 388 - 49 - The expenditures were $153,713.88, including the 
following items: Labor, $22,442; salaries, $11,900; South 
Park maintenance, $23,171 ; Cazenovia Park maintenance, 
$5,412; zoo maintenance, $7,572. 
* * ^ 
The report of the Inter-State Palisades Park Commission, 
of New York and New Jersey, for 1904, shows 112 acres added 
to this public recreation ground within the year. Of the ac- 
quisitions, 102.47 acres in New Jersey cost $42,757 and 10.30 
acres in New York, $3,732. The jurisdiction of the Commis- 
sion is now over 11.02 miles of river frontage in New Jersey 
and 2.84 miles in New York, leaving 17,710 feet of shore 
frontage to be acquired in New Jersey. Negotiations for the 
purchase of 2,050 feet of this frontage are pending. 
* * * 
The nineteenth annual report of the Commissioners of the 
Niagara Falls Park (Canadian) says that the area of the 
park has grown, by the addition of crown lands and lands 
acquired by purchase, from iq6 to its present extent of 787 
acres. The amount expended in acquiring the whole prop- 
erty, from 1887 to the present time, was $463,871.60, and this, 
with the totals for permanent improvements, etc., makes an 
aggregate expenditure to Dec. 31, 1904, of $31,351,139.50. 
Figures show an excess of expenditure over receipts, for 
eighteen years, of $22,460.50. The report refers to the fran- 
chises granted for privileges within the park, from which the 
annual revenue now assured to the park is $84,200. This will 
increase yearly, and with growing demand for electrical en- 
ergy, is expected to amount within the next five years to over 
$200,000 per annum. 
* * 
The beautifying of the Interstate Park at the Dalles of the 
St. Croix is provided for in a bill introduced in the Minne- 
sota state legislature by Senator Duke W. Cowan, of Sand- 
stone, which appropriates $20,000 for permanent improvements, 
$10,000 to be available in igo6 and $10,000 in 1907. The sum 
of $6,000 is appropriated for maintenance for three years, 
1905, 1906 and 1907, and the state auditor is authorized to 
draw a warrant for $1,500 for the purchase of a toll bridge 
which the state wishes to acquire. It is proposed to explore 
the giant kettles and pot holes and make them accessible to 
visitors. Pavilions will be constructed for the accommodation j 
of sight-seers, and a new steamboat landing is contemplated. 
It is proposed to tear down the few buildings at the park, 
which are in a dilapidated condition. It is possible that Wis- 
consin will join with Minnesota in purchasing the toll bridge. 
If the tw'O states are unable to purchase the bridge, it is pto^ 
posed to construct one across the St. Croix river. 
* * * * 
Park Commissioner Joyce of Buffalo, N. Y., recently mad^ 
a trip to Mexico, and brought back, among other things^, 
some interesting stories. Mr. Joyce says that the most pecul- 
iar sight he saw was a Mexican cutting grass in one of the' 
parks, and describes the operation as follows : “This fel-jj 
low was working on an almost square meadow. From endj |l 
to end, I should say the meadow was about 200 feet in lengths 
Well, the Mexican had an American lawn mower, and he ran 
it over the lawn very slowly. When he got to the end of the 
line, at the place where the American would turn his mower 
around and start cutting the other way, this fellow would 
pick his mower up and carry it on his shoulder back to the 
place from which he started. Then he would run another 
swath through the grass and carry the mower back again to 
the starting line. You couldn’t dynamite a new idea into the 
head of a common Mexican laborer.’’ > 
* * * J 
i 
The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Park Commissioners 
of St. Paul, Minn., records a number of substantial better^ 
ments to the system. The Board has secured during the yearj 
an amendment to the Home Rule Law which increases the 
maximum appropriation for park purposes from $75,000 to 
$90,000. A new park of ten acres in the Sixth Ward has 
been secured at a cost of about $8,867. The accompanying 
report of Superintendent Nussbaumer shows that the most 
important improvement is the remodeling of the entrance to 
Como Park. The tracks are run under an iron bridge be- 
neath Lexington avenue, and a concrete foot bridge of pleas- 
ing design gives entrance to foot passages above the track. 
A shelter station is also to be constructed here. The next 
most important improvement was the completion of the 
Riverside roadway to Randolph street. The charter amend- 
ment authorizing the city council to appropriate $10,000 a 
year for playgrounds has been approved by popular vote. The 
Japanese garden is under construction in Como Park, as a 
gift of Dr. Rudolph Schiffman. There were 7,373 trees 
planted in the parks during the year, of which 2,671 were in 
Como and 2,137 in Indian Mounds. During the season 2,756 
i 
