PARK AND CEMETERY 
404 
An?iual reports or extracts from thetfty historical sketches^ 
descriptive circularSy photographs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use in this department* 
A strong effort is being made to have the site of the Lewis 
and Clark Exposition at Portland, Ore., preserved and im- 
proved as a permanent park. It is also proposed to erect a 
memorial building, to preserve relics of the exposition. 
* * * 
The 45th annual report of the Park Board of Hartford, 
Conn., tells of the work of maintenance during the year, and , 
contains a number of interesting features not usually found in 
park reports. A diagram and planting guide to Theodore 
Worth’s well-known rose garden in Elizabeth Park is given 
and several photographic views of the garden shown. A pre- 
liminary plan for a school garden at Riverside Park and two 
grading plans for filling ponds in the same park are also in- 
cluded. The total expenditure for the year, $41,915.97. 
. * * 
The 30th annual report of the Boston Park Board notes a 
number of substantial improvements in Eranklin Park and in 
the Fens. The woodlands and plantations in Franklin Park 
have been carefully studied and overcrowded and unhealthy 
material has been cut out. ..A. number of thorns of a species 
discovered by Professor Sargent will be planted in this park. 
Brief reports from eighteen city playgrounds are given. 
* * + 
The committee on parks of the city council of Battle 
Creek, Mich., have employed Howard Evarts Weed, land- 
I scape architect, Chicago, to draw the plans and supervise 
the planting of the parks of the city. The many little tri- 
1 angular corners formed by street intersections will be im- 
proved by the planting of dwarf shrubs, especially Thun- 
berg’s barberry. A pretty waterfall is to be made in Meacham 
Park. Willard Park, the sixteen-acre tract on the shore of 
Lake Goguac, will be left largely in its natural state, except- 
ing by the formation of new driveways and the opening of 
vistas. 
* * * 
The South Park Commissioners of Chicago recently let the 
contract for 22,000 feet of iron fence, 6 feet high, at $1.04 
per foot, for the purpose of fencing Jackson and Washing- 
ton parks. The proposed moye has aroused the unanimous 
opposition of all the newspapers, all the clubs and organiza- 
tions in the South Park district, and of the citizens generally. 
The women’s clubs have passed resolutions against it, and 
numerous protests from indignant citizens have been pub- 
: fished in the daily press. Superintendent Foster of the South 
Park system, gives the following as the reasons for the pro- 
t posed step : “The park commissioners had several reasons 
for deciding to put up the fences. In the first place, the 
shrubbery has been trampled down all around the park. In 
I the second place, the shrubbery has been a hiding place for 
' thugs. All entrances to the park will be locked at ii o’clock 
^ every night with the exception of the main entrances. At 
these policemen will be stationed. The action was taken 
largely to improve the morals in the park.” At the last 
meeting of the Board a petition bearing the names of 12,000 
citizens was presented protesting against the fences, and it is 
announced that the plan has been abandoned. 
* :|e + 
Charles H. Rice, superintendent of the Park on the Pali- 
sades, N. J., writes to comment on our editorial on the polit- 
ical jobbery in the Essex County Park System, and tells of 
many personal experiences with incompentent political help 
when he was connected with that park system. He says; 
“I remember sending a deputy foreman one day with a, 
list of trees to be dug and sent to one of the divisions for 
planting. He took along with him about fifteen men. Among 
the trees he was to dig were oak, maple, dogwood, benzoin, 
etc. After keeping the men idling around for three hours, 
he sent for me to come and select the stuff, as he could 
not pick it out with the fancy names. It had all previously 
been planted in rows nursery fashion and named botanically. 
One of the first I came across was the benzoin bushes. He 
told me that that was spice bush and he had never heard of 
benzoin, neither had he heard of the dogwood as cornus. 
* ^ * 
Theodore Wirth, the well-known superintendent of parks 
of Hartford, Conn., and president of the American Associa- 
tion of Park Superintendents, has resigned his position at 
Hartford to accept the superintendency of parks at Minne- 
apolis, and will begin his new duties January i. Mr. Wirth 
came to Hartford in 1895, when Bushnell was the only park, 
and to him is due the greater share of the credit for the city’s 
fine park s}'stem. Mr. Wirth is 42 years old. He is a native 
of Switzerland and a graduate of a school of landscape archi- 
tecture in that country. He worked in the parks in Paris 
three years, and in the parks of London for several years. 
When a young man he came to New York, and was made a 
member of the plotting department of that city’s park system. 
He assisted in plotting Morningside Park and had charge of 
the plotting of the state reservation at Niagara Falls, and is 
recognized as one of the best park superintendents in the 
country. He is a member of the board of directors of the 
Society of American Florists, and a former president of the 
Hartford Florists’ Club. Minneapolis is to be congratulated 
on securing the services of such a valuable man. 
G. A. Parker, superintendent of Keney Park, is to succeed 
Mr. Wirth as superintendent by an agreement with the 
trustees of Keney Park. Mr. Parker is well known as one 
of the most capable and best informed park superintendents 
in the country, and his acceptance of the oifice will bring 
about a practical unity in the city’s park system. 
* * * 
Jens Jensen, the new general superintendent of the West 
Park System of Chicago, has submitted a report to the com- 
mission concerning 'the condition of the west parks, and his 
recommendations for rehabilitation and improvement to be 
accomplished by the bond issues of $2,000,000 for improve- 
ment and $1,000,000 for new small parks that were adopted 
at the election of November 7. We quote as fbllow's' from 
Mr. Jensen’s report: 
“After a period of thirty-five years we still find the parks 
more or less deficient in such construction work as tends to 
make them restful and picturesque. Whole groves of trees 
and shrubbery have become extinct, or at least so scattered 
as to entirely destroy vistas or meadow border planting, 
which are pleasing to the eye as well as restful to the mind. 
“The street border plantations were never properly planted, 
although with their youthful growth they served the purpose 
