423 
PARK AND CEMETE-RY 
wise to place in them such objects of interest as may 
be available. 
Possibly most interesting of the many of these is 
the little Stattwiildchen of Buda Pest, the great resort 
of the people, of summer evenings. Lawns with foun- 
tains, and avenues shaded by giant sycamores, meeting 
overhead, with benches placed in their shadows that 
the pedestrian may rest, flank the way to this park ; 
and on this path the pretzel-seller, dear to the heart of 
the Magyar, and the little girls peddling curious brown, 
wooden apes on a string, have place. Landaus dash by 
into the heart of the park, where the flower-beds, the 
kohlias and the zinnias and the aster, as well as 
chrysanthemum and “Hungarian-grass,” are arranged 
in tasty fashion. Here, too, there are more benches, 
but the Magyars are, withal, a frugal lot, believing that 
comfort should be paid for by those enjoying it, and 
so here, as at the Paris Exposition, one pays so much 
for sitting down, a fraction less than two cents the 
seat. When the illuminated fountains play, the park 
extracts a neat rental in this wise. 
At the upper end of the Stattwaldchen there have 
been erected, — primarily for one of the Buda Pest ex- 
positions, but of permanent material, examples of the 
architectural types of Hungary for every century or 
so of her history. In among these buildings at Buda 
Pest, some of which portray castles of past centuries, 
a clever statue of “Anonymous,” a great writer of 
early Hungary, who left invaluable notes signed by 
that misleading title only, has been erected, — the face 
of the historian hidden inside a great hood, as he sits, 
pondering, in his chair. Another feature which one 
finds in the parks of southern Europe is the opening of 
a public restaurant in the city parks. These park res- 
taurants are leased by the city under strict municipal 
control, and even in winter, when skating is the popu- 
lar amusement, the restaurant proves most serviceable. 
Some four-thousand odd persons annually subscribe 
the amount of a dollar and a quarter, for the mainte- 
nance of facilities for skating tournaments in the Statt- 
waldchen, and, as a result, the skating is of the ver\- 
finest. 
This park at Buda Pest also contains the Art Mu- 
seum, but is, otherwise, rather unpretentious. There 
is a statue of Winged Victory, for a Millennium Mon- 
ument, but all in all the grounds remind one very gen- 
erally of the government reservation at Niagara ; even 
to the crowds gathering about the Salvation Army 
choristers, who here, despite the Magyars’ hatred of the 
Austrian and his tongue, distribute their leaflets in the 
German. In still another feature does the Stattwald- 
chen resemble an American park, and that is at the 
point where the Under-ground cars emerge from the 
sub-way in its midst, — the prospect at that point being 
closely akin to that of the subway descent into the 
Common of Boston. Like Central Park, New York, 
the Stattwaldchen also supports something of a Zoo. 
Buda Pest’s Margarethen Insel, the Coney Island of 
southern Europe, is too familiar to require mention 
here ; but in addition to it the capital city has other 
pretty boulevards, notably along the Andrassy Street, 
that could well be imitated in some of our own cities. 
In fact the center of Andrassy Street, the main street 
of the city, is given over to parking, upon which face 
the handsome four or five-story stone flats, — the lower 
floors given over to the choicest stores of the city. 
Wide pavements project parkward, with rows of trees 
separating their edge from the little garden spot it- 
self. Down along the Danube, likewise on elevated 
quays, parks have been laid out and cafes opened, so 
that one may sit at his ease over the papers and the 
cofifee, the great drink of men and women alike, while 
the Blue Danube rolls down, just below. With us the 
river-front is usually the toughest part of our cities. — 
so much so that, quite frequently, persons of any stand- 
ing hesitate to be seen in that vicinity. With the quay 
parks and the restaurants forbidden to sell intoxicants,, 
the prettiest part of many of our towns would soon be 
that section where the winding river ■ enters directly 
into the perspective. Aside from the Botanic Garden. 
Buda Pest has another interesting little park, known as 
the Schwur-platz, where the Emperor Franz-Josef 
took the oath as King of Hungary. On the heights 
across the river, at the imperial suburb of Ofen, where 
the Emperor-King lives when in Buda Pest, another 
park with restaurant and charming sunset river view, 
looks down on this site. 
The city of Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, noted as the 
hot-bed of Macedonian sedition, has an interesting lit- 
tle park, known as the Royal-Gardens, open to the pub- 
lic on Wednesdays and Saturdays from two to six, and 
at other times by special permission of the Palace 
Chamberlain. One of the heavy brick walls, coated 
over with a yellow plaster, so familiar in this part of 
Europe encloses the park, and against it the cages of 
the wild animals, housed here, are placed. While small, 
the collection is interesting. There are cages of pheas- 
ants and cages of wild cats, monkeys, foxes and wolves, 
all mingled indiscriminately. One huge aviary of net- 
ting, fitted with dead shrubbery, houses the collection 
of birds, and as in these trees the little songsters are 
almost as free as if not in captivity at all, they are 
seen at their best. The love-birds, and a finch of a 
velvety, jet-black body, tipped ofif by orange cape and 
tail-feathers, and a number of red birds, are among the 
most noticeable of the lot. Larger fowl and the deer 
have spacious runs, likewise fitted with shrubbery, and, 
incidentally, with the proverbial sign forbidding the 
visitors feeding the animals. Especially pretty, in the 
early autumn, when the leaves are drifting in the park, 
and the bugles of the near-by garrison have their calls 
softened by the fall haze, are the by-ways along the 
