PARK AND CEMETERY. 
218 
has been retained for another year as. consulting engi- 
neer. 
Taxpayers of Huntington, N. Y., have voted to expend 
$12,000 for a public park. 
Arthur H. Lowe has presented to the town of Fitch- 
burg, Mass., a playground valued at $15,000. 
The city of St. Louis has advertised for proposals to 
buy a tract of land for a public park. 
J. M. Hackett has presented to the city of Easton, Pa., 
thirty acres of land for a park adjoining one hundred acres 
which has already been offered to the city. 
Frederick Law Olmsted has prepared a report on the ac- 
quisition of park lands along the Assanpink Creek for the 
city of Trenton, N. J. 
The park commission of Providence, R. L, has pur- 
chased a tract for a public park at an expenditure of 
$1,360. 
The Woman’s Improvement Club of Vallejo, Cal., has 
started a movement to purchase four blocks on the water 
front and develop it as a public park. ' 
The town of Owosso, Mich., has secured an option on 
the tract known as the Gutes Hill Park which it is planned 
to buy for a city park. 
An ordinance is to be introduced in the city council 
of Indianapolis to annex to the city a twenty-acre tract 
of woodland known as the Ellenberger Woods near 
Irvington. It is planned to make a public park of the 
tract. 
The city of Huron, S. D., has secured a tract for a 
public park in the center of the city from the Northwest- 
ern railway on condition that they pay the railroad $3,000 
and agree to expend $7,000 on the improvement of the 
tract in the next five years. 
Annual reports or extracts from them, historical sketches, 
descriptive circulars, photographs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use in this department. 
Forest Park, St. Louis, was during the last month threat- 
ened with serious damage from forest fires which broke out 
among the dead leaves under the trees. Fire broke out for 
several days in succession, but serious injury was averted by 
the prompt action of the park police. 
* * * 
The Park Board of St. Paul, Miiin., estimates that it 
will be obliged to confine the park work in that city next 
season to the minimum necessary expenditures for mainte- 
nance and improvements, owing to a shortage of funds. The 
estimated receipts are $111,050, and the expenditures $110,350. 
* * 
Park Superintendent Rodgers, of Cincinnati, has adopted 
heroic methods to stop automobile speeding in the parks. 
The method is to fill a long board with sharp spikes and 
throw it in front of the machine. Mr. Rodgers says this 
remedy was made necessary by the impossibility of stopping 
drivers of motor cars. The speed limit in the Cincinnati 
parks is six miles an hour. 
The Commercial Club, of Omaha, Neb., is interesting 
itself in a movement to urge the legislature to amend the 
charter of that city to provide for a large appropriation 
for parks. At present, the charter provides for only $30,- 
000, with provisions empowering the council to reduce 
this amount. *>(::(: 
The Citizens’ Business League, of Milwaukee, is urging 
the city council to create a park commission which shall, 
with the aid of expert assistance, carfully investigate the 
local park conditions and report on a plan of action which 
may be carried out by the park board during a long term 
of years to result in creating a system of parks,, driveways 
and boulevards and a grouping plan for the public build- 
ings in Milwaukee. 
* * * 
The Public Parks Board of Winnipeg, Man., is adver- 
tising for a superintendent of parks. The board has un- 
der its supervision ten city parks, one suburban park, 
three public squares and about sixty-five miles of boule- 
vards. The department also has control of the city cem- 
etery and has the supervision of all boulevard construc- 
tion whether put down by contract or day labor. Appli- 
cations must be presented before January 31st to J. H. 
Blackwood, secretary of the Public Parks Board, Winni- 
peg, Can. 
* * * 
At the approach of the recent Christmas season Super- 
intendent of Parks J. W. Thompson, of Seattle, Wash., 
was obliged to station a watchman in each of the parks 
to prevent the loss of evergreen trees. During the Christ- 
mas seasons in former years, small boys, men and in 
some cases women, had acquired the habit of obtaining 
their Christmas trees from the city parks. One case is 
cited in which an expressman was caught in the act of 
preparing to transfer about a wagon load of pretty ever- 
greens from Washington Park to a saloon for decorating 
purposes. * * * 
From the Annual Reports 
The Thirteenth Annual Report of the Board of Park Com- 
missioners of Des Moines, Iowa, is confined entirely to a 
statement of the receipts and expenditures for the year, the 
detailed items being given for each park. The total receipts 
for were $74,551, and the expenditures $61,548. 
In the Seventeenth Annual Report of the park board of 
Detroit, Mich., the problem of transportation from the city 
to Belle Isle Park receives important consideration. The 
commissioner says that the phaeton service was unable to 
accommodate the public and believes that the only solution 
of the problem seems to be the building of a larger bridge 
with an elevated electric road overhead. 
The annual report of the park commission of Milwau- 
kee shows a total expenditure for the year of $115,977. 
Of that amount $64,775 was for general maintenance and 
the rest for improvements. Some of the items of expen- 
diture were: Pay roll, $15,284; lighting, $5,565; concerts, 
$2,500. A new greenhouse was erected in Mitchell Park, 
a new bandstand in Humboldt, and playgrounds with all 
the necessary apparatus were installed in five of. the parks. 
The annual report of Edwin R. Mack, superintendent of 
parks, Wihnington, Del., tells of the building of a new 
bridge across the Brandywine river and some substantial 
improvements in the way of grading and road building. 
Two tracts of land have been added during the year. The 
legislature of 1901 authorized the issue of $50,000 worth of 
bonds for park improvements of which $40,000 have been 
expended. The legislature of 1905 authorized an issue of 
$30,000 for land and $20,000 for improvements. 
