PARK AND C EM ETER F. 
610 
PARK SUPERINTENDE'NTS IN CONVENTION AT KANSAS CITY. 
A paper on “Street Trees,” prepar- 
ed by J. J. Levison, Forester City 
Parks, Brooklyn, N. Y., was read by 
Mr.: Mulford. Mr. Levison said 
■‘The old neglected street trees are 
now gradually becoming the park su- 
perintendent’s care and he must pre- 
pare to meet this new problem.” 
Street trees, as well as park trees, he 
felt should be controlled by the mu- 
nicipality and placed under the juris- 
diction of a single head. Combining 
all city tree work Under one head is 
the only way of securing uniformity 
of planting and of controlling insect 
and fungus invasions over large areas 
and of doing anything systematically 
and at the right time. Mr. Levison’s 
address will be published in the next 
issue of Pask and Cemetery. 
Dr. Frank Baker, Superintendent 
Zoological Park, Washington, D. C., 
addressed the meeting on the subject: 
“Architecture of Animal Buildings,” 
and exhibited photographs of a large 
number of good and bad examples of 
such buildings in this country and 
abroad. 
In the evening the Commercial Club 
of Kansas City tendered a compli- 
mentary dinner to the association at 
the Hotel Baltimore. The speakers 
were J. C. Lester, president of the 
Commercial Club; Hon. Darius A. 
Brown, Mayor, and Henry D. Ash- 
ley, of the Park Board, who sopke on 
“Parks Are To Cities What Lungs 
Are to Men.” Mr. Ashley said in 
part: 
Parks are to cities what lungs are to 
men, that is to say, breathing places. And 
you, gentlemen, are the architects andi 
builders of these most important organs 
of the body politic. 
Upon you, the park superintendents of 
American cities, rests a large responsibil- 
ity. The importance of your work cannot 
be over-estimated, and such work for the 
benefit of all the people seems to me far 
more interesting than mere commercial 
pursuits, even though the financial returns 
are probably in most cases very meager. 
August R. Meyer, the father of our Park 
and Boulevard System, is the only man for 
whom Kansas City has erected a public 
memorial, which you have already seen 
in the Paseo. On the reverse side of the 
memorial is written: 
“Houses and shops are man’s. 
But grass and trees and flowers 
Are God’s own handiwork, 
Undaunted this man planned and toiled, 
That dwellers in this place 
Alight ever freely taste, the 
Sweet delights of nature.’’ 
This same August Meyer in his far- 
seeing and prophetic report on Parks and 
Boulevards made in 1893, nearly twenty 
years ago, and which has been the guide 
to all of our efforts since, said: 
“To make the most of life is tlie high- 
est duty of the individual, and to permit 
and advance its ' fullest development and 
enjoyment is clearly the first and greatest 
duty of every municipal corporation to- 
wards its citizens. Life in cities is an un- 
natural life. It has a tendency to stunt 
physical and moral growth. The monot- 
ony of brick and stone, of dust and dirt, 
the absence of the colors with which na- 
ture paints, the lack of a breath of fresh 
air, write despair on many a face and en- 
grave it on many a heart.” 
Now, gentlem.en, yours is the noble 
task, among the brick and stone, and dirt 
and dust, to paint with nature’s color and 
supply for the free use of all the people, 
the breathing spots where despairing faces 
brighten and weary hearts and bodies seek 
and obtain recreation. 
This work demands and doubtless re- 
ives the best service of which each of 
you is capable. Your financial rewards 
are no doubt small, but the joy of this 
wsrk and the direct beneficence of the re- 
sults, is its own best reward, nor can the 
best results be obtained unless the service 
of men with enthusiasm for their work 
can be secured. 
If I were to venture any word of ad- 
vice to this distinguished body it would 
be this; If you love this work, stick to 
It; and try to inoculate with your en- 
thusiasm every man connected with the 
work. If you don’t love the work, quit it 
at once. Only by such genuine enthus- 
iasm, in my opinion, can the vis inertia, 
to which all governmental work seems In- 
evitably prone, be to any extent over- 
come. 
It is certainly true as stated in our 
Park Report for the current year, that 
the courage and enthusiasm of August R. 
Aleyer still exerts a powerful influence 
for good on the Kansas City Park Depart- 
ment. 
To attain intelligent, efficient and eco- 
nomical construction and maintenance 
something more than perfunctory work 
must in some manner be secured from 
every one connected with the Department, 
from the president to the man who cuts 
the grass or waters the trees, and this 
useless perfunctory work is work without 
joy, and with the ear keenly alert for the 
quitting bell. 
The charm of work lies in the fact of 
its direct beneficence to all classes of peo- 
ple. To the children who frolic under the 
trees and paddle in the wading pools, and 
to the old men, who, having reached the 
allotted span of three score and ten, have 
dropped out of the mad struggle after 
dollars, but have learned from Robert 
Louis Stevenson or somewhere else, that 
playthings after all are the very pick of 
life, and still play croquet with the zest 
of boys, as you can see them doing any 
summer afternoon in our own Grove. 
As to what has been accomplished here 
in Kansas City in the way of parks and 
boulevards I have only this to say: We 
