50 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
of decoration it has encouraged the love and culti- 
vation of flowers and plants, in itself a great and 
good thing, for while testifying to the devotion of 
the people to its fallen heroes and to the cause for 
which they suffered, the perfumed incense of flowers 
permeates the atmosphere of devotion to duty, and 
emphasizes its obligations both to the living and the 
dead. In our cemeteries it is the culmination of the 
superintendents’ spring efforts to display the beau- 
ties of his grounds for a few short hours, to be suc- 
ceeded by another period of activity to make good 
the damage due to the ceremonies of the day. With 
all its vexations it must be considered a labor of 
love, and our cemeteries, provided the season is 
bountiful, never look better than in the early hours 
of Decoration Day. 
T HE New York Sun some time since forcibly 
touched upon the question of the selection of 
members of Park Commissions. It is a very 
important matter, and generally speaking has been 
solved satisfactorily. But a word of caution is al- 
ways in order, and where the results of misplaced 
confidence, or culpable intention, may tend to so 
much harm for all time, it is proper to suggest that 
in the selection of men to fill the important posi- 
tions of park commissioners, established integrity, 
business ability, education, refinement, natural taste 
and aptitude for work to be considered, are among 
some of the qualifications which should influence 
the appointive power in the choice of park commis- 
sioners. Many questions arise in park development 
which require a high order of thinking, combined 
with an artistic sense, and for their best solution, it 
is quite certain that only a properly qualified board 
can successfully grapple with them. 
I N most of the States authorizing Arbor Day as an 
economic institution the appointed day has come 
and gone. Summing up the degree of its obser- 
vance it may safely be said that it is attracting more 
attention year by year as the people come to learn 
its import. Not alone is it a wise provision in gen- 
eral, because it tends to replace what has been ruth- 
lessly appropriated for commercial purposes, nor 
because it provides trees in treeless localities — a 
most wise intention — nor that it lends itself to the 
improvement of public places and homes; but im- 
measurably wiser is it because it is one of the great- 
est educators under proper direction that legis- 
lation has encouraged. The anticipation of the day 
in the public schools, where attention has been 
carefully bestowed, leads the mind of the young 
into channels full of refreshing stimulus, and the ne- 
cessity of being prepared for the day itself promotes 
investigation into a broad field of nature’s realm, 
and results in the acquisition of certain knowledge 
which will find fruition many times in life and al- 
ways to the good of the community. And again, 
the encouragement of the observance of Arbor Day 
leads directly to the consideration of the improve- 
ment of the home lot and highway, and in fact it 
may be readily subordinated to this idea to the wel- 
fare of the entire community. The whole country 
needs such improvement, and the fostering and ac- 
tive encouragement of the ideas underlying the 
formal observance of the day will rapidly change 
the face of the country and give to life more zest 
and to labor more spirit. Some of the States have 
added to the tree planting idea that of the care of 
birds. By all means let the care of birds be in- 
cluded in Arbor Day legislation; it is both appro- 
priate and proper. Trees and birds have been as- 
sociated since the creation, and indeed the birds are 
to-day sorely missed where circumstances have 
either driven them away or exterminated them. 
Legislature has been remiss in failing to provide for 
the proper protection of bird life, but it is time to 
believe that an era of refinement is setting in, su- 
perinduced by broader education, not by any means 
the least of which is the increasing attention given 
to nature as we see it all about us. To understand 
her better is intellectual progress. It is exceedingly 
gratifying to note the activity of the public press in 
regard to Arbor Day, and to it is largely due the 
increasing attention to the higher duties involved in 
its observance. 
VILLAGE IMPROVEMENT. 
The improvement of the villages of the various 
sections of the United States is one of the very 
broadest questions that can be considered, for their 
wealth and status is tar more varied than that of the 
cities and towns. 
A village may be anything from half a dozen 
houses and a railway shed to an aggregation of 
10,000 or 12,000 well-to-do people. 
Their prosperity will always or nearly always 
depend, however, upon the steady, continuous em- 
ployment of the inhabitants. Instead of the ten- 
dency to rush all life and industry to the large cities, 
would it not be far better to divide the industries 
among the villages? At the north especially, and 
along the railways, how much better it would seem 
to be to divide the manufactories and spread them 
over the country than cluster them in a stifling city. 
Then, perhaps, the conditions would be such tliat 
rural pursuits could be followed in the summer and 
manufacturing in the winter. If this were the rule, 
overstocked markets on the one hand and unem- 
ployed labor on the other would be less frequent, 
and the very change of occupation would be con- 
ducive to health and life and greater contentment. 
Such is the system in the oldest civilizations of the 
