PARK AND CEMETERY. 
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The late James Aram of Delavan, Wis., bequeathed $20,000 
for a public library for the town, in memory of his daughter. 
Miss Abbie A. Bradley, Hingham, Mass., the daughter of 
the late William L. Bradley of fertilizer fame, has donated 
$20,000 to Harvard College, the income of which is to be devoted 
by the Director of the Arnold Arboretum to the purpose of in- 
creasing by scientific investigation the knowledge of trees. Mr. 
Bradley was greatly interested in trees and this donation is an 
exemplary and wise memorial by his daughter. 
* * * 
The park commissioners of Wabash, Ind., have decided to 
construct a hitching rack, 150 feet long, to which to tie horses, 
a drinking fountain built of boulders, of attractive and substan- 
tial design, and other improvements in the city park. These 
have been much needed, and the hitching rack will tend to save 
many of their trees from injury and destruction. The hitching 
rack will have to convey the idea of penalty for failure to use it 
instead of the trees, to make it serve its best purposes. 
* * * 
The village improvement society, of Nahant, Mass., is prov- 
ing itself to be a most wide-awake organization, and although 
but a few months old the effect of it can be seen in all 
sections of the town. Its committee on roads recently sub- 
mitted a report to the citizens in relation to the feasibility of in- 
troducing an. electric railroad to connect the town with Lynn, 
and the committee express themselves very strongly against any- 
thing of this kind. It is claimed that the summer residents pay 
eight-twelfths of the taxes, and to put in a railroad means the 
driving of many of these taxpayers to other places. This is one 
of the principal arguments in the report. The matter is being 
freely discussed by the townspeople, and lively times are antici- 
pated at the special town meeting, about to be held, called to 
take action on the question. 
* * * 
has been carried out under the auspices of the Northwestern 
University settlement. It is a suggestion to the city authorities. 
* * * 
The Regents of the University of California, at Berkeley. 
Calif., are studying a magnificent scheme, architectural and 
landscape, for the future of the university. Its location is beauti- 
ful to a degree, its area of 245 acres rising quite abruptly from 
its level campus to a height of some 900 feet on the foothills of 
the coast range. Already rich in endowment and state grants, 
its has assurances of donations of many millions of dollars to se- 
cure the results contemplated, which are in a word to rival the 
World’s Fair in Chicago in architectural features, and in land- 
scape art its diversity of contour renders it amenable to the most 
picturesque effects. It has been decided to invite international 
competition for the general plan to aid the best results of which 
the most complete data will be prepared. Mrs. Phcebe Hearst 
will defray the entire cost of preparing for the competition. 
* * * 
The Philadelphia Board of Education out of an appropria- 
tion of $3,000 was able to equip twenty- two playgrounds for 
children this summer. The idea was put in practice in 1895, 
with four grounds, and it was productive of so mucti good and 
happiness that eight more were added last year, and ten more 
this year. As compared with former years, the playgrounds have 
been much better equipped with toys and games. In a number 
of yards swings and seesaws have been introduced, and teachers 
and janitors have devised games or furnished material for ele- 
mentary manual work in certain directions. Increased shade 
has been provided. The sandpiles are larger, and in each play- 
ground comfohable seats for mothers have been placed. These 
playgrounds are situated in the more densely populated portions 
of the city, and many of the playgrounds have a distinctive race 
character. At one the majority of children attending are Ital- 
ian; at another Russians or Polish Hebrews. The general daily 
attendance in the playgrounds runs from about 300 to 600, ac- 
cording to the location. Many of them are largely patronized by 
mothers with their babies. 
* * * 
In connection with the park system of Indianapolis, Ind. , 
bonds for $350,000 have been issued. This was supposed to pro- 
vide for all the expense incident to it, but as soon as purchases 
of ground were made it was found assessments were to be placed 
on adjacent property to pay for the park lands. People living 
along the land thus selected question whether their property 
would be benefited by the proximity of a public park, and many 
believe it would be a detriment. An injunction brought the 
proceedings to a halt, but it is understood the scheme will be 
carried out if the courts finally sustain the law. It would seem 
that considerable education is yet necessary tor Indianapolis in 
the matter of public parks. The city is behind the times in such 
matters, and should hasten rather than retard such important 
public improvements. 
* * * 
Workers in the field of endeavor to elevate the masses in 
Chicago, and there are many prominent citizens engaged in the 
laudable work, have established a play ground for children in 
one of the most thickly populated tenement districts, largely of 
Polish nationality. In this district, the sixteenth ward, there 
are 166 people to the acre with 30,000 minors, and there is a cry- 
ing need for small parks. Very few of the buildings have any 
spare ground in front or rear. The people of the neighborhood 
show a hearty appreciation of the boon, and the police in charge 
give very favorable reports of the behavior of the children. The 
need of small parks in such neighborhoods was never better 
illustrated than by this example of practical benevolence, which 
Eve Brodlique gave an interesting article in a recent issue 
of the Chicago Times-Herald on fascinating Clovelly, that hill- 
side Devonshire fishing village, long the residence of Canon 
Kingsley, and which figures so much in “Westward, Ho!” She 
says: “Visitors slip painfully upon the elementary steps, and 
the round-bodied donkeys, untrammeled with rein or harness, 
but with panniers slung on either sleek side, climb zig zagging 
up and down with unhurried motions. We move along the fascin- 
ating place, and turn to look up. It is like a narrow canon 
fringed by the queerest houses that ever lined a street. The 
whitewashed cottages have their fronts frescoed with climbing 
ivies, wisteria, clematis jackmanni and nasturtiums all abloom, 
and wonderful in size and color. Great tangles of marigolds and 
fuchsias, masses of pink and yellow roses add strong notes of 
color, and over the little green palings of one white cot is the 
vivid coloring of a great laburnum bush in blossom. A jessamine 
drops star-shaped snow upon the pebbly ground, and masses of 
honeysuckle shed fragrance like manna. Virginia creepers and 
hydrangeas filled one garden and house front, and another house, 
made an arbor by jessamine, geranium and nasturtium, had a 
queer little dormer window which was suddenly pushed forward 
by impatient young hands, and the golden head and fair face of 
a Devon maiden appeared simultaneously with the arrival of a 
handsome fisher lad at that portion of the street. It was a pretty 
enough picture. Youth and age, and youth a-loving! We dis- 
creetly turned away.” It takes time to create such beauty spots, 
but everything must have a beginning. 
