PARK AND CEMETERY, 
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nicipal recreation and pleasure resorts, and this has 
created renewed interest in landscape art. But 
landscape art, in its true conception, demands as 
much ability, aptness, education and study as art of 
any kind, and it is in proportion to the possession 
of these attributes that work of the highest value 
may be expected from men professing it, and yet 
it is an unquestionable fact that the people have a 
right to the best. How to secure the best and so 
avoid the blunders of the past is the present day 
question in all departments of public art. The rele- 
gation of all such questions to a properly qualified 
commission whose decision shall be accepted as 
final, seems the best way of solving the problem, 
although recent attempts, owing to the unbalanced 
conditions of certain omniscient officials, have met 
with more or less discredit. Undoubtedly the ap- 
pointment of competent commissions and a fair 
trial of the method will assure results far in advance 
of present examples. The recent controversy in 
New York City in relation to the buildings for the 
botanical garden at Bronx Park brings into a strong 
light the absolute unreliability of the so-called busi- 
ness man’s dictum on problems involving art. The 
training of a business man and the training of the 
professional artist have practically nothing in com- 
mon, hence the necessity in the public interest of 
calling for a decision on important questions from 
qualified sources, and that decision given, question- 
able and often interested officialism should not dare 
raise its voice. Mayor Strong’s reported remarks 
concerning experts, which in this case included Prof. 
Sargent and Mr. Olmsted, leaders in their calling, 
not only belittled his office, but reflected upon his 
reputed business sense. 
THE VALUE OF IMPROVEMENT. 
I recently paid a visit to a pleasure ground in 
Pennsylvania which is attracting vast numbers of 
visitors. 
It belongs to a traction company, and the profits 
are made by carrying people, and renting buildings 
for their refreshment and amusement. There is no 
charge for admission. The best orchestra in the 
country has been engaged for the season. There 
is a shady grove with the floor gravelled, and fitted 
with small tables. There is a fountain, capable of 
illumination, by electricity, but more conspicuous, 
and less a component of the artificial landscape than 
it should be. It supplies a lake, in a portion of 
which separated by a stone bridge, a collection of 
Nymphses and Nelumbiums are planted. The 
superintendent’s office at the entrance, and the 
bridge, are built of a dull red conglomerate. The 
other buildings of which there are several, are every- 
thing from shanties to Grecian temples, and of ma- 
, 1 _ - ■■■-.=< 
terial from brick with or without stucco, to vari- 
ously fashioned wood. The lawns are in admirable 
condition, the drainage seems to be on an engineer- 
ing scale, the roads far more numerous than neces- 
sary, and “keep off the grass” signs duly conspicu- 
ous. 
The planting is rather thick for its future good, 
not as to the trees for a wonder, but in the more ex- 
cusable shrubs. 
Besides ourselves, out of all the thousands of 
people there, but one other was seen to take any 
close interest in it. Perhaps they had seen it be- 
fore. Perhaps they saw at a glance that which we 
took pains to study and analyze, and find that every 
group was about the same. There were but four 
flowering shrubs at the time of our visit, large 
quantities of Hydrangea paniculata, a few Hibiscus 
Syriacus, two or three Clethra aluifolia, and a single 
Spirea. Some of these groups were enlivened by 
plants of Cleome pungens evidently added by the 
gardener. Otherwise every group was composed 
of ordinary nursery stock, and studded with 3 or 4 
or 5 purple Prunus cerassifera, better known per- 
haps as Pissardi. The only variety was in the shape 
of the groups and the relative quantities of the con- 
stituents. They were few, and the result was a cer- 
tain monotony which failed to hold the attention. 
But as if this were not enough, the spring- flowering 
shrubs were being sheared to an abominable dead 
uniform level, just as you may often see in flower- 
less monotonous nursery rows. It were better by 
far in a park to let nature run riot, than perpetrate 
such wretched work as this shearing. It is an in- 
fantile attempt at foliage bed neatness in the shrub- 
bery. 
On the opposite side of the highway is the now 
abandoned resort which first gave the locality a 
reputation. It is abandoned because the new prop- 
erty presents greater attractions, yet numbers who 
have time wander aimlessly over it, enjoying the 
dignity of its desolation. 
The ground and the trees upon it are superior, 
and the lake in the concavity is far more natural 
and pleasing even without the artifice of a fountain. 
Such artificial planting as exists is wretched, formed 
merely to extend the shade , anticipating greater 
throngs of people. The maple trees were in wider 
rows like those of an orchard. They served how- 
ever to accentuate the superiority of the more nat- 
ural portions. 
It was abundantly evident that a well advised 
company seeking a park in the locality could not 
pass such a property by. A little enquiry soon 
elicited the fact that they had appreciated it. They 
desired to buy it. The reasons are given below why 
they didn’t. I have sought their verification di- 
