264 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
rial and opportunity, and it may truly be said that 
some good work may be accomplished winter or 
summer, so long as there is interest in the work, 
and the proposed work is well matured in the mind 
of the worker. 
T HAT we are only in the beginning of an era 
of park improvement, the vast amount of 
work required and suggested and the broad 
extent of country to be treated, is positive evidence. 
But that a general awakening to the desirability of 
more parks and park area is in progress, is just as 
evident, from the information that offers itself from 
all parts of the country. It is not at all surprising. 
Just as soon as the advantages of any progressive 
step is made apparent, the genius of the American 
people very quickly grasps the import, and through- 
out the land there appears a simultaneous effort to 
promote the improvement. And it is already 
quite clearly demonstrated that park development, 
intelligently prosecuted from first to last, pays a 
large dividend in many more ways than that of 
mere money returns, which alone fully justify the 
cost. The transition in the crowded city, from its 
pent up conditions, unnatural altogether in relation 
to man’s higher aspirations, to the delightful fra- 
grance and freshness of a well planned park, cannot 
be gauged by any common standard of val ues. It has 
a pronounced bearing upon the two sides of man — 
his intellectual and physical natures, and finds its 
measure in the health records, in the social life, in 
the union of forces for the general welfare, and in 
the moral standing of the people. Impossible to 
estimate by figures, but nevertheless exerting its 
powerful influence in common with the other silent 
forces of nature, working to the good of man. 
A QUESTION that has agitated the officials 
working on theNew York soldiers’ monument 
seems to be appropriateness of monument to 
site. Little attention has ever been paid to this 
most important phase of public monuments, al- 
though the parallelogram or square system of laying 
out our cities, with its tiresome monotony, adds em- 
phasis to the question. It suggests more variety in 
design and character to offset the monotony of com- 
mercial arrangement, and that the commission ad- 
judicating on a design should be thoroughly 
equipped to secure results that will grow in public 
commendation. This feature has not, however, en- 
tered into the New York question, for in that city 
the monotony is scarcely apparent. But the ac- 
cepted design, taken in connection with the splen- 
did site desired for the work, did not secure the 
unanimous conviction of the Art Commission. The 
value of the monument, its appearance, and perhaps 
other aspirations which the site called into play, 
failed to meet the standard aimed at in the combi- 
nation of site and work of art. The whole question 
appears to be in good hands. New York can well 
afford to leave such a matter in the hands of its Art 
Commission. It has much to redeem from an art 
standpoint, and it has opportunities in that direc- 
tion not possessed by other cities. 
RESIDENCE STREETS.— VI. 
MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION. — Continued. 
PLANTING. 
Upon the planting will depend the artistic ap- 
pearance and homelike character which a residence 
street should have. On each side of the street there 
are two strips of ground available for planting, 
which may be considered in connection with our 
general subject. One is a narrow piece of ground 
along the boundary of the street which is some- 
times left vacant, and sometimes occupied by a 
fence, a wall, a hedge, or a belt of planting; the 
other is the ground between the sidewalk and the 
pavement, and, on the ordinary street will have a 
width ,of about ten feet. This width will be in- 
creased on those streets which have their boundar- 
ies eighty feet apart, a width often adopted for sub- 
urban streets. 
Perhaps it will be well to think first of the 
boundaries. It has been quite the custom of late 
^ears to do away with fences in those places where 
stock is not allowed to run at large. I sympathize 
with this custom, as a fence is usually an unsightly 
object, but I believe that something should take its 
place. There should be some privacy about one’s 
home, and the home should extend outside of the 
walls of the house. Considered from the resident’s 
point of view, the street should usually be quite 
shut out of view, especially w'hen he is strolling 
about his grounds. On the other hand, it is pleas- 
ant for those passing by to get a glimpse of what is 
beyond the street boundary. Walls and hedges are 
forbidding, since they give the street a shut- 
in appearance, an effect which is admissible at 
times but should not prevail everywhere. To me 
an irregular belt of planting made up mostly of 
shrubbery, furnishes the most satisfactory solution 
to the problem. Mosc of 11s can recall at least one 
man among our acquaintances, a man usually occu- 
pying some position of prominence or authority, 
who is so polite and courteous that we leave him in 
a happy frame of mind, feeling that we have been 
especially favored even though he has denied a re- 
quest that u r e have made. The fence, the hedge, 
or the high wall , is the abrupt and somewhat dis- 
agreeable offLial who says, “stand back, or keep 
out.” The irregular belt of planting, close to the 
sidewalk at one point, somewhat recessed at another; 
