82 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
s 
£ — — — 
those whose attendance really make the meetings of 
value, will lose their interest, and the character of 
the organization will degenerate. It will be well for 
the Association if the business, “the housekeep- 
ing,” as one of the members called it, can be left 
entirely in the hands of the council, but the council 
must be composed of men who have a national 
reputation for their skill and good judgment in the 
management or designing of public parks or other 
ornamental grounds in which the public has an 
interest. The man who, through influence, may 
have recently obtained a position on some park 
board, and who will in all probability be soon 
succeeded by others like himself, should, if possible, 
be suppressed. The field of usefulness of the 
Association is so broad, and so intimately con- 
nected with the higher development of our com- 
munities, that the outset of its career must be 
jealously guarded that absolute faith in its ideal 
purpose may be engendered in the minds of all 
who may come into touch with its activities. 
A GENERAL admission of the truth of the quo- 
tation that the child is father to the man 
seems to govern all propositions for improve- 
ment, whether of society or its material surround- 
ings, and this seems to be clearly indicated by the 
efforts in all our large cities to provide recreation 
and attractive instruction for the little dwellers in 
the slums. A perusal of the report of the second 
annual meeting of the Park and Outdoor Art Asso- 
ciation, gives further prominence to the fact. Many 
of the papers read were devoted to the questions of 
the relation of the park to the child in its educa- 
tional or physical sense, and much stress was laid 
on the various phases of the question. It is un- 
doubtedly a wise policy in any case to make the 
education of the rising generation concurrent wflth 
the immediate effort to carry forward any economic 
movement. 
F ROM the earnest interest displayed by the citi- 
zens of Minneapolis in the proceedings of the 
association, coming as it did from a com- 
munity almost lavishly supplied with park facilities, 
it may readily be assumed that the time is ripe for 
a crusade in the interest of outdoor improvement. 
There is no doubt as to the extent of the field to be 
covered, but with a sentiment thoroughly aroused, 
as it is possible to do by wise and persistent effort, 
and especially in the direction of cultivating and 
directing the enthusiasm of the young when brought 
into harmonious relations with nature, there will 
surely come about a new order of things, — a condi- 
tion where the surroundings of the home will re- 
ceive comparatively as much attention as its inter- 
ior. 
RESIDENCE STREETS.— XI. 
CARE, ( Continued .) 
In addition to taking care of the trees and shrubs, 
the grass along the parkway should be mown, the 
roadway cleaned and sprinkled, the sidewalks swept 
and kept free from leaves or snow and all papers 
picked up. 
If people generally could learn to see flowers 
and enjoy them without picking or destroying blos- 
soms that would give pleasure to other passers-by 
as well as themselves, the grass might be allowed 
to grow in places until snowdrops, crocuses, daffo- 
dils and perhaps some of the lilies had bloomed and 
ripened their bulbs for the production of another 
crop of flowers the coming year. These and other 
bulbous plants could easily be planted in the grass. 
There are hundreds of other herbaceous plants, such 
as yuccas, the irises, lupines, butterfly weed, colum- 
bines, harebells, native asters, sunflowers and gol- 
den rods, which are quite hardy, live year after 
year, and produce beautiful flowers which would be 
delightful to see if one was not constantly exasper- 
ated by seeing the flowers ruthlessly torn off and 
nothing but broken stems left in their places. 
It should be the duty of some man to be con- 
stantly at work sweeping the dust and manure from 
the roadway and picking up and taking care of all 
stray papers. This is really an inexpensive matter, 
and nothing adds more to the neatness of a street. 
One man with a wheelbarrow, broom, rake and 
shovel can take care of two miles of well made 
streets. It should be the duty of the residents to 
assist him by refraining from throwing papers and 
other refuse where he will have to take care of them. 
The removal of the dust will make the surface of 
the roadway itself more agreeable, and will help to 
keep the houses clean and the foliage bright and 
fresh during dry windy weather. 
Every street should be sprinkled as well as 
cleaned. This I believe in the end is a measure of 
economy since it helps to preserve the road surface. 
It should however, be judiciously done. Often too 
much water is used so that the surface becomes soft 
and muddy, allowing heavy loads to make ruts 
which by holding the water tend to become deeper 
and deeper. The surface should be merely damp- 
ened not flooded. Often where sprinkling is done 
by contract the contractor may save some time by 
deluging the street but this method certainly ought 
to be prohibited. It tends not only to the produc- 
tion of ruts running lengthwise but it makes little 
ridges and depressions running across the street 
which make the surface quite uncomfortable espec- 
ially for bicycle riders. 
The smooth hard surface of a well kept road, 
the neat appearance of a street which receives the 
