PARK AND CEMETERY. 
105 
rubbish disappears from the back yards and alleys, and 
trees and flowers are cultivated. 
In the community referred to a boys’ Club last 
spring fixed a fine upon each boy who should walk over 
the lawn of the factory when the gardener was trying to 
reclaim a recently sodded yard. Last summer these 
same boys cultivated flowers and vegetables in a large 
open field with little disturbance from any one. In this 
particular instance a border of flowers was planted upon 
the entire front and sides of the gardens, with no fences 
for protection, though on one of the leading streets. 
During the entire summer it was never necessary to say 
to the boys “Don’t pull the flowers” or to speak a 
restraining word regarding their care. Even the i lie 
street urchins who came to make faces at the boys 
working industriously in their garden patches were 
never known to pull the flowers,- — although no watch- 
man was kept on these grounds. Hundreds of people 
passed along the street daily, or came to see the boys 
at work in their gardens, and from this observation 
many were led to change entirely their habits at home. 
It must be seen 
therefore that money 
and labor expended in 
beautifying parks and 
improvement of streets 
by planting trees and 
grass wherever pos- 
sible, and in beautify- 
ing the homes of the 
people, is well and 
wisely expended, and 
it is productive of 
more good to a com- 
munity than can be 
secured in any other 
manner. How to se- 
cure these results is 
one of the problems 
of this association and 
its influence should be 
felt in every city and 
community. Believing 
that it is facts and not 
theories, experience, 
not ideals, that even 
enthusiasts want to-day, I beg simply to tell the story of 
one community’s efforts to solve the problem of better 
living by encouraging a love of simple home beautifying 
and instruction in the plainest elements of gardening. 
The statement of the principles you can make for your- 
self, I simply give their application. Incidentally it may 
be mentioned that this story and that of the factory 
which is its center, has been told in the great cities of 
Europe and America and has proved helpful to many 
thinking people. 
Ten years ago in the southern part of the city of 
Dayton, Ohio, one of Ohio’s prettiest cities, was a 
section known as “Slidertown.” It was distinctly an un- 
enviable portion of the city, full of nuisances, mud holes, 
and undesirable classes of residents. Into this section 
came a little later a factory (That of the National 
Cash Register Company) with the attending advantages 
and disadvantages. After a few years experience the 
owners of this factory (Messrs. J. H. & F. J. Patterson) 
influenced by numerous difficulties resulting largely from 
their surroundings, determined to change the condition, 
and if possible to make the factory the leader in improv- 
ing the entire section of the city. Realizing thafprac- 
tice often precedes precept, they began by setting the 
example about their own premises. Their factory 
grounds were at once beautified in a simple but effective 
way by cultivating of lawns and the planting of shrub- 
bery, using only such plants as easily grow in this cli- 
mate. Air. J. C. Olmsted was invited to visit the city 
and this work was done under his suggestion. The pre- 
sident of the company (Mr. J. H. Paterson, a member 
of this association) went a step further and invited his 
employees and their friends to visit his own beautiful 
grounds in the center ot the city, giving them thus a 
practical example of what might be done on a city lot. 
The effect of this effort soon became apparent in the 
neighborhood, as one by one the employees who were 
accustomed to these comfortable surroundings during 
their daily toil came to carry the idea into their own 
little homes in the neighborhood. 
Then realizing that organization is just as important 
in a community as in a business, under the leadership 
of the president of the 
company an organiza- 
tion of the people of 
the neighborhood was 
effected. To indicate 
that they were step- 
ping upward the name 
of this section of the 
city was changed to 
“South Park,” and the 
association organized 
was called the “South 
Park Improvement 
Association.” Its work 
though less than three 
years old is familiar to 
many of you, and has 
come to be known 
throughout the entire 
country. Through 
this association all 
subsequent e ff o r t s 
have been made, 
though the power be- 
hind the throne is still 
the factory and its officers. After example came pre- 
cept, and it was seen in order to get the best results in 
a neighborhood, instruction was necessary in the simplest 
method of home planting. Regular meetings of this assso- 
ciation were held at which talks were given by competent 
men on rules to be observed in ornamental planting, on the 
best kinds of shrubbery to be used in this climate and 
community, and on the principles of artistic gardening. 
The stereopticon was a great assistant in all this, and on 
each occasion pictures were shown of homes lare;e and 
small in various parts of the world, and of ideal methods 
in planting. In order to cultivate a spirit of enthusiasm 
for suburban parks many pictures were given of the 
great parks of the world, and thus a public sentiment 
aroused upon the value of parks and gardens. The 
city is under obligation to many of the members of this 
association for assistance in carrying out these plans; 
for hearing of the work done, men and women from 
many parts of the country have sent photographs of 
their own grounds which might be used in this training. 
It may be added that in order to make this teaching 
A PRIZE HOME AND YARD IN SOUTH PARK, DAYTON, OHIO. 
