1 3 6 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
8 ^ PARK NOTES. 
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£/9 
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Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, Boston, hearing of the movement 
of the Hallowell, Me., Improvement Society to raise funds for the 
purchase of a fountain for City Hall Square, offered the society the 
sum of $500 for the purchase of two drinking fountains to be 
placed in different parts of the city, the city to have charge and 
supply water for the fountains. The gift has been accepted and 
the city has signified its willingness to control the fountains and 
they will be placed in position at an early day. The Vaughan 
family were among the first settlers of Hallowell and have always 
manifested a great interest in the city and its institutions. 
* * * 
Some of the writings of Dr. Wendell Holmes on the subject 
of trees are refreshing and inspiring. In one place he says: “We 
find our most soothing companionship in the trees among which 
we have lived, some of which we may ourselves have planted. 
We lean against them, and they never betray our trust; they 
shield us from the sun and from the rain; their spring welcome 
is a new birth which never loses its freshness; they lay their 
beautiful robes at our feet in autumn; in winter they stand and 
wait — emblems of patience and of truth — for they hide nothing, 
not even the little leaf-buds, which hint to uS of hope, the last 
element in their triple symbolism.” 
* * * 
The munificence of Mr. Charles H. Hackley in Muskegon, 
Mich., is well worthy of repeated acknowledgement, for it shows 
how much good may be accomplished, from well considered 
gifts, and may serve as an incentive to other rich men to help 
the cities which have perhaps most helped them. Mr. Hackley’s 
donations to Muskegon thus far have been: Hackley’s Public 
Library, $125,000; Hackley Square $45,000; Soldiers’ and Sail- 
ors’ Monument, $27,000; toward the Hackley and High School 
buildings, as an endowment for the library, $75,000; Hackley 
Manual Training School bu lding and equipment, when com- 
pleted, $70,000; endowment, $100,000; statues of Lincoln, Grant, 
Sherman and Farragut, $25,700; total $467,700. 
* * * 
The American Forestry Association held a meeting in 
Omaha, Neb., early this month, in accordance with a vote taken 
at the Nashville, Tenn. , meeting of a year ago. The topics ar- 
ranged for discussion were mainly appropriate to Western con- 
ditions. Among the papers and discussions were the following: 
“Where does our Timber come from;” “The Wind Break-Its 
Value and Form;” “The Catalpa in Plantations;” “The Exten- 
sion of Native Forest Growth in the Plains;” “How does Forest 
Growth Affect Climate;” “The Forest Botany of Nebraska 
Economically Considered;” “Arbor Day and its Economic Sig- 
nificance.” Many of the most prominent men in the country in- 
terested in this important feature of the nation’s economy par- 
ticipated. 
* * * 
Since the old public common of York, Pa., has been con. 
verted into what is now known as “Penn Park” various organi- 
zations and individuals have been contributing in various ways 
to its embellishment. Among the donations are band pavilion; 
an iron flagstaff one hundred feet in height with a flag, and num- 
bers of settees and benches. In addition to the many trees 
planted by the citizens who laid it out on last Arbor Day each 
individual school in the city, either public or private, planted a 
tree. In this same park stands the monument recently erected 
by the County Commissioners in memory of the soldiers and 
sailors of the Civil War. The latest gift of the citizens which was 
dedicated on Labor Day is a fountain standing 24 feet in height. 
The first or lower basin is thirty feet in diameter and four feet 
deep, the second basin is ten feet in diameter and the third or 
upper basin is seven feet in diameter. It is surmounted by a 
figure of “Rebecca,” eight feet in height. 
* * * 
The city of Chattanooga itself is to be considered in rela- 
tion to the part it bore in the war of 1861-65 i n connection with 
the National Military Park. The Chickamauga Park commis- 
sion has made plans to erect monuments to famous union gen- 
erals who participated in the battles of Chickamauga and Mis- 
sion Ridge to be erected on the triangles and squares in and 
about the city. These are to be built at the expense of the 
government. The plan is afterwards to turn them over to the 
city park commission to care for them and beautify the sur- 
rounding grounds. In the matter of establishing a park in South 
Chattanooga, it is understood that Mrs. H. L. Whiteside will 
give to the city an entire square to convert into a park and that 
a monument will be erected there in honor of her son, the late 
J udge Hugh Whiteside. The setting out of hundreds of new trees, 
trimming those now set out, converting the city’s land east of 
the national cemetery into a park and fixing up the Citizens; 
cemetery is, in brief, a summary of the park commissioners’ wor^ 
now laid out. 
* * * 
Among the railroads which have entered into the idea of 
parking some of the blank spots about their depots, thus adding 
to the attractiveness of the locality and their own popularity, is 
the Michigan Central. This company maintains greenhouses, 
propagating establishment and a chief gardener and assistants, 
whose duties are to improve and embellish the station grounds 
along the route of the road, under the jurisdiction of the chief 
engineer. It is to be regretted that in most cases the chief ef- 
forts are directed to formal designs and the grotesque in garden- 
ing, even though it offer paramount attractions to many. At 
Ypsilanti, Mich., this year, John Laidlaw, the chief gardener has 
produced a floral representation of the battleship “Maine,” 53 
feet long, on a scale of one-sixth natural size. Over 117,000 
plants were used in its construction, comprising Nepete glacama, 
Alternanthera spatulata, Echeveria segunda glauca, echeveria 
metalica, alternanthera parychoides major, alternanthea versi- 
color, and sedum variegatum, etc. Besides a number of formal 
beds at this station, there is a representation of a large disap- 
pearing gun, displaying much ingenuity in design and carrying 
out. » 
* * * 
In a discussion at Omaha during the convention of the So- 
ciety of American Florists, Mr. C. B. Whitwall of Milwaukee, 
Wis., made the following remarks on the relations of the florists 
with park officials and the duties of florists themselves towards 
the parks: “I do not believe there is a city of any size in which 
the practical florist could supply what the park systems require 
at any price. They certainly could not do it unless they had 
taken the contract a year in advance and where that has been 
undertaken, as far as I know, the contracts were not satisfactor- 
ily filled. I think there is no other way for park administrations 
to have what they really want — when they know what they want 
— other than to produce it themselves, as long as they are not 
competing with the florists. * * * Moreover, I think 
that we should interest ourselves and the public as far as possi- 
ble, in the management and care of public parks. I believe it 
would be advisable for all our cities that have florists’ clubs to 
branch out and form horticultural societies for the purpose of in- 
structing the people to take an interest in the parks and their 
evolution, in order to back up good superintendents and good 
managers when they get them — and hold on to them. I think, 
in that way, political influence will be killed better than in any 
other. ” 
