PARK AND CEMETERY, 
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The Humane Society is making plans to erect a $500 foun- 
tain at the public market of Quincy, 111 . 
* * * 
The Chamber of Commerce of Utica, N. Y,, is taking the 
preliminary steps toward the establishment of a park system. 
The prevailing sentiment of leading citizens is for a chain of 
eight or ten small parks of from forty to fifty acres each rather 
than one large one. 
* * * 
A resolution was offered at a recent Council Meeting of 
Memphis, Tenn., to accept the Old Folks Society’s gift of Win- 
chester cemetery to be transformed into a park. The property 
contains 8^ acres, finely wooded and beautifully located. The 
city passed the resolution accepting the gift with thanks to the 
society, and agreeing to make the necessary improvements. 
The name is also changed to Winchester Park. 
* * * 
Ex- Senator Sawyer has presented to the city of Oshkosh, 
Wis., $25,000 to aid in establishing a public library. Marshall 
Harris, a pioneer lumberman of the city, bequeathed his estate, 
valued at $80,000, to Oshkosh for a library fund, provided the 
city raised $55,000 and Mr. Sawyer made up the amount neces- 
sary, putting up $25,000, thus creating a public library fund of 
$160,000. 
« * * 
At the meeting of the Philadelphia Common Council last 
month Mr. Meehan introduced a bill to appropriate for park 
purposes the abandoned burial ground on Graver’s lane, near 
Twenty eighth St., Chestnut Hill. This plot of ground adjoins 
the playground of the Joseph C. Gilbert School, and it is ex- 
pected that, if the property is acquired by the city, the privilege 
of allowing the children of the school to use it as a play ground 
will be granted the Board of Education, as it is convenient and 
adapted for the purpose. The graveyard is known as the 
Union Burying Ground, or “No Man’s Land,” the latter title 
having been given it because, it is said, for a number of years it 
has not been in charge of any person or organization. 
* * * 
The influence of Town and Village Improvement Societies 
may become very far reaching. Besides the work which sug- 
gests their existence their organization is leading to the investi- 
gation of many important events connected with local happen- 
ings in early times. As an instance the Amesbury, Mass., so- 
ciety has been influenced to good work in designating many 
places of interest, such as the home of Thomas Macy, Ichabod 
Bartlett, ship-builder Hackett, and others of old colonial and 
revolutionary days. The renovation of the grounds where once 
stood the “Old Sandy Hill Meeting House,” besides such efforts 
as decorating once vacant barren spots of land on street corners, 
is an exhibition of useful endeavor to improve the town along 
lines which but for the existence of such societies would never 
be done. 
* * * 
At a recent meeting of the Lenox, Mass., Village Improve- 
ment Association the following resolution was adopted: “That 
the Lenox Improvement Association would herewith respect- 
fully and courteously suggest to the owners of estates in Lenox 
and vicinity the propriety of making such removals or cuttings 
in the trees which ornament their places, as will permit travelers 
on the highways to enjoy the beautiful views for which the re- 
gion is noted, and which are now being so sadly obstructed and 
will, in future, unless immediate action be taken, be entirely 
destroyed.” A local paper says: There are few places where 
the fine estates have been so freely opened to the public as they 
have in Lenox and judging from the generous spirit always 
shown by the cottagers in this respect it is believed the above 
appeal will find a ready response, and we will add that such a 
course will be in line with refined ideas on landscape work. 
* * * 
As an example of the progress made in Australia, far in ad- 
vance of that in the United States, relative to the traffic of bicy- 
cles, a letter was recently received by the Commissioners of 
Washington, D. C., which will be found interesting. A com- 
munication is addressed to the “City Clerk. Washington, D. C.,” 
and is signed by John Clayton, the town clerk of the city of Mel- 
bourne, Australia, and asks, on behalf of the City Council, for 
information in regard to the regulations in force in this city gov- 
erning bicyle riding. From the communication it would ap- 
pear that the city of Melbourne is about to lay special paths or 
tracks in the streets for the use of bicycle riders, thereby proving 
themselves far in advance of this country in the proper manage- 
ment of that important question. The letter requests the Com- 
missioners to favor the writer “with particulars of any special 
provision which has been made in the public streets for carrying 
bicycle traffic, such as specially prepared stripes or tracks.” — 
Washington Post. 
* * * 
On the subject of small parks in New York City, Mr. Wil- 
liam E. Curtis writes in the Chicago Record as follows: “Wher- 
ever a small park has been established the police authorities re- 
port a decrease of vice and poverty. The captain of the 12 th 
precinct, in a recent report to the commissioners of police, said: 
‘The Hook gang is gone. It has disappeared since the estab- 
lishment of the Corlear’s Hook park.’ The Hook gang was one 
of the most desperate and dangerous organizations of thieves and 
thugs in the city. The captain of the 6th precinct reports: 
‘The establishment of Mulberry Bend park is one of the great- 
est blessings that could be bestowed upon the people of this pre- 
cinct.’ Wherever a playground has been established similar re- 
ports are made. The troublesome boys do not move away, but 
they have found something better to do than smashing lamps 
and quarreling. They have a place where their surplus animal 
spirits can be expended without interfering with the rights and 
comforts of others. Their energies have found a safe and beau- 
tiful outlet. The health officers report a decided reduction in 
the rate of mortality wherever parks have been established.” 
* * * 
Speaking of the work constantly going on at the Arnold Ar- 
boretum, Cambridge, Mass., a writer in the New England 
Florist says: “Already preparations are being made for the 
planting of another year. Ploughing has begun on strips for 
belt planting, where it is expected that willows and poplars of 
every species in the world will be coaxed into contentment. The 
work of constructing roads through the land which has recently 
been purchased by the Arboretum is also progressing rapidly, 
and it is probable that the road on the west side will be finished 
this fall. Even so early as this, the Arboretum is beginning to 
assume its wealth of autumn beauty. The path leading up the 
hill from South street near the lilacs is fairly ablaze with the gor- 
geous colors of the fruit of the viburnum. Ten species of this 
may be seen ranging in hues from red to deepest blue, now 
the palest yellow or green and again flushing into a vivid scarlet. 
The cornus, too, is in all its splendid fruitage and in the order 
of the shrubbery, the hydrangea paniculata and its varieties, 
both double and single, are a mass of pinkish white bloom. 
Here, too, flourish the cotoneasters, the fruit of which has also 
taken on those colors of the waning season, purple and scarlet.’’ 
