194 
At present only a passing reference will 
be made to the grass. Manifestly those 
areas thrown open to the free use of the 
public cannot be maintained in good grass. 
On the areas from which the public can 
be excluded good grass can be established 
excepting in the very shadiest ones. There 
are some areas even now which are in fair 
condition of turf, notable being the two 
large areas just south of the Weat-her 
Bureau kiosk. However, this matter of 
grass is a large subject and should be 
treated of in a separate article. 
In the above only a few of the most 
obvious points relating to the future policy 
as regards the vegetation on the Common 
have been touched upon ; but there is still 
one more point, perhaps the most impor- 
There was unveiled in the Public Square 
at Bordentown, N. J., a handsome foun- 
tain, dedicated to the memory of the Bor- 
dentown Female College and presented by 
the College Association to Bordentown. This 
fountain is the work of Richard Thomas, 
of Bordentown, and is 7 feet in height, 6 
feet in width and 4 feet in thickness. It is 
carved from pink Tennessee marble and 
mounted upon a granite base and set on a 
concrete pavement. 
The Board of Education and the Park 
Commission of Nashville, Tenn., are plan- 
ning to create public playgrounds on the 
school grounds of the city. The park com- 
mission will install the playground appar- 
atus and have general supervision of the 
work. 
The City Club of Chicago will hold a 
competition for plans for a neighborhood 
center, the object being “to bring before 
the public the practical possibilities of en- 
hancing neighborhood life in our cities by 
better buildings and grounds for neighbor- 
hood activities.” The program for the 
competition has been prepared with the co- 
operation of the Illinois Chapter of the 
American Institute of Architects. In ad- 
dition to the three sets of drawings which 
will be awarded the prizes, the jury will 
also select the eight next best and $600 
will be divided equally among these eight, 
to cover in part the expense of preparing 
the drawings. Inquiries for further in- 
formation should be addressed in writing 
to “Neighborhood Center Competition,” 
City Club, 315 Plymouth Court, Chicago. 
Plans involving radical changes in the 
management of the National parks were 
announced by Mark Daniels, whom Presi- 
dent Wilson recently put in the newly 
created office of landscape engineer and 
general superintendent of national parks. 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
tant of all still to be referred to, and that 
is the attitude of mind respecting the sub- 
ject. If it is assumed that it is not worth 
bothing about the old trees, because they 
are doomed in the near future anwway, 
that will undoubtedly be their fate, just 
as a man seriously ill who makes up his 
mind that there is no help for him will 
probably die. The stand must be that 
the comprehensive, radical measures have 
been applied, to be followed up by hope- 
ful, intelligent, unremitting care. With 
this idea, many, if not most of the old trees 
may be expected to live and afford pleasure 
for a generation or more, and the younger 
trees will in their maturity be spared the 
troubles and disfigurements which now at- 
tend their seniors. 
“Within two or three years, the department 
of the interior hopes to popularize the 
parks for tourists and keep in the United 
States at least $200,000,000 a year of the 
$560,000,000 that is annually expended 
abroad by Americans,” said Daniels. 
Among the changes Daniels has set out to 
accomplish are : Establishment of per- 
manent headquarters of the National Park 
system in San Francisco. Making parks 
vastly more popular as resorts by attrac- 
ting builders of fine hotels, through long 
term leases in place of the present year-to- 
3 r ear leases. Elimination of ugly struc- 
tures and adoption of a type of artistic 
architecture that will harmonize with the 
environment of national beauty. Better-, 
accessibility to the parks, through the 
building of more roads and trails. Dan- 
iels said that his appointment was a step 
toward the establishment of a bureau of 
national parks. 
Agitation to improve the Superior, Wis., 
city park at the Nemadji river with Wis- 
consin and Minnesota Points as sub-parks 
is being started by prominent East End 
citizens. They contend that the two points 
and the Nemadji river offer great possi- 
bilities and believe that a little money ex- 
pended from time to time would make the 
Nemadji and Superior bay a pleasure re- 
sort for thousands of Superior rest seek- 
ers. 
New Parks and Improvements. 
That the city' of Galveston, Texas, soon 
will have one of the finest parks in the 
southwest, and, in addition, will have a 
number of small beauty spots along its al- 
ready famous boulevard, is indicated by 
preparations being made for the establish- 
ment of pleasure parks in the south end. 
At a recent meeting of the board of com- 
missioners, the purchase of the property 
1 
between Avenue QJ4 and the boulevard, 1 
Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth streets, 
was authorized, and the Galveston Com- ) 
mercial Association has agreed to add to 
that the blo_ck bounded by the same streets j 
and Avenues Q and QJ4, making a large j 
park when the intervening streets have : 
been closed. 
A movement has been started at Kansas 
City, Mo., to improve Oak Grove Ceme- 
tery and make it a park cemetery. The 
park department has promised to make im- | 
provements there at once. 
A park commission has been organized 
for Hugo, Oklahoma, and a pleasure 
ground will be platted off about one and 
one-half miles northeast of the city. The 
prospective location of the park possesses 
scenic attractions and includes a beauti- 
ful lake. 
The lack of benches in Monument Val- 
ley Park, Colorado Springs, Colo., was re- 
cently noted by a business man, who con- 
tributed $100 to start a fund to provide 
such benches. The park commission also 
hopes to secure money enough to construct 
a shelter pavilion in the park. 
To forestall what they believe may de- 
velop into a menace to the city or an un- 
sightly splotch upon the city’s civic beauty, 
to obliterate one of the most dangerous 
crossings in the city, and to acquire for 
park purposes that section of the city 
known as Turtle Creek bottom, or Wood- 
chuck Hollow, a committee of citizens 
of Dallas, Texas, has put a proposition be- 
fore the city park board. 
In the report of the examination of the 
books of the state board of agriculture of 
Indiana, Examiner Hendren recommends 
that the state fair grounds be used for a 
city park, after arrangements are made by 
the city of Indianapolis to police and main- 
tain it. It has been pointed out that a' 
though the 214 acres occupied by the fair 
ground is worth $636,000, the state has ac- 
tually invested only $133,000, and the board 
members are favorable to the plan of beau- 
tifying the grounds in collaboration with 
the city park board, and throwing the 
grounds open to the public. It has rec- 
ommended the tearing down of some of 
the old buildings and erecting new, up-to- 
date ones at the expense of the state. 
From the Park Reports. 
From Racine, Wis., comes a most in- 
teresting report at the end of the first de- 
cade of park building in that city. The 
president of the board of park commis- 
sioners states that the plans of ten years 
ago suggested only in a very modest way 
the work that has been carried to comple- 
tion. The large meadow in Washington 
Park was plowed during the fall of 1911, 
after having been in a wet and disused 
condition for a great many years, and was 
cultivated, preparatory to making a lawn. 
This lawn was usable by August, 1913. 
All the trails in the woodlands of Wash- 
PARK NEWS. 
