PARK AND CEMETERY 
AND 
VOL. XXIII 
LANDSCAPE 
GARDENING 
MARCH, 1913 
EDITORIAL 
No. 1 
Legal Delays to Park Progress 
Legal difficulties, accompanied by the usual number of hamper- 
ing whereases, have recently arisen to delay important park plans 
in several cities. In Chicago a citizen has filed legal proceedings 
to prevent a bond issue of one million dollars by the West Park 
Commissioners after the proposition to issue the bonds had been 
approved by the voters in the district in 1910. He asks that the 
County Clerk be restrained from paying interest or principal on 
any of the bonds. It is charged that the proposition was not 
properly submitted to and approved by the voters. It will be 
remembered that the outer park plan for a park reserve about 
Chicago was hampered some years ago by a legal technicality as 
to the majority of votes necessary to carry the proposition. In 
New York City the attempt on the part of the State to return to 
the original owner 32,000 acres of park land in the Adirondack 
Mountains, valued at $1,000,000 and acquired in 1909 by the For- 
est Purchasing Board as a part of the great Adirondack State 
Park has been frustrated by a recent decision of the Supreme 
Court at Herkimer, N. Y. A contractor has been permitted to 
intervene and delay tire acquiring of title to a part of the land. 
While the matter is not of great importance, it amounts to a con- 
siderable delay in the plans for the completion of this great park 
system. In St. Joseph, Mo., the comprehensive park plans which 
are being prepared for that city by George E. Kessler have been 
delayed by a property owner’s objections to the adoption of the 
report of the Prospect Park Commission on the ground that he 
owns property that has been illegally condemned by the com- 
mission. It is set forth that the court committed an error by 
admitting illegal evidence offered by the city, giving improper 
instructions to the commission, and in refusing to instruct the 
commissioners as asked by the defendant. It is also stated that 
the amount of damages is assessed at $398,000 and the benefits 
$397,000, so that the benefits are not sufficient to offset the dam- 
age. It is also claimed that the report was not signed by the 
commission. All of which technicalities matter very little to the 
people who want the park, but are sufficient in the eyes of the 
law to delay important work of park development. 
Advertising the Parks 
The energetic campaign being conducted to further the proposed 
park system in Schenectady, N. Y., suggests the thought that the 
public parks can be promoted by judicious advertising, just the 
same as any business enterprise. Schenectady has had carefully 
prepared plans executed by Mr. John Nolen for its proposed 
park system and is circulating them among the people in an illus- 
trated folder bearing the title “A Penny a Week for Parks and 
Playgrounds.” Mayor Lunn makes a forcible appeal in this cir- 
cular for more parks and playgrounds and sfiows how each one 
of the tracts and each section of the city ought to be beautified. 
The arguments for parks are unanswerable, and when properly 
presented they always win the support and the favor of the peo- 
ple, and we have no doubt this live campaign for Schenectady is 
going to result in a substantial betterment of its park system. In 
Chicago some recent efforts have been made to advertise the 
parks in the street cars. Handsome illustrated street car cards 
have been used to set forth the attractions of both Lincoln Park 
and the West parks. One of them bears a big' picture of a buf- 
falo, with the words in large type, “Lincoln Park Zoo — The best 
free show in town.” Another calls attention to the conserva- 
tories in Garfield Park, which are the largest in the world. Not 
the least of the duties of the park commissioners and superintend- 
ents is to advertise the cause of the parks to the people con- 
vincingly and continuously. 
Beautifying the Unlovely “Tombstone’ 
Mrs. Ella Wood Dean, authoress and horsewoman of Chicago, 
is at present engaged in posing for her “tombstone” for a local 
sculptor and has expressed in the course of a lengthy interview, 
accompanied by a fetching portrait, some very interesting talk on 
the subject of “tombstones” and “graveyards,” as she is pleased 
to refer to them. According to the local papers, Mrs. Dean says : 
“People go to graveyards to weep nowadays. I believe this is 
wrong. My tombstone, of which I am dearly fond, represents 
the picture of Hope, to be surrounded by poppies and executed in 
bronze. Nobody will weep when they see my tombstone. They 
will rejoice.” Without analyzing categorically Mrs. Dean’s views 
on her tombstone, most people probably will agree with her that 
the average tombstone is calculated to incite tears and mourning 
from anyone with refined artistic taste, and her efforts to produce 
a beautiful memorial for her family lot is certainly a worthy one. 
Says Mrs. Dean further : “It is much more comfortable lying 
beneath a lovely tombstone.” And she might have added, it is 
undoubtedly much more comfortable and pleasant for the people 
to pass through a cemetery and look at it. Cemetery people 
should certainly welcome this effort of Mrs. Dean to make the 
farftily monument of commerce a thing of joy. We anticipate 
with great pleasure a visit to the cemetery when Mrs. Dean’s 
“tombstone” is completed. 
Consolidating the Chicago Parks 
We have with us again this spring the long familiar proposition 
of consolidating the three park systems of Chicago into one. 
Mayor Harrison has sent to the City Council a new bill for the 
consolidation of the three local park systems under the juris- 
diction of the city government. He proposes this as a substitute 
for the bill already approved by the Council and sent to Spring- 
field as the city’s bill. The first park consolidation bill was pre- 
sented as a part of the new charter bill which was defeated some 
years ago. This, it is claimed by the Mayor, provided for the 
assumption of the obligations of the parks by the city without 
providing for an adequate system of raising revenue to take care 
of such additional burdens and without increasing the debt limit 
of the city. The Mayor’s new bill is designed to correct these 
financial discrepancies. 
