PARK AND CC/nCTCRV'. 
the main drive and boundary line will be used as a 
nursery. 
Nothing has been said above concerning the 
planting, and use of trees and shrubbery, but it 
will all be provided for in a most thorough and ar- 
tistic manner. The shores of the lagoons will be 
planted with shrubbery down to the waters edge 
as a general idea, with variations to improve oppor- 
tunities. Over a quarter of a million of dollars will 
be spent on the work this year, and it is proposed 
that the portion of the park north of 59th St. will 
be completed as far as possible. Some work on 
the tennis and ball fields will also be done. 
Nothing is shown on the plan in relation to the 
well known Midway Plaisance, which runs west 
from Jackson Park from the point indicated. Ac- 
tive work on this parkway has been in progress for 
a year past and the design for its improvement will 
make it as interesting as any portion of the park 
system, of which it will form an integral part. 
The National Cemetery, Vicksburg, Miss. 
It was late afternoon of a golden June day in 
the latter part of April that I first saw the exquisite 
place known as the Vicksburg National Cemetery. 
This sentence, seemingly paradoxical, is strictly 
true to the facts. By the calendar it was April 26. 
By all tangible evidence it was northern June with 
many charming additions thrown in by a generous 
southern climate. 
We drove out of the town which rises up the 
face of steep hills, by the lower drive, known as the 
“river road,” a driveway bounded on one side by 
the Mississippi and on the other by stony cliffs, the 
face of which has been cut away to make the road; 
but which has been made so long that much of the 
facade is draped with honeysuckle vines that seem 
to be tumbling over from the gardens above. 
Occasional breaks in the bluff, made by ravines 
running at right angles with the river, make room 
for two or three ramshackle homes of colored peo- 
ple. These are placed at picturesquely precarious 
angles and are reached by long flights of steps lead- 
ing up from tiny enclosures crowded between the 
roadway and the embankment; and, to complete the 
picture, the queer little buildings are frequently 
clothed with vines quite to the gables, usually 
honeysuckle vines. So that the impression brought 
away is of a vine-draped way fragrant with the de- 
licious perfume of those quaint, wayward and al- 
ways delightful old fashioned flowers. 
The road rising gently, passes at last between 
trees to the stone entrance. Over the gate the in- 
scription reads: 
National Military Cemetery, 
Vicksburg, 
1864. 
ENTRANCE, VICKSBURG NATIONAL CB'.METERY. 
While on the inner side of the same tablet it is 
recorded; 
Here are buried 16,600 citizens who 
died for their country, 
1861 — 1864. 
But once the entrance is passed one scarcely 
thinks of what the place is for — what it is, is enough. 
And it is a place apart; it is, or seems to be, the 
place where the wicked cease from troubling and 
the weary are at rest. It is the place of Peace. 
Peace broods over it like a spirit made tangible. In 
that atmosphere. War is an element so foreign that 
it is difficult to include it in ones thoughts. 
The grounds run up the side of steep river hills, 
almost bluffs, the top of each succeeding rise hav- 
ing been leveled to make spaces for graves, so that 
there is a series of open glades of different sizes and 
shapes and at different levels throughout the enclos- 
ure. The hills have in fact been terraced accord- 
ing to their natural contour, and the wild beauty of 
the site preserved while being also skillfully adapt- 
ed to its purpose as a Cemetery. 
I have been unable to learn who deserves the 
credit of the work, but from the points of view of 
Engineer and Landscape artist, it is most credit- 
able. The one noticable defect is the use of prom- 
inent stone markers, but the graves are level so that 
the turf of the glades is neatly cut. 
It is a pity that where there is so much to com- 
