PARK AND CC/ACTCRY 
195 
PARK NOTES. 
The Wilmington, Del., Park Commission has decided to 
print a report of its work for the past twelve years in the hopes 
of interesting the people in park work. 
* * * 
A scheme in connection with the boulevard and park sys- 
tem of Detroit, Mich., is to construct bridle paths for eques- 
trian pleasures. An effort is being made by which it is hoped 
eventually a bridle path will extend all around the city. 
^ * 
Park Commissioner Squier, of Brooklyn, N. Y., on the 
question of accepting the much talked of Heine Monument for 
Prospect Park, is cited as saying, that there is no place for 
it in Prospect Park and that the best landscape engineers have 
given their opinion that no more statuary ought to be allowed in 
that park. 
* * ^ - 
In connection with the project for a National Military Park 
at Vicksburg, Mass., the Jewish Cemetery Association, at a 
meeting, unanimously resolved to give to the government for 
incorporation in the park, a portion of the cemetery pioperty 
whereon some of the severest fighting duringthe siege took place. 
Phis action has met with the warmest commendation and should 
serve as an incentive to others. 
* * 
The Fine Arts League of Philadelphia has officially noti- 
fied the Fairmount Park Art Association of its cordial approval 
of its aims and purposes, and in connection with the intention 
of the association to provide the city of Philadelphia with mem- 
orial statues of distinguished citizens has offered its services to 
aid in carrying out the project. The Fine Arts League is com- 
posed of delegates from The Philadelphia Sketch Club, The 
Philadelphia Society of Etchers, The Philadelphia Society of 
Artists, The Art Club, The Artists Fund Society, The Philadel- 
p'.ii.i Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the 
T-Square Club. 
* * * 
At the last session of the Nebraska legislature a law was en- 
acted providing for the appointment of three park commissioners 
in cities of over 5,000 and less than25,ODO inhabitants, possessing 
one or more public parks These appointments are to be made 
on the second Monday in January, by the district judge. These 
commissioners may order improvements made on the parks 
within a limit of $15,000, and the mayor and city council are 
authorized to make a levy of not less than one half mill and not 
exceeding two mills on each dollar of real estate or personal 
property within the corporate limits of the city for park pur- 
poses. The law is looked upon as a good one. 
* * * 
A bill was introduced in Washington last month to provide 
for a national military park on the Palisades of the Hudson and 
the preservation of the Palisades mountain from destruction by 
blasting and other agencies, prepared by the commissioners ap- 
pointed last winter by the Legislatures of New York and New 
Jersey. The joint commission argues that over four million 
people would have access to the park, and that as the tract over- 
looks New York, Jersey City, Hoboken, Yonkers, Newark, 
Dobb’s Ferry, Hastings and the surrounding country, its emin- 
ences would furnish a field of action for American troops that 
would rival the rock fortifications of Gibraltar or Quebec. 
* * * 
A movement is on foot to promote and secure the passage of 
a bill through congress to provide for the conversion of the 
famous Pipestone Indian Reservation, Minnesota, which in- 
cludes the Pipestone quarry, all owned by the U. S. government, 
into a Pipestone Indian National Park, and its improvement 
and perpetual maintenance by the government. “Subject to 
the existing treaty rights of Indians, to dig their sacred pipestone 
for the purpose of carving the Calumet pipes of peace, etc.” 
The consummation of this project would emphasize the poetic 
charm attaching to the spot where; 
“On the Mountains of the Prairie, 
On the great Red Pipestone Quarry, 
Gitche Manito, the mighty,” 
made the Peace pipe “as a signal to the nations.” 
* * * 
The Yellowstone National Park comprises a tract of land 
near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River in Montana and 
Wyoming. It is 62 miles long, north to south, 52 wide, east to 
west, and contains about 3.348 square miles. It has an average 
altitude of 8,000 feet. From the annual report of the Secretary 
of the Interrior it appears that all the game continues to in- 
crease and prosper except the buffalo, which is continually hun- 
ted, and owing to its predatory habits carrying it into Idaho, 
where the game laws are very deficient, it will, unless more de- 
cided efforts are undertaken to preserve it, become extinct. 
The Smithsonian Institution has been suppl)ing funds for the 
construction of a corral, which is intended for the retention of 
such bison, elks and other game as may be gathered into it, with 
a view to keeping them during the winter. The fish planted in 
the streams have succeeded wonderfully with one exception, 
and it is remarkable what quantities are caught each season with- 
out detriment to the supply. The greatest need of the park at 
present, according to the acting superintendent, is a thorough de- 
finition of the boundary lines, so that recognition anywhere should 
be positive at once. The system of patrol has been very success- 
ful in the prevention of fires. 
* -i* * 
In a preliminary report to the Park Commissioners of Ind- 
ianapolis, in which the suggestion is offered that it is high time 
that city should secure desirable lands for park purposes, Mes- 
srs Olmsted and Elliott make the following general statement 
on the subject ol parks: Theoretically, a complete and satis- 
factory system of parks for a large city should include (i) a cen- 
tral public ground, upon or about which may be grouped the 
principal public and semi-public buildings; (2) a series of squares 
or small public grounds so distributed that they may be used 
freely at all hours and be within a short walk of everyone’s home, 
(3) a series of local parks or city parks of greater extent, and 
having more varied and interesting topographical features, 
which may be developed into pleasing, but rather restricted, 
passages of scenery, combined with various artificially decorated 
features and means for amusement; (4) one, or possibly more, 
large rural parks, situated on the outskirts of the city, and com- 
prising broad stretches of pastoral or woodland scenery, extend- 
ing over hundreds of acres of land, where one may walk for an 
afternoon or drive for an hour or two, at least, without having to 
go twice over the same ground; (5) one, or possibly more, great 
public reservations, situated at some distance from the city, 
thousands of acres in extent, where most of the ground is left 
wild or encouraged to become so. where the sense of relief from. 
urban conditions will be complete, and where all may roam at 
will over the meadows and through the woods without the re- 
strictions necessary in city and even most rural parks; (6) park- 
ways connecting two or more of the public pleasure grounds or 
forming agreeable approaches to them, and which may be either 
formal or informal, and combined with irregular (though re- 
stricted) stretches of more or less natural scenery, such as sloping 
banks, groves of trees, patches of shrubbery or the banks of 
rivers. 
