PARK AND CEMETERY. 
rORnERLY THE nODERN CE/AETERY. 
A Monthly Journal Devoted to Parks and Cemeteries- 
R- J- HAIGHT, Publislner, 
3S4 Deapboi-n Street, CHICAGO. 
Subscription $i,oo a Year in Advance. Foreign Subscription $1.50. 
VoL. VI. CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER, 1896. No 7 
CONTENTS. 
EDITORIAL 323 
*THE ST. LOUIS MEETING OF CEMETERY SUPERIN- 
TENDENTS 324 
PRESIDENT S ADDRESS 324 
WHAT A CEMETERY SHOULD BE 327 
CONVENTION NOTES 329 
TREES 329 
^GARDEN PLANTS, THEIR GEOGRAPHY, XI 330 
♦BELLE ISLE PARK, DETROIT, MICH 
ACCEPTABLE GROUPING OF MIXED SHRUBS 
♦THE GILBERT MEMORIAL BUST, .GRAND RAPIDS, 
MICH 335 
•PARK PLACE, HENLEY-ON-THAMES, ENGLAND 336 
PARK NOTES 337 
CEMETERY NOTES 338 
LEGAL 33g 
PUBLISHERS DEPARTMENT 340 
♦Illustrated. 
K eep off the grass” signs in Central Park, New 
York, are raising questions in the public 
mind as to what the parks are for. The 
main reason for such restrictions as given in an in- 
terview in a New York daily with the superinten- 
dent is; “That much of the productive soil of Cen- 
tral Park is artificial and will not stand the wear 
and tear that the trampling of feet and constant use 
will put upon it.” The results of the liberal policy 
pursued in Chicago and many of the so called west- 
-ern cities, minimizes the force of this argument and 
strengthens the public view. The less the restrict- 
ions placed upon the use of the public park, the 
more logically does the park fulfill its mission. 
The public park is not the place for the exercise of 
official ideal landscape work to the exclusion of the 
people, but it is the place to make ideal landscape 
work of practical value to those who provide for 
and conserve it — the public. That this is possible, 
notwithstanding adverse climatic conditions is amply 
proven in Chicago. It may involve more expense, 
but the extra expense is in an inverse ratio to the 
benefits conferred. The care of the Chicago parks 
is not confined to daylight, but during the hot and 
dry season the care and watering is continued 
throughout the night. By this treatment the wear 
and tear of the season is met, and the people enjoy 
to the utmost all their parks afford them. That it 
is possible to keep the grass in fair cojidition un- 
der the most unfavorable circumstances, a visit to 
some of the western parks will show, and moreover, 
an investigation of the benefits conferred and the 
popularity secured will convince that a liberal poli- 
cy with regard to the freedom of the grass is the 
proper policy. 
I N speaking of the parks ofBrooklyn, the Brook- 
lyn Eagle strikes a chord generally avoided, 
the spirit of which if the prophetic utterances 
of poet, preacher and philosopher amount to any- 
thing, must soon become the text for and test of 
good municipal goverment, and the main spring of 
general government — the enlightened interest in 
the physical well being of the poorer classes. In clos- 
ing an article, the above journal, after commend- 
ing the reservation of large spaces for public use as 
good government and widsom, says: “There is a 
growing sentiment in favor of a public right to 
pleasure. It is at the bottom of the communistic 
and populistic agitation. It inspires much of the 
prevailing enmity and jealousy of the rich. For 
the poor life is little more than work and hardship 
and too often its pleasures are in the seeking of for- 
getfulness from hard conditions. But there is a 
tendency to ameliorate those conditions. It is with 
that view that tenements have been torn down and 
others improved; that free baths have been provid- 
ed; that libraries and reading rooms and lectures 
have been established; that band concerts have been 
given in parks and squares; that statuary and foun- 
tains have been erected and trees and flowers set out; 
that art has been put in public buildings. Every- 
thing of the kind tends to put the poor man on an 
equality with the rich and relieve the bitterness of 
his life. There is more than passing pleasure in 
these common holdings; there is life, health and 
understanding. ” 
