72 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
bership of intelligent people, and it follows that in 
the cities which are honored by its meetings, promi- 
nent and active citizens take pleasure in promoting 
successful proceedings, in that this assures profit- 
able and practicable results in furthering their own 
park affairs. Not only is this true of public im- 
provements in landscape work, but organizations 
and private citizens, alive to the possibilities of im- 
proved surroundings, take advantage of the con- 
vention to gather information, make acquaintance 
with the masters of the art who may be present, 
and otherwise be strengthened and encouraged to 
go ahead in the great work expressed by the term 
art out-of-doors, which is destined to do so much 
to improve conditions of life everywhere. It is to 
be expected that the Detroit convention will again 
be productive of far reaching results, redounding 
to the success of the association in its noble mission- 
ary work, no less than to the city in which it conducts 
its public business. Every municipality in the 
country should send a representative to receive 
experience and benefits far outweighing the ex- 
penses incurred, which in point of fact no money 
could purchase. 
T he civilization of to-day might well take 
some suggestions from that of the past in 
many directions. One that is especially 
called to mind at the moment is the apparent neg- 
lect of the small park or breathing spot in the 
building up of our cities and towns. In many for- 
eign towns, indeed in many of their pretty hamlets, 
the thoroughfare has been enlarged about the pub- 
lic building, or advantage has been taken of certain 
irregularities of plan or contour, so as to reserve a 
point of vantage for the wayfarer, or a point of 
beauty for the lover of nature. In many places it 
looks as though the park were arranged before the 
town. Contrast this condition with what has pre- 
vailed in our own country; where the real estate 
owner begrudged every clod of earth to make a 
wider street, and the trader thought the grass plat 
about a public building a crime against commerce, 
because of its value as capital in trade. Our vast 
resources and opportunities has blinded us to the 
lessons right before our eyes, and we are now pay- 
ing hcav^ily to learn the lesson. The small park 
fever abroad in the land should have been attended 
to before, when its expenses would have been light. 
T he impossibility of being able to exercise a 
constant vigilance over the bicycle rider, 
and to restrain and curb the lawlessness of 
many of them is leading to a curtailment of privi- 
leges in many cemeteries. Rules seem to be dead 
letters to some cyclists, and their facility of move- 
ment a passport to any desecration they may desire 
to commit. Much discussion was had at the outset 
of the bicycle fever on the question of discriminat- 
ing in our cemeteries in favor of the man driving 
the horse, but the experience in many places has 
been to prove that the man who can afford to drive 
a vehicle through the cemetery possesses a respon- 
sibility which many cyclists seem never to realize. 
On the other hand the cyclist assumes privileges for 
his wheel which has never and can never be ac- 
corded to him, if the care of the cemetery for its 
lot owners and the community is the duty of its 
officials. 
T he appropriation of $65,000 by the Illinois 
legislature for the erection of regimental 
monuments, markers, and one state monu- 
ment on the battlefield of Shiloh, directs atten- 
tion to the necessity of improvement in the charac- 
ter of such monuments, both as to sculpture and 
architecture. This is a subject which has often been 
touched upon in these columns, but is of such im- 
portance to the good name of this generation, that 
it cannot be urged too often or too vehemently; be- 
cause apart from the very serious consideration of 
art in the matter, political jobbery has run rampant 
over nearly every righteous suggestion that such 
public opportunities offer for the recognition of 
either past or present efforts of man to benefit his 
times. To-day it is an oversight of ignorance, we 
must use the term, of any legislator who promotes 
a bill involving art issues to omit to incorporate in 
his bill a method designed to secure merit in the 
work. It is of no use trying to disguise the fact 
that at present, many, perhaps by far the most, of 
our manufacturers and producers will sacrifice fu- 
ture reputation, and run great risks for the present, 
by making the almighty dollar first above every 
other consideration involved in any public under- 
taking which may fall to them. And yet we rant 
about patriotism. But apart from the matter of 
morality involved, there should be no more dallying 
with this question. The state has appropriated pub- 
lic money for a public monument on a battlefield 
made public by the country, and every other consid- 
eration but that of getting the best the money will 
afford should be subordinated to the question. At 
the suggestion of The Monumental News some 
time ago, the Central Art Association of Chicago 
offered to pass upon all monuments of a public 
character submitted to them for a report, free of 
charge except for transportation expenses, and we 
would urge all who may have any influence in such 
matters to contribute some effort towards insisting 
that this coming monument to the dead soldiers of 
Illinois, shall in itself show not only a money value, 
but reflect at least some of the intelligence of a state 
which has produced a Lincoln and a Grant. 
