PARK AND CEMETERY. 
217 
PARK NOTES. 
]Mr. Geo. L. Mesker and Mr. John Nugent have respect- 
ively offered 40 acres and 20 acres of land to Evansville, Ind., 
for park purposes free of all conditions. 
« • # 
The trustees of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 
New York city contemplate in the future the establishment of 
a public park on the grounds surrounding the edifice. 
« * « 
The Minnesota-Wisconsin Interstate Park commission, who 
have in charge the interstate park at the Dalles of the St. Croix 
river, is endeavoring to purchase some 600 acres of land ad- 
jacent to the properties already improved. The last Wisconsin 
legislature appropriated $6,500 for land purchases. 
•» * * 
The park question has assumed large proportions in Chi- 
cago and several large parks and a number of small park 
schemes are under discussion and contemplation by the special 
committee on the subject appointed by the city council. The 
establishment of a metropolitan park district is also under con- 
sideration. 
* * * 
It has been reported that the late Col. J. B. Armstrong, of 
Cloverdale, Calif., left a provision in his will looking to the 
deeding of the famous .\rmstrong bottom lands near Guerney- 
ville to the state for a park. The lands in question comprise 
several hundred acres of the finest redwood timber in Cali" 
foruia. 
* * » 
That individual tastes must yield to public requirements 
has been once more confirmed by the Appellate division of the 
New York Supreme Court in the case of Mrs. Elizabeth S. 
Clark, a property owner, who sought a perpetual injunction to 
restrain the authorities from erecting the soldiers’ and sailors’ 
monument on Riverside Drive, opposite her residence in New 
York City. Her suit was denied. 
« « ^ 
The commissioners of the three principal park sj stems of 
Chicago are joining forces to formulate a plan for driving the 
advertising billboard off the boulevards and park boundaries. 
The leading spirit in the work has remarked: “We will do 
away with these billboards if fighting will carry the day. 
They ruin our boulevards from an artistic standpoint and are 
becoming so plentiful along the borders of the parks that some 
of the most beautiful views are obscured.’’ 
» * * 
An idea of the cost of creating small parks in the crowded 
districts of New York city may be gathered from the fact that 
the council and aldermen passed a resolution providing for an 
issue of city stock to the amount of $2,045,424.62 for the pur- 
pose of paying awards to property owners for land taken to 
form the new park in the eleventh ward, Manhattan. This 
park is to be bounded by Houston, vStanton, Pitt, Willett and 
Sheriff streets, in a thickly populated tenement district. 
The effect of the beautiful fall in the northern Mississippi 
valley has been quite remarkable. In Riverview park, Quincy, 
111 ., on October 26, there were lilacs, Japan quince and syringa 
in bloom and many of the annuals were as fresh and bright as 
in spring. To add to the beauty the fall coloring on certain of 
the shrubs and trees was developing rapidly and altogether 
nature was in a most charming and attractive mood. These 
conditions have been reported as far north as St. Paul. 
In an article in the Chicago Sunday Tiibunc, on “Parks, 
Boulevards and Their Influences,” by Janies Jensen, late super- 
tendent of Humboldt Park, ChTago, he says: “The influences 
of parks and boulevards are far reaching. Parks may become 
a nuisance and a disgraceful spot upon the city’s history', or 
they may carry the city to fame and glory. Bad management 
will not only depreciate real estate value, but make these 
spots intended for recreation and pleasure hiding places for 
crime and immorality. Does it not become the solemn duty 
of every inhabitant to watch with jealous eyes these gems, the 
crowning success of public enterprise, the pride of every city ?’’ 
* * » 
In the public park of Joliet, 111 ., a successful effort has 
been made to create a fern corner, in which to cultivate a large 
family of ferns. This was commenced last year and some diffi- 
culty was experienced in protecting them fro n vandalism. 
The topography and physical nature of the park at Joliet par- 
ticularly adapts it to such an effort. A superintendent takes 
special charge of this department and in his detailed report he 
says: “Seventy-four species and vatieties have been collected, 
perhaps half as many mosses and a large number of the sub- 
families, peat mosses, liverworts and other close kindred of the 
ferns. The ferns are now labeled and named under the old 
system and an attempt will be made to label the mosses before 
another season and perhaps all the plants and trees in the 
park.’’ 
* * * 
The national park which has been created in Idaho by the 
interior department and which awaits the ratification of Con- 
gress, takes in Shoshone Falls and Blue Lakes on Snake river 
in south Idaho ami includes some of the most beautiful scenery- 
in the world. It is twenty five miles from a railroad and a trip 
by stage or horseback from Shoshone Station on the Oregon 
Shortline, through a wild country is necessary to reach this 
region of natural wonders. The falls themselves are rivalled 
only by those of Niagara, although Niagara lacks the wild and 
wierd setting that Shoshone possesses. Half a mile above the 
falls the river is 1,200 feet broad and flows in a canyon 800 feet 
deep. The water itself is many fathoms deep. Toward the 
falls the channel narrows. The river, 9C0 feet wide, sweeps 
swiftly through a narrow gorge with precipitous lava sides 
1,200 feet high. It reaches a 2,201 foot precipice and plunges 
over with a roar which is re-echoed by nature’s walls on either 
side. 
* » * 
Mr. Warren H. Manning, in a report recently made to the 
park commissioners of Des Moines, la., summarizes briefly the 
advantages of parks to a city as follows: “They preserve for 
all lime beautiful landscapes that would eventually be muti- 
lated or destroyed by private ownership. They provide a place 
where the native flora and fauna may be preserved and perpet- 
uated. They have a sanitary value in removing noxious ga.ses 
from the air and in preventing the contamination of water 
courses. They promote public health by providing a place 
where nervous and sick people can frequently go to enjoy 
quietly a complete change of scene and surroundings, as well 
as a place where energetic and youthful persons can frequently 
engage in all active forms of recreation. They have an educa- 
tional value by providing a place where growing plants and 
animals, geological, topographical and soil conditions and 
methods of propagation and cultivation may be studied. They 
add to the value of adjoining private property by giving an 
assurance of permanently attractive conditions. They make a 
city more beautiful and desirable as a place of residence, con- 
ditions that add to the pleasure and comfort of all citizens, and 
tend to keej) in aird draw to a city people of wealth, influence 
■ and leisure.’’ 
