PARK AND CEMETERY 
22 
be a thing of beauty because some friend calls atten- 
tion to it. Learning to see beautiful things often 
means to see them more clearly. It is necessary for 
us to have our eyes opened. We ought to see more 
clearly, and in order that we may learn to do so, and 
get the pleasure which a life in this world ought to 
give, we should have, in our cities and towns espe- 
cially, places set aside where trees, shrubs, flowers 
and birds may fee! at home. Places, too, where open 
spaces and the arrangement of things planted may 
give pleasure as well as the beauty of the individual 
plants. The areas to be selected for this purpose will 
vary in different towns, but I will call attention to 
some locations which should always be reserved for 
the pleasure of future generations as well as our own. 
If a town is fortunate enough to have a river flowing 
through it or past it, the borders of this river should 
become permanently attractive. Trees which would 
reach out over the water should be allowed to grow 
upon the banks. In places the margin should be 
fringed with the red-branched dogwood, with vibur- 
nums, snowberries, elderberries, asters, cardinal flow- 
ers, golden rods, and any of the beautiful plants that 
delight us when we come across them in the country. 
The bank of the river has the advantage of being 
seen from a bridge or from the opposite side, so that 
it is an exceptionally favorable place for a border of 
foliage, especially as such a border is seen again re- 
flected in the water. Too often, however, river banks 
become unsightly from being used as places for dump- 
ing garbage and refuse. The same is true of ravines 
and hollows. These are usually distinguished from 
level areas by our being able to look down on the tops 
of trees and shrubs with which they are lined, but 
if they are near a town, the inhabitants seem to think 
they should be filled up, and proceed at once to re- 
place shrubs and flowers with piles of ashes, tin cans, 
crockery and refuse of all sorts. The slopes of val- 
leys, ravines and hollows protect the lower ground 
from chilling winds. Some of them are sure to catch 
the direct sun and form favorable places for sun- 
loving plants, while others will be shady and provide 
delightful haunts for ferns and the wild flowers found 
in thick woods. 
If there is a hill or ridge which commands a distant 
view, it should be reserved for the benefit of all the 
people. If there is a fine grove of trees, a spring, a 
rocky ledge, or any other feature that distinguishes 
one locality from the rest and makes it beautiful, an 
effort should be made to secure it as an object lesson, 
and a source of pleasure for the men, women and chil- 
dren of the city or village and for their guests. If a 
town possesses no piece of ground that has special 
beauty or that is distinguished in any wav from other 
areas, the inhabitants should not be made to suffer 
permanently on that account, but some land should be 
secured, conveniently accessible, and planted in such 
a way as to make it attractive. Two or three years 
should make it beautiful, but it should continue to in- 
crease in beauty, and in arranging planting one should 
have in mind the people who will live a hundred 
years from now. Would it not be a pleasant thing to 
be able to show our friends trees three or four feet in 
diameter with branches spreading perhaps a hundred 
feet, and to impart the fact that they were planted a 
hundred years ago? 
The creation of a park should not be considered an 
expense to a village or town, since it usually adds 
several times its cost to the value of adjacent real es- 
tate. In fact, beauty pays in dollars and cents as well 
as by adding to the pleasure of living. 
In Charles Mulford Robinson’s book on “The Im- 
provement of Towns and Cities” the author says that 
the streets may be considered as rivers through which 
the country flows into the town, forming in the squares 
and parks little ponds and lakes of country. This idea 
of the country flowing into the town along narrow 
strips on each side of the roadway and spreading out 
here and there to form oases of green in the midst of 
brick buildings and pavements, seems to me an espe- 
cially happy one. In some of these oases would be 
found public buildings : the court house, post office, 
city hall, and church, these various buildings being 
connected with their sites and given a proper setting 
by having masses of foliage on each side of their en- 
trances and about their angles and corners. In other 
spaces the center would be left open, the planting being 
confined to an irregular border which would show 
in a most favorable way the character of hardy trees, 
shrubs and flowers. These would be shown occa- 
sionally as individual plants, but more frequently as 
colonies or groups in which the individuals might 
crowd each other but where masses of foliage would 
blend in harmonious whole, catching light in one place 
and making deep shade in another so as to produce a 
varied yet harmonious composition. The open space 
which is necessary for the best development of vege- 
tation and for its most pleasing effect will show also 
an expanse of sky which, with its clouds and its many 
colors, is just as important a park feature as are the 
trees and grass. Incidentally the open space may serve 
as a playground or a place in which to rest and recu- 
perate, but the ornamental plants and so-called park- 
like effects need not be confined to parks, squares and 
playgrounds. Think how attractive our streets might 
become if, in addition to the elms, maples, lindens, oaks 
and our other beautiful native trees planted on each 
side, we could have honeysuckle bushes, lilacs, syrin- 
gas, roses, barberries, thorn apples, viburnums, su- 
machs and witch hazels filling the air at certain times 
with fragrance and pleasing the eye with their flowers, 
foliage, fruits and stems. These when once estab- 
lished would take care of themselves if allowed to re- 
main undisturbed, and give delight at all seasons. 
