PARK AND CEMETERY 
29 
understanding of the uses, care and culture of the 
street trees and have driven the tree “butcher" out of 
the city. Such articles as the one appearing in a recent 
issue of the Kansas City Star, wherein was illustrated 
two elm trees, the one properly cared for and the other 
“pollardized,” are practical public lessons the effect of 
which can be readily anticipated. All interested in 
the planting and care of street trees would do well to 
study the methods and practice of the Kansas City 
authorities. 
^ ^ ^ 
The Billboard Nuisance. 
The war upon the billboard and other detrimental 
methods of public advertising continues to be prose- 
cuted with vigor and of course is as vigorously op- 
posed. But the signs of the times are that in due 
course the growing public taste will be legally re- 
spected and all offenses against it repressed. The 
efforts of the American Park and Outdoor Art Asso* 
ciation in promoting and pushing legislative action 
are meeting with gratifying success, and generally the 
press of the country is very loyal in its support of a 
movement that cannot but be beneficial to our civiliza- 
tion. It appears to be fortunate for the movement and 
equally unfortunate for the billposters that about their 
only answer in opposition to legislative or civic action 
is “injury to their business.” It is quite within the 
bounds of reason to declare that a business which 
becomes offensive to public taste is as unworthy of 
legal standing as the innumerable money making 
schemes that are condemned by the Postoffice Depart- 
ment of the government. It is a question of degree. 
The legislatures of Massachusetts, New York, Illi- 
nois, etc., have had the subject forcibly presented to 
them with every prospect of a successful issue, and 
decidedly not the least of all the advantages thus far 
gained in the cause of municipal embellishment gen- 
erally is the admission by the higher courts that civic 
beauty is a principle now to be recognized. Both 
houses of the Pennsylvania legislature have just passed 
a very comprehensive law on the subject, 'and it is 
expected that Illinois will shortly follow suit. 
^ ^ ^ 
'Perpetual Care Funds. 
A matter of first importance in cemetery practice is 
the care of the funds appropriated or set apart for 
the perpetual care of the cemetery. The question of 
perpetual care would be a very unreliable one were 
not every possible contingency of loss or depreciation 
provided for up to the limit of current knowledge and 
experience. Beyond that we cannot go, but the in- 
vestment of such funds and a constant, unremitting 
attention to their welfare, should be a prime considera- 
tion with cemetery trustees, and the greatest possible 
intelligence should be enlisted in this great responsi- 
bility. A very embarrassing episode was recently 
safely settled in connection with certain perpetual care 
funds belonging to Woodlawn and Greenwood ceme- 
teries, Zanesville, O. A few years ago a certain 
amount was loaned upon the note of a well-known 
citizen which was in all reason safely endorsed. How- 
ever, in due time some anxiety began to develop and a 
suit was entered to hasten payment, upon the loan being 
called. Delay augmented the anxiety, but in due time 
the note was taken up, and all was satisfactory. But 
the fact remains that personal security is not the se- 
curity properly applicable to such funds, which should 
under any and every circumstance only be placed 
where absolute safety is in a sense guaranteed. An- 
other item of interest is that a bill has been introduced 
in the Minnesota legislature raising the limit of care 
funds to one million dollars, as against one hundred 
thousand dollars under the present law. 
^ ^ ^ 
Forest Park, St. Louis. 
St. Louis will undoubtedly gain immensely by the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, but it is probable that 
in the destruction of so many trees in Forest Park in 
order to afford sufficient area for the enterprise, the 
city will suffer an irreparable loss. Mr. Samuel Par- 
sons, Jr., the landscape architect engaged by the city 
to estimate the damage, reports that 12,000 magnificent 
forest trees have been felled by the World’s Fair ax- 
men, of which at least 6,000 were from two feet and 
over in diameter, and that a million dollars will be 
needed to restore the park scenery. But he takes a 
more or less gloomy view of the possibility of ever 
again making Forest Park what it was, and the end 
is not yet. It scarcely seems probable that this beau- 
tiful area of native woods can ever be restored to its 
former pristine condition, and ic would seem that after 
all the city will pay very dearly for its exposition, for 
certainly the Fair is but an ephemeral creation, while 
the beautiful woods almost in the city itself, is as near 
to an everlasting comfort and delight to its inhabitants 
as one generation to another knows of. Indeed, it is 
a pity that a site not involving so tremendous a sacri- 
fice could not have been selected. 
^ ^ ^ 
Improvement of School Grounds. 
The Youth’s Companion has set an excellent exam- 
ple in its attractive offer to the public school children 
of Illinois, through State Superintendent Bayliss. It 
has agreed to present to the 500 schools of the State 
doing the best work in school improvement a set of six 
historical pictures, and to the ten of these doing the 
best work, a large American flag. Through the Amer- 
ican League for Civic Improvement and the Woman’s 
Auxiliary of the American Park and Outdoor Art 
Association a vigorous campaign is under way to im- 
prove school grounds and to encourage school gar- 
dens, and so infectious is the work that women’s 
clubs in many towns are becoming more and more 
interested in school garden progress. 
