86 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
terpret forms, and lines, and colors, and the composition of 
them, one who knows living things not from their outward 
form but from their inward energies. 1 also believe they are 
good for the workingman, even if passed by them without any 
conscious knowledge that they are there. I hear much of the 
workingman at the present time, of his dignity and worth. 
There are many, many of them who deserve all that can be 
said for them but there are others who are lower down in the 
scale, the progress of the world having gone on, and they have 
been left behind a representative of a past standard of living. 
I do not suppose that many who are interested in park mat- 
ters have come to that interest through the workshop. Most 
park people come from the better class, are well educated and 
are brain workers, but I came into the park work by the way of 
the workshop, for during my later teen’s and early twenty's 
I spent several years in one of the great chair shops of Gardner 
where thousands of men are employed at chairmaking. I be- 
gan by lugging in stock for others to fit. I ended by being a 
full-fledged chairmaker, but never reached the dignity of piece 
work or being foreman of anything. These several years, 
passed during the formative period of my life in a large man- 
ufactory, taught me some lessons which give me, perhaps, 
a clearer understanding of the limitations of a workingman's 
life than I otherwise would have had and may be a glimpse of 
what kind of a park is needed to meet some of those limita- 
tions. 
From my own experience in the shop and observation since 
I conceive that the limitations of those who work with their 
hands, which the municipal park can and ought to help are 
these : 
First: Monotony. Shop life is as monotonous as a tread- 
mill, for apparently the workman handles the same material, 
uses the same tool, works at the same bench, sees the same 
faces, goes back and forth over the same streets, is whistled 
to and from his work, is whistled to and from his dinner, 
every day practically alike, and he is too much exhausted 
when he reaches home to make an effort to vary his life after 
working hours. 
Second ; He is atrophied. However skilled his muscles may 
be in doing certain things, and however much of an automaton 
his mind has become by repetition, yet he does not use some 
muscles at all ; some faculties of his mind are not exercised, 
he has no occasion to take a large and extensive view of 
things, he is localized in his shop and seldom goes outside of 
its influence. Now it is a law of our existence that if we do 
not use a muscle or a faculty, it shall be weakened, absorbed, 
rendered usless, atrophied, and it is a law of our minds that 
unless we learn something new every day the time will come 
when we cannot learn anything new, for the brain becomes 
sluggish and leathery, and refuses to receive or to preserve 
new impressions. It is a law that if we give the best in us 
today we shall have something better to give tomorrow. It 
is a law of mental growth that if we work to our limit today 
we can do better tomorrow, and right here comes the trouble 
with the shop hand. He has learned to do one thing well, but 
by doing it every day he does it without mental effort, and he 
does not receive enough mental exercise or friction from his 
day’s work to stimulate him to make the necessary effort to- 
study new questions when his day’s work is over. He usually 
takes his pipe and his newspaper, and spends an hour or so in 
talking and reading and chores about the home before he goes 
to bed, and repeating the same operation every day, year in 
and year out, every day becoming less and less capable of un- 
derstanding large problems or of solving new questions, and 
more and more liable to be led by others. It is the thinking 
workmen who give dignity and strength to our industrial 
life. We have many of them. To increase their number and 
to strengthen them is the purpose of a park in the industrial 
cities as much as is recreation. He is not generally a reader 
of books, and his newspapers are frequently of the yellow 
type, for anything less striking, pictorial, strong and sensa- 
tional does not stir some of them out of their lethargy. 
I have read of an old man of eighty commencing to learn 
Greek and mastering it within a year, and I will warrant you 
that man was not a laborer in a factory. I will go further, and 
say that I believe if any man at twenty enters a shop and 
works there steadily for ten years without any outside inter- 
est, that after he is thirty he cannot take up and learn any sub- 
ject which requires thought; such as geometry, a language or 
philosophy. 
An atrophied monotonous life is that of the ordinary work- 
man, and also of his wife. If 1 escaped in any degree the 
stupidity of the shop, it was because I was intent on going to 
college, and had to prepare myself while earning the money to 
go with, and had to study morning, noon, evening and — well, 
J did not always go to church on Sunday. 
I believe with all my heart and soul in the naturalistic park, 
and its beauty, restfulness and inspiration which it gives to 
every one who passes within its borders. I do not believe it 
is much help to the workman, and his family but seldom goes 
there, many never do. What then would I suggest for a park 
for an industrial city? I have in mind a system of parks, one 
of which should be a large country park, but I would not 
build it first. To begin with I would have parks from three 
to ten acres, located near the homes of the workingmen, open 
every day in the year, and every hour of the day. and evening. 
I would have playgrounds for the children, lots of shade, and if 
possible grass, where his wife and friends could sit during the 
summer afternoons. I would have lots of seats and tables, 
and a superabundance of light so that the workingman, after 
his day’s work, would find a pleasant place during the evening 
hours, one in which if he desired he could take his evening 
meal. I would have as many bright flowers as circumstances 
would permit, but none or few shrubs. I would have a 
stadium where contests could take place, and an outdoor and 
indoor gymnasium. I would have a shelter with an abundance 
of room and light and heat for rainy evenings, and for the 
winter. I would have band concerts, and would have him ar- 
range for himself lecture courses, debating clubs, theatricals, 
concerts and parties, and there are lots of things he would 
do for himself if he had the opportunity, but remember he is 
an independent person, does not like to receive a service from 
another without giving equivalent service in return. The 
one thing he does not need, and ought not to endure, is pa- 
ternalism, but he does need and is willing to pay for a com- 
munism if the city will provide the way in which it can 
be brought about. Take care of your industrial cities and the 
industrial sections of all cities, and the other functions of a 
city cannot go far wrong, but neglect your industrial cities 
and there will be troublous times, the mutterings of which 
can even now be heard. I do not believe that parks in in- 
dustrial cities will solve all their problems but I do' believe that 
parks suitable to them will pave the way for the solution of 
many of them. 
I know full well I have overrun the time limit which you 
expected. My only excuse is that it is my last appearance 
before you in any official capacity. If I have not given you 
as many figures as you expected, I will say that I have tried 
to give what is better than figures, what the figures have told 
me. 
Notes of the Convention. 
The weather was simply perfect and every one seemed en- 
tirely comfortable and in a condition to enjoy to the full the 
attractions of the “Queen City of the Lakes.” 
Why was it, out of an attendance of nearly 300, the aver- 
age of members at the meetings of the association would 
scarcely exceed three score and ten? 
The arrangements for the transportation to and about 
Niagara Falls in the trolley cars were exceedingly crude and 
not at all creditable to the large companies which control the 
large traffic of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. 
President Woodruff made an ideal presiding officer, calm, 
dignified and attentive. No wonder he was unanimously re- 
elected. 
Mrs. Herman J. Hall’s response to the toast at the Cafe 
Queen, Victoria Park : 
“Here’s to the shamrock, the rose and the heather; 
Here’s to Canada’s glorious weather; 
Here’s to her women, of whom we all boast; 
Here's to the Association — this is, dear friends, my 
toast.” 
Mr. Warren H. Manning was a little late in arriving, but 
his reception was none the less hearty on that account. 
The views of Niagara Falls and the Rapids were those only 
to be seen a few times in a year. The air was clear and the 
sunlight brilliant. There was little or no mist and the rain- 
bows were exceptionally brilliant. 
