158 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
The Commercial Club of Kansas City, Mo., is planning to 
erect a substantial memorial to Col. Thomas H. Swope, donor 
of Swope Park in that city. The memorial will take the 
form of a bronze statue and pedestal and will stand at the 
entrance to the park. A committee has been appointed to 
consult with the sculptors and architects, and an expenditure 
of $25,000 is planned. President C. D. Parker of the Com- 
mercial Club is in charge of the work. 
* * * 
At the recent election the people of Cedar Rapids, la., voted 
to levy a one-mill tax for three years for park purposes. This 
will provide the Board with a fund of $60,000. The measure 
was passed as a result of the zeal and personal efforts of Mr. 
William Krebs and the other members of the Park Board, 
who have been energetic in promoting many improvements 
in the parks of that town. Cedar Rapids now has 150 acres of 
parks, the larger tracts being : Bever, 70 acres ; Riverside, 10 
acres ; and Ellis, 50 acres. Besides these there are about 20 
smaller open spaces, triangles, etc., at street intersections. A 
number of these are in the poorer residence districts, and are 
well planted and cared for. 
* * * 
The annual report of the park department of Cincinnati, 
O., for 1903 notes the $500,000 bond issue recently author- 
ized by city ordinance for the establishment of new down- 
town parks. The selection of the different sites is now in 
process of settlement through the courts and the City Solic- 
itor. The bond issue of $50,000 two years ago has enabled 
the department to finish considerable work laid out by former 
park boards and to add a number of betterments to the parks. 
Accompanying the report is a detailed statement of the ex- 
penditures under this bond issue, showing the balance left 
for the erection and finishing of the spring-house in Eden 
Park and the new boat and shelter-house in Burnet Woods, 
according to plans prepared by the architects. The cliff- 
drive and the Italian garden in Eden Park are the two most 
notable improvements mentioned in the report. Superintend- 
ent Critchell in his report says that the year was quite favor- 
able to growth and planting, and that the season of drought 
did not cause much loss. Attention is also called to the 
growth of weeds on the hills abutting the park property. 
These slopes have become burdened with rank growths of 
Canada thistle, bee-clover and other dangerous weeds, so as 
to necessitate large expense in getting them cleared away. 
The superintendent recommends the enforcement of laws to 
do away with this nuisance. The expenditures for the year 
amounted to $40,003.25 and the receipts to $41-843.25. 
* ijc * 
“A partial description of Mill Creek Park, Youngstown, O., 
with some papers, reports and laws connected with park 
work,” by Volney Rogers, is the title of an interesting, hand- 
somely illustrated book of 120 pages issued by the commis- 
sioners of the township park at Youngstown, authorized 
under the new township park act passed by the Ohio Legis- 
lature last spring. Mill Creek now contains 468.66 acres, and 
when completed will include over 500 acres. Its total cost 
for lands, improvements and other expenditures is thus far 
$350,000. The more important improvements begun in 1904 
are the construction of a stone bridge over Calvary Brook 
and a stone dam at the Mill Creek Narrows to form an addi- 
tional lake with a surface of 42 acres. The approximate cost 
of both bridge and lake will be $40,000. The park already 
has Lake Cohasset with a surface of 28 acres, which was 
formed by the construction of a masonry stone dam 23 feet 
high. The chief feature of the park is its beautiful and 
picturesque natural scenery, of which some striking pictures 
are shown in the report. The late Charles Eliot, after a visit 
to this park, said of it: “It is as if a bit of choice scenery 
had been taken from the mountains of Switzerland and 
deposited in a level country.” The report contains many 
features of interest aside from the descriptive matter, among 
which are a paper on “Outdoor Life in Cities,” read by 
Volney Rogers before the Buffalo convention of the American 
Park and Outdoor Art Association, and a “Botanist’s Report,” 
by George A- Streator, giving a list of plants growing in the 
park. The receipts for 1903 amounted to $28,224.11 and the 
expenditures to $15,169.82. 
Annual reports or extracts f rom them, historical sketches, 
descriptive circulars, photographs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use m this department. 
At the recent annual meeting of the Clinton Cemetery As- 
sociation, Irvington, N. J., the report of the treasurer showed 
a balance on hand October 1, 1903, of $1,798.55. Receipts for 
1904, $2,826; expended this year, $3,141.01; balance on hand 
October 1, 1904, $1,483.54. The expenditures this year were 
chiefly for improvements, the most of which were in the addi- 
tion of two and one-quarter acres. 
* * * 
One of the strange but common sights of Mexico City is a 
street car funeral, says The Sunnysidc. An electric car, 
modern as any in Boston, Washington or St. Louis, comes 
rapidly through a street, its loud, harsh gong demanding a 
clear right of way. Behind it gallops a mule drawing a crude 
little car, and on this car is a coffin. An Indian, standing 
erect, lashes the mule — he is doing his utmost with whip 
and p-s-s-s-s to keep up with the first car, for the first car 
contains the mourners and the sorrowing friends of the de- 
ceased. Thus to the cemetery rushes this incongruous funeral 
procession, this cold union of grief, of bullwhip, of Indian, 
mule and electricity. 
The Attleboro Ex-Prisoners of War and other Grand Army 
men of Attleboro, Mass., have instituted the ceremony of 
planting each year in the Old Kirk Cemetery a shrub or 
tree brought from some of the noted battlefields of the South. 
Two oak trees were planted in previous years, the first in 1901 
and the second in 1902. Last year the ceremony was omitted. 
This year a maple is to be planted. The first shrub planted 
has weathered the time and gives every indication of being 
in future years a substantial monument to deeds of the vet- 
erans. The other oak tree has disappeared, and those who 
planted it are totally in the dark as to its fate. Both of 
the oaks came from Andersonville, Ga. 
>jc ^ 
Graceland Cemetery, Albany, N. Y., is making prepara- 
tions for extensive developments under the direction of Su- 
perintendent Edward Mardsden to utilize the many fine nat- 
ural landscape features of the site. Graceland now embraces 
nearly 250 acres of hills and dales, natural terraces and 
wooded lands, and is conducted on the lawn plan, with per- 
petual care. It is a handsome granite chapel and receiving- 
vault, with 60 catacombs. 
