PARK AND CEMETERY 
190 
cil, the South Park commission and the Lincoln Park board. 
It is estimated that the improvement will cost between 
$4,500,000 and $5,000,000 and will require about three years 
for completion. The construction of the new boulevard will 
involve the condemnation of a large number of buildings in 
the heart of the city and the bridging of the Chicago river. 
More improvements of importance have been made in Lin- 
coln park in 1904 than in any previous year according to tne 
report of R. H. Warder, secretary of the park board and 
superintendent. The lake shore protections which have been 
completed at a cost of $250,000, include 800 feet of break- 
water, 120,000 square feet of concrete paved beach, 2,700 lineal 
feet of parapet steps, 75,000 feet of sidewalk and 4,000 feet of 
sewer beween beach and drive. Surveys have been made for 
the park extension on the north to Fullerton avenue. At 
Diversey boulevard 500 feet of retaining breakwater has been 
built. On the south, it is expected by the middle of next 
summer, a new park will be completed on the Lake Shore 
drive at Oak street with an area of nine acres. 
But little construction work was done on the west park 
system, owing to the comparatively small amount of money 
appropriated for use by the engineering department, says the 
annual report of Frederick A. Bangs, president of the west 
park board of commissioners. The work of the engineering 
department was chiefly maintenance work. Twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars was spent in overhauling the offices of the parks 
and the natatorium in Douglas park and $12,000 to replacing 
nearly 3,000 trees. In point of attendance 1904 was the most 
successful year for the natatorium in Douglas park. In 
ninety-one days, from July x to Sept. 30, 73,600 persons 
visited the natatorium, making an average daily attendance 
of 800 persons. 
Increasing Membership of the A. A. C. S. 
A circular letter from the secretary tells us that for several 
years the membership of the A. A. C. S. runs about 200, and 
that annually we lose about as many as we gain, and we arc 
asked why is this and how can we remedy matters. On 
these points no doubt every man has an opinion of his own. 
Mine is something like this : Give us a directory of the prin- 
cipal cemeteries of the country and their officers and charge 
$1 for it and make therein by an asterisk or heavy type those 
names who are members of the A. A. C. S., then we'll see 
who are not, and if we have any friends or acquaintances 
among the latter we can write to them and use our best 
endeavors to bring them into the fold. 
Circular letters, newspaper paragraphs or appeals through 
the press amount to nothing as compared with individual per 
sonal letters. 
The secretary and president of the society are almost its 
lifeblood. The secretary must work tirelessly among his flock 
to bring and hold them together, and this may require man} , 
many nights’ work and hundreds of personal letters. He 
should know the members as a father does his children and 
what they are most interested in and what information they 
most desire and see that they get it. These desires should 
be tabulated and classified and submitted for discussion and 
solution at the annual meeting. Avoid lengthy papers, no 
matter what the subject is. 
The president should be thoroughly conversant with the 
cemetery business and a persistent interrogation point. When 
a subject is up for discussion it should not lag one moment, 
nor should it be dropped before it is argued and expounded 
in its every phase; he should be beforehand apprised of those 
who are personally familiar with the subject in hand and call 
upon them, one after the other, for their practical knowledge 
of it. Many a good man thoroughly posted on the subject 
may sit a silent listener and never volunteer a word because 
he is too bashful, or too modest, or too nervous to stand up 
in meeting and speak, but the most bashful or reticent man 
in the association will answer a question if the president asks 
him. 
The secretary tells of the superintendent of a big cemtery 
who would not join the A. A. C. S- because we could not 
teach him anything, and lest by contact with us he should 
impart to us any of the information he possessed ; and later, 
when the association visited his cemetery, they found it a 
back number! Poor fellow. Oh, what joy it would be to get 
that man into the meeting room and there set him on the 
grid-iron of confession answering questions to the president 
like a school boy to his teacher. The superintendent of the 
wealthiest cemetery in the world told me he was not a mem- 
ber because his cemetery was not a money-making institution, 
and he was under the impression that the main object of our 
association was how to conduct our charges so as to make 
the most money out of them and pay the biggest dividends to 
the stockholders. But this is an error ; our association has no 
such narrow principle. In fact, I believe that that superin- 
tendent will be one of us next year, for he is a big, broad- 
minded man and most willing to give any information in his 
power. He treated me most nobly. 
Well I know that the board of directors of some ceme- 
teries, big, old and wealthy institutions at that, give their 
superintendents no encouragement as regards our associa- 
tion, and when these superintendents attend our meetings 
they do so at their own personal expense. This is much to 
be regretted, but how to change it I do not know. It might 
not be a bad plan to invite the leading officers of those indif- 
ferent boards to attend the meetings as our guests to see the 
good our society is doing and trying to do, and in this way 
maybe soften their hearts to our recognition. 
How different it is with some cemetery boards. Take this 
one (the Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburg) for instance : Its 
express order is> that I shall attend the association meetings 
and take my leading assistants with me, and go elsewhere, 
anywhere, to learn what is new, desirable and progressive 
in the business and absorb the same for the good of our 
institution, and all at the cemetery’s expense. And it is the 
same with my good friend and neighbor, David Woods of 
Homewood Cemetery. And neither of our cemeteries is a 
stock association; every penny made goes into the cemetery. 
Another thing to popularize our cemetery association — make 
it more practically useful. For instance, ask the local com- 
mittee of the city where we are going to hold the convention 
to set apart for the convention a small piece of ground 
whereupon can be arranged and exhibited lowering devices, 
cemetery tents, grave markers, section markers, sign posts, 
stone and cement burial cases and other necessaries of our 
business, all set up or placed as in actual use. The manu- 
facturers of these wares would, I am satisfied, be very glad 
indeed to make such an exhibit and explain the workings 
thereof. Then let us devote a part of a forenoon or after- 
noon in going to and examining these exhibits. They may 
be in some by-place of some cemetery we may be visiting, then 
let us get off at that place and stay there for one or two 
hours. 
Now, think of the advantage that would be to us. We 
would see the things in actual operation and could by test 
