16 
PARK AND 
The Vicksburg National Military Park will soon be com- 
pleted so far as the area of land to be acquired is concerned, 
the total of which will amount to some 1,231 acres. In this 
park it is proposed to restore all the military features which 
characterized the locality in the stirring days of 1863. 
♦ ♦ ♦ 
Eastern admirers of the late Col. Robert G. Ingersoll 
propose to establish in New Rochelle, a suburb of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., a park in memory of the noted agnostic. A number 
of prominent men and the Brooklyn Philosophical Society are 
behind the movement. The park will also provide a site 
for a monument to Thomas Paine. 
Mr. Charles P. Birge has awarded a contract for a 
fountain which he proposes donating to the city of Keokuk, 
la. It is to be Grecian in design; in the main it is a tem- 
ple of eight columns upon a marble base, surmounted by an 
entablature and dome. In the center is an urn of polished 
granite which contains the water arrangements. 
* ^ * 
A committee of the Board of Trade of Watkins, N. Y., 
has been appointed to assist in securing the passage of the 
bill creating a state park at Watkins Glen. This has always 
been a spot of peculiar interest to visitors from the eastern 
states, and is so beautiful in character that it might well 
be considered favorably as a locality for state preservation. 
* * * 
The first annual meeting of the Michigan Village Asso- 
ciation has just been held, particulars of which are not yet 
to hand. Some three hundred villages in the state were in- 
vited to send delegates. The association comprises village 
officials and others interested and was organized to consider 
all matters of interest in the government and improvement 
of villages. 
♦ ♦ * 
The city council of Iowa Falls, la., has adopted a reso- 
lution to submit to the electors at the coming municipal elec- 
tion a proposition to levy a two mill tax for a term of seven 
years, for the purpose of creating a fund for the purchase of 
land for park purposes, and for the improvements and main- 
tenance of the parks. Three park commissioners will be 
elected to take charge of the park system. 
* * ♦ 
Commercial interests have been hard at work against the 
proposed Palisades Park bill in the New Jersey legislature. 
The question has created a profound interest, the women s 
clubs of the state taking an active part in favor of the bill. 
There are few places in the country more worthy of public 
preservation, and it is certain that commercial Interests arc 
more easily convertible and revertible, while aesthetic inter- 
ests have more permanence in their character. 
* + * 
Among the improvements in the Baltimore parks are 
several additions to the greenhouses, almost completed, con- 
structed on modern principles, and which range in size from 
too to 150 feet in length by 25 to 35 feet in width. The esti- 
mated costs are; Druid Hill park, $2,731.37; Carroll park, 
$3,699.42; Patterson park, $2,776.52; Clifton park, about $5,- 
000. The park superintendent expects to raise in the com- 
pleted greenhouse establishments some half a million plants 
for park purposes. 
CEMETERY. 
What with legislative and political squabbling by the city 
authorities, Cleveland, O., seems to be in a bad way just at 
present in connection with its park system. A board whose 
achievements would appear to have justified its continued 
activity has been legislated out of office and the parks turned 
over to the Public Works department. Unless all signs fail, 
this presages the usual course of affairs, and the people will 
wake up some fine day determined to take a hand in park 
affairs and relegate to their proper sphere those who have be- 
trayed them. * ♦ ♦ 
On the site of the great Wicke factory fire. New York 
City, a small park is to be established, covering the two blocks 
devastated by the conflagration. This is a boon sadly needed 
on this, the east side of New York. In the district tributary 
to it are some 250,000 children. People and other influences 
are contributing efforts to an early commencement of opera- 
tions, so that the park may be opened in the spring of 1902. 
At the foot of thirtieth street, it is also intended to erect 
a public bath, and the pavilion and dressing rooms stretching 
along the river front will be designed to create a decorative 
feature. ' * * 
The Carnegie Land company of the Carnegie company. 
Homestead, Pa., has decided to create two parks on its 
property at Munhall, which was formerly the property of 
the old Pittsburg poor farm. The great library that Andrew 
Carnegie has presented to the borough of Homestead stands 
on Tenth avenue, just above the armor plate works. Between 
it and Eighth avenue is a gently sloping stretch of two 
squares. This will be made into a park by Mr. Carnegie, 
with fountains, walks and drives. Another park, triangular 
in shape, will be laid out on the hill top at the corner of 
Eleventh avenue and Margaret street. Plans for the land- 
scape work of the parks will be prepared at once. The large 
park will be made an approach to the library, gymnasium 
and club rooms. 
* * * 
The Minnesota legislature has under consideration the 
idea of presenting a memorial to Congress urging that the 
Leech Lake reservations be set aside for national park pur- 
poses. It has been presented to the State Senate in a bill 
which asks Congress to withhold the lands and timber of 
the reservations from sale until a joint Congressional com- 
mission can investigate the advisability of setting aside the 
reservations. It also asks that the commission examine the 
advantages the reservations offer for forest reserve and sani- 
tarium, as well as for park purposes. The bill also calls for 
aid from the Minnesota representatives and governmental 
officials interested in the proposed park. The Minnesota 
House Committee also reported for passage a bill for the 
extension of the Lake Itasca state park, and a bill making 
the killing of game or catching fish within 3,000 feet of the 
boundaries of a public park a misdemeanor. 
* * * 
In the annual report of the president of the Minneap- 
olis, Minn., Park Board, Prof. W. W. Folwell, he discussed 
the matter of the deficit in the park accounts for the past 
year or two. He says “the system of assessments and cer- 
tificates is wrong; that in good times it is too easy for 
speculators to work it and it leads to extravagance. The 
system is being discarded in most cities adopting new char- 
ters.” Speaking of park prospects for Minneapolis he con- 
tinues: “In the present financial condition of the board, no 
considerable amount can be expended in park improvements 
this year,” but the number of lake parks should be increased, 
and to this end the board should plan on a liberal scale. The 
resources for the ensuing year is $194,212.93; fixed chargesy 
$135,258.14, leaving $58,954.79 available for the other pur- 
poses, for which estimates call for $71,445, which will create 
a deficit of over $12,000. Upon this the board took no imme- 
diate action. 
