108 
AND cemete;r.y 
DENVER, COL., is the matter with Denver, Col., 
AND CARDER may well be asked, when in connec- 
CULTURE. tion with an effort of the Denver 
Times to encourage the care of lawns and the culture 
of flowers, by the offer of a list of premiums, the com- 
petition was dropped because only some four persons 
entered their names to compete for the prizes. In a 
paper recently read before the Denver Floral Club, by 
Mr. Reinhard Schuetze, landscape architect, he de- 
plored this fact and suggested that the success of such 
an effort would turn public interest in the direction of 
horticulture and floriculture throughout the state, and 
that it should be one of the offices of the Floral Club 
to assist in making such an issue a success. He also 
warmly advocated flower exhibitions in the public 
parks, and the establishment of botanical gardens, pub- 
lic nurseries, etc., as resourceful educating influences. 
Such statements should need no endorsement, but the 
suggestions conveyed should itimulate the effort to 
provide these facilities for encouraging the public in 
the love and cultivation of flowers and trees. It is 
especially desirable in our younger states, wherein the 
development of social culture has remained in a sense 
dormant during the period of material growth, and it 
is safe to say that no influences are so full of promise 
for the health and moral welfare of a community as 
those connected with the culture of trees and flowers 
and the consequent tendency to make the results ef- 
fective for untold good in the home life of the people. 
PARK 
^DEFICITS. 
to allow no politics whatever to interfere with his park 
interests. Politics in park management has hitherto 
always produced rot and decay, and the .willingness 
of the citizens to cheerfully pay for the proper main- 
tenance of his public parks should not be impaired by 
the ruthless system of political park appointments — 
appointments made without the remotest suggestion 
of fitness and ability for the office to be filled, or for 
the relations with the public that park commissioner- 
ships demand. Baltimore and many other cities are 
rapidly developing similar conditions which should be 
met by public action of a decided character. 
FUEHERcAL 
REFORm. 
The recent upheaval in the board of 
commissioners of Lincoln Park, Chi- 
cago, and the investigations instituted by the new 
officials subsequent to the reorganizaation of the 
board, have disclosed a condition in the park’s finan- 
cial affairs, deplorable from every standpoint and con- 
clusively evident of the disgracefully loose and unbus- 
iness-like methods of the political park commissioner. 
It is very unfortunate that politics should have so 
peculiar an effect on the average citizen, that so unfor- 
tunate a development does not evoke such a public 
outburst of indignation as to promote immediate action 
in order to administer condign punishment for such 
criminal abuse of public confidence. The affairs of 
Lincoln Park appear to be so bad that no solution of 
the problem has yet been discovered broad enough to 
meet all the difficulties and to improve and maintain 
the park as the requirements dictate for the remainder 
of the present season. Not only are the current re- 
ceipts inadequate for current purposes, but for years 
past a systematic dipping into the sinking fund has 
been pursued, with the result that that fund is now 
some $177,000 short, and with the prospect for the 
taxpayers of paying taxes again to meet the deficit 
when required. The material and financial conditions 
of Lincoln Park, Chicago, and the causes leading 
thereto, should have world-wide publicity, and should 
result in a determination on the part of the taxpayer 
An active campaign appears to be 
waging on both sides of the Atlantic 
in the interests of reform in funeral arrangements 
and ceremonies. The love of show even in times of 
grief seems to be a barnacle on our better nature in 
all countries and under all conditions, and is not neces- 
sarily harmful to the personality of the individual in- 
dulging the weakness, but when it affects the liber- 
ties, comforts and prerogatives of others it becomes a 
very worthy object for repression. As our civilization 
advances ostentation at funerals of all degrees be- 
comes objectionable and infringes on the rigfhts and 
well-being of the community to such an extent that 
regulation and reform becomes necessary. We have 
arrived at that condition to-day, and while active 
work by prominent members of the clergy and laity 
are in progress, it will inspire all well-wishers of the 
cause to learn that missionaries representing the 
Church of England Burial, Funeral and Mourning 
Reform Association propose to visit the United States 
to join in the effort to promote simplicity in funeral 
affairs and to preach a gospel of unostentation. 
PcARK No one could peruse the park reports 
REPORTS. issued by the Park Commissioners of 
our larger cities without being impressed with the edu- 
cational principles contained within their covers, and 
it is quite possible to make them of still more practical 
value to the people. The 26th annual report of the 
Board of Commissioners of the City of Boston, is an 
excellent example of the up-to-date report, and it is 
intensely interesting to study its contents from which 
may be gathered not only the details of park manage- 
ment, planting and general care as pertaining to the 
Boston parks, but the study of the people using the 
several parks has prompted certain modifications in 
the schemes of planting and choice of material, the 
record of which are of far-reaching value. Besides 
Boston is being liberally provided with playgrounds 
and the study of the question of the use and abuse 
of such grounds by those visiting them, will form, in 
a measure, a text book to guide in the future construc- 
tion and maintenance of such grounds. Much light 
on sociological questions may be incorporated in these 
reports by intelligent officials. 
