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PARK AND CEMETERY 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY. 
NOTES OF THE ASSOCIATIONS. 
Mr. Charles Mulford Robinson has written an in- 
teresting paper on “The Town’s Opportunity,” which 
is being used as a tract (so to speak) by the Ameri- 
can League for Civic Improvement. It calls attention 
to the fact that small towns offer exceptionally good 
opportunities for pleasant, healthful and compara- 
tively inexpensive living as well as advantages for the 
conduct of many lines of business that have been until 
recently confined to the immediate environs of large 
cities. I have taken it upon myself to call further at- 
tention to these truths through the columns of the 
Chicago Rccord-Hcrald, in the hope that the leading 
business men of smaller cities and towns will be 
reached through the popular medium of a prominent 
daily newspaper. Such men seldom see class periodicals 
except, sometimes, through the women of their fam- 
ilies — those blessed missionaries of applied goodness 
and beauty who are certainly proving themselves 
“beauty physicians” in a higher and better sense than 
the commonly accepted meaning of the term. My pur- 
pose in this connection was to call to the attention of 
such men the patent fact that if towns are to profit 
by this “toward-the-country movement” (as I took 
the opportunity to christen it) they must needs pay 
attention to the physical, social and aesthetic advan- 
tages that are the deciding factors with city business 
men who are considering such changes of location. 
City men who go to smaller places consider everyone 
of the points covered by what comes under the head of 
improvement work, and are largely determined in their 
choice of location by features that are overlooked by 
those who have always lived in small places or in the 
country. They are looking for an ideal combination of 
city modern improvements and country natural ad- 
vantages. They are quite right and reasonable in 
doing so. It is possible to find or to create such a 
combination, and when found it will prove a winner. 
It is in the power of the “head men” of each vil- 
lage and town to make the particular place in which 
they are interested a successful business center and an 
attractive place of residence. The first to see and act 
along this line will be the first to profit by this new 
idea. The way to go about securing the desirable 
conditions that are preliminary to financial success is 
to follow the tactics of successful improvement organ- 
izations. Those towns that already possess this basic 
factor of a good business policy are even now setting 
their feet along the pleasant highway that all countries, 
states, cities and individuals wish to tread. 
The South Park Improvement Association, of 
Chicago, has been in existence sometbing more than 
one year. It is regularly incorporated, has the usual 
complement of officers and eight active committees, 
viz., on streets and alleys, vacant lots, sanitation, land- 
scape gardening, architecture, membership, finance, 
and publication. This is a rather more comprehensive 
and ambitious list than the average improvement or- 
ganization shows — probably because it numbers 
among its founders Mrs. Herman J. Hall, president of 
the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Park and 
Outdoor Art Association, who is nothing if not both 
FALL IN THE PERENNIAL BORDER NEW ENGLAND ASTERS, 
JACKSON PARK, CHICAGO. 
thorough and enthusiastic. The society last year 
cleaned all the vacant lots in its district (which is 
bounded by Fifty-fifth and Fifty-ninth streets and 
Jackson Park and the University grounds) and greatly 
improved the condition of the streets and alleys. Their 
neat cart, propelled by a trim-looking colored man clad 
in a tidy uniform, goes over the ground daily, finishing 
off the work of the snow plow, opening drains, sweep- 
ing crossings and picking up papers and other loose 
rubbish and carting it away. Garbage barrels no 
longer mar this choice residence district, and sprink- 
ling is now uniformly done throughout its limits, both 
reforms being due to this efficient organization. That 
practical benefit has resulted for the residents of this 
part of the city is amply proven by the fact that the 
first season’s work has resulted in the promise of a 
liberal monthly sum of money from the University, 
which, it is said, insures sufficient financial support to 
extend the work to cover nearly all of the district 
known as South Park. 
