PAR.K AND C£ME.TE-R.Y 
347 
full report of the exhibit of photographs by the American 
Park and Outdoor Art Association at the International Expo- 
sition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin, Italy. 
The time has come when the American Park and Outdoor 
Art Association should have an executive officer who, with 
adequate compensation, could give his whole time to the in- 
terests of the association. Only then can we hope to realize 
our full possibilities of growth and influence. 
It would be well, and I should be proud and glad to see this 
association a party to such a plan, if there could be arranged 
a federation of all the allied interests that are now working 
along many lines for the improvement of towns and cities. At 
this convention there are assembled officers of a considerable 
number of such national organizations — more, perhaps, than 
have ever been brought together before. It would be a pity if 
these representatives should separate, after so unique a con- 
gress, without taking steps toward co-operation of efiort. It 
is not for me to suggest how it may be brought about ; but the 
example of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, — where there ate successfully allied many interests, as 
different in detail and hardly as one in general spirit as are 
the associations which are devoted to civic improvement — gives 
ground for hope that we, too, may all join forces with a like 
success. When one thinks, also, of the magnificent generosity 
of modern wealth, of the public spirit of our countless philan- 
thropists, and then of the immense blessing that such centrali- 
zation of energy and resources would bring to the cities and 
towns of the United States, it does not seem too much to hope 
that a directing bureau for all this effort may be endowed. 
As a division of specialists, as a chapter taking up a particular 
phase of the work, no existing organization would lose its 
identity. Rather, it would find its opportunity enormously in- 
creased, and by the systematizing of all the effort, every en- 
deavor would be made to count. I leave to your consideration 
the formulation of the plan. If it cannot be brought about, 
the secretaryship of this association should be made a paid 
office; if it can be brought about, I believe that such a portion 
of our secretary’s routine work might be transacted in the 
general office that our own need of a paid official would be 
considerably postponed. 
The association should make it plainly known to our friends 
in cities where annual meetings are to be held that they will 
not be expected to pay the expenses of our entertainment. As 
our members increase we shall be unwelcome guests unless it 
is clearly understood that we pay our own bills. 
Within the past year the President of this association has 
caused to be printed and mailed to railroad officials and mem- 
bers of our association respectively, the following circulars, 
namely : 
The first, addressed to railroad officials, regarding the im- 
provements of their terminal properties; 
The second, addressed to members of the American Park 
and Outdoor Art Association, relating to legislation designed 
to correct the abuse of public avertising: 
The third, addressed to city officials, with reference to the 
improvement of all public buildings and grounds surrounding 
them ; also urging the limitation of public advertising. 
The fourth, addressed to our members and the Women’s 
Auxiliary, requesting them to use their influence among the 
manufacturers of their respective cities in the matter of the 
improvement of manufacturing properties, etc., etc. ; also urg- 
ing the Women’s Auxiliary to take up the work of beautifying 
public school grounds, and the improvement of unattractive 
surroundings of homes in the tenement districts, as has been 
done in Chicago and Milwaukee. 
The time has come when those children who can remain in 
our public and parochial schools but a few years should be 
taught something of botany, the life of birds, and the elemen- 
tary principles of natural sciences, chemistry and landscape 
gardening. 
The work of this association will never be completed. In 
promoting and improving parks and park-ways, another thing 
should be constantly borne in mind, namely, the improvement 
of grounds about Government. State, County, City and Town 
properties ; religious, charitable and educational institutions. 
In fact, all public grounds should be made beautiful and re- 
ceive the same thoughtful and skillful care as public parks and 
the grounds of private citizens. 
The wisdom in the choice of park sites, the far-seeing plans 
of landscape architects, and the effects of wise and judicious 
planting cannot be fully realized or appreciated during the life 
of one person; but, co-operating with Him, who created 
beauty in Heaven and on Earth, the sun and rain, dew and 
frost, will develop the work we are all doing, and, under the 
spreading branches of many thousand trees, future generations 
will “take the benediction of the air.” 
Popular Utilization of Public Reservations. 
Extracts from an address before tbe American ParK and Outdoor Art Association, by Dr. CHas. W. 
Eliot, President of Harvard University. 
“During the last ten years great additions have been made 
to the number of parks, open squares, and public gardens in 
the northern and western cities of the United States, and 
many millions of dollars have been spent in procuring these 
public reservations. It is noticeable, however, that in most 
American communities the public manifests only a moderate 
capacity to enjoy these beautiful provisions. The parks and 
squares are breathing places ; they protect water supplies ; 
they enhance the value of the adjacent private properties; and 
some of them are useful play-grounds; but they are not lived 
in. and delighted in by any large proportion of the popula- 
tion. 
“Those of us who have visited the cities and large towns of 
Europe, or who have in any way become familiar with the 
outdoor habits of European populations, recognize the fact 
that in comparison with the people of Europe, the native peo- 
ple of the United States have little capacity to enjoy out-of- 
door beauty, little taste for the freedom and quiet of the coun- 
try. and no disposition to live in the streets of the cities. 
In the southern parts of Europe and the northern parts of 
.A-frica, the common people in the large towns and cities pass 
their lives out of doors to an extent very surprising to an 
.American. I once spent a winter in the town of Pau, in the 
southern part of Erance. The mornings and evenings were 
often cold ; but the middle of the day was much like the fine 
New England weather in October and November. The mo- 
ment the sun shone, all the active women and children took 
to the streets ; and even the invalids and the decrepit old men 
and women sat on the sunny side of the streets with their 
backs against the warmed walls of the houses. Even in winter 
the people found the sunny streets more agreeable than the 
interiors of their houses. 
“The public provision made for babies and little children 
in the Paris public squares affords the very pleasantest sight 
to be seen in that gay capital. For Americans one of the 
most curious sights of Paris is the broad sidewalk of the bou- 
