PARK AND CEMETERY 
432 
only to the city’s disgrace. Any piece of ground can be made 
into a park, and I care not what its condition is, yet until 
it is so made, it is no more a park than a pile of lumber and 
brick is a palace. 
If a park was a construction which reared itself into the 
air as a building does, or suspended itself across space like 
a bridge, it would be at once recognized as such, and the 
necessity of science and art and money and skill in its build- 
ing would be acknowledged. It is no less a construction than 
the bridge and the building, even if it lies flat on the earth, 
and yet we are so used to seeing the ground and trees grow- 
ing spontaneously and naturally from the land, and the 
farmer and gardener, by plowing and planting, producing 
their crops, that it is hard to realize that the park differs 
from all this, especally hard as groves of large trees which 
are not disturbed are always desired and selected whenever 
they can be obtained, but, nevertheless, it is true that parks, 
in the science and art of their designing and mission, in skill 
and methods of construction and care, and in every other 
way except in appearance, location and form, are more nearly 
related to architecture, painting and sculpture than they are 
to farming, gardening or forestry. 
Another habit of the people which blocks the way to real- 
izing the need of park construction and care is the considera- 
tion usually given to grounds around the homes of ordinarily 
well-to-do persons in what is often called the residential sec- 
tions of the city. Usually little attention is paid to the ground 
until the house is nearly completed, then the grader is called 
in, who recommends “a nice growing grade from the house 
to the sidewalk.” The nurseryman suggests the planting of 
angles or borders, a walk is added, many times great efforts 
are made to have it curved when a straight one would be a 
hundred times better; trees are planted on the street line and 
one or two on the lawn, and the grounds are completed, with 
a tendency toward ornateness instead of that greater charm, 
simplicity. The owner usually has spent more than he ex- 
pected on the house and desires to economize on the grounds. 
A hundred dollars or less is the sum often mentioned as the 
Cemetery Lot 
Few will dissent, we believe, from the opinion that 
“comparisons are odious” when related to the old 
and the modern systems of cemetery improvement, and 
one of the most noticeably detrimental objects in the 
older cemeteries is the lot enclosure, whether it be the 
iron fence or more recent stone coping. Nor can we un- 
derstand why the managers of the country cemeteries 
and many of the city burial grounds, still continue to 
permit the use of coping even around the lots. It was 
once considered necessary to erect iron fencing around 
individual lots in our larger cemeteries, perhaps for 
seclusion and protection, perhaps for ornament, per- 
haps for ostentatious display. However, as time 
passed and the landscape plan developed, it was dis- 
covered that such enclosures encouraged weeds, and 
in due course became dilapidated and unsightly, and, 
moreover, they greatly increased the cost of mainte- 
nance and care. Then there followed the stone cop- 
ing to supplant the iron fence, but still having the 
limit. All this means a low grade of work, want of thor- 
oughness in the doing, and lack of satisfaction in results. It 
sets a low standard for the ideal. Now, if the builders of 
homes would recognize from the beginning that the grounds 
must cost for thorough work from i-io to H what the house 
itself costs, and that they will cost as much to furnish as the 
average cost of furnishing a room inside, then the owner 
would find in this outdoor room of his home the satisfaction 
and contentment which ought to come from it. He would 
always have a library of nature's writings at hand where a 
new and beautiful book would open for his pleasure every day. 
He would have an outdoor art gallery filled with pictures of 
the most beautiful colorings, with statues of a most exquis- 
ite form, and besides that, and more in line with the purpose 
of this paper, his knowledge and appreciation of the best at 
his home would lead him to expect and demand the best for 
the parks of his city. 
I am not trying to give this work undue prominence, but to 
have it rank where it belongs as it must, if it is to reach suc- 
cess. As it depends on the engineer for its information of 
determining and estimating its work, and has many prob- 
lems to solve equally as difficult and important as those con- 
nected with streets, sewerage and water, it should be classed 
with engineering. As it is a structure and has to be built 
with a wonderful amount of adjustment of detail, with a plan 
to predetermine what must ever afterward decide its lines of 
development, so it should be classed with architecture. As 
it seeks to improve and give strength to the souls of mankind 
it should be called one of the arts. 
My chairmanship of the Committee on Park Census of the 
American Park and Outdoor Art Association has led to an 
extensive correspondence with park officials and those inter- 
ested in parks. I have also visited over a thousand of the 
si.x thousand parks, squares and public areas of the United 
States, and my conclusion as to park areas for cities and their 
relations to its population, income and valuation was given in 
the report of that committee, which was published in Park 
and Cemetery in August, 1901. 
Enclosures. 
same inherent defects, although considered to be more 
enduring and less objectionable in many respects. But 
the elements have performed their office, and have 
shown that the stone coping will deteriorate and be- 
come unsightly and have, furthermore, demonstrated 
that nothing has more enduring and endurable grace 
and beauty for the cemetery than the lawn, with its 
trees and shrubs. The fact of the lawn plan, applying 
to the cemetery as a whole, thus rendering the artifi- 
cial boundaries of individual lots unnecessary, does not 
really affect the individuality of lots, but rather, while 
adding an ever-increasing beauty to the whole, im- 
proves each lot irrespective of its neighbor, and makes 
tbe care of every lot necessary, because of its relation 
to its neighbor. The lot enclosure is a relic of a less 
experienced past, and it should not be a very difficult 
educational effort to persuade lot owners to submit to 
its removal, for it is altogether out of harmony with 
the best modern conceptions of cemetery management. 
