THE GARDEN OF MRS. FABYAN ON THE FOX RIVER, ILLINOIS 
Here one finds oneself in the midst of a picture—not merely looking at one. The low zigzag bridge 
across the still pool is a characteristic feature of the true Japanese garden as will be seen by the views 
shown on the opposite page. Indeed a comparison of the old gardens of Japan with this newer one 
, that cleverly echoes their art makes an interesting study (See page 311, “About Gardening in Old Japan’’) 
“A PICTURE AND A POEM” 
ORIN CROOKER 
Nature’s Serenest Mood Reflected on the Banks of an Illinois 
River in a Modern Garden after the Manner of Old Japan 
' A JAPANESE GARDEN is not a garden in the sense in 
which Westerners use the word. It is, as Lafcadio 
j/WW; Hearn has pointed out, both a picture and a poem— 
tmJlmM, a picture, in that it conveys to the eye an impression 
such as comes from viewing a landscape—a poem, in the sense 
that it expresses to the Oriental some mood of the soul; perhaps 
contentment, serenity or peace. One should know, however, 
that a Japanese garden need not contain necessarily either 
flowers or even trees. The “picture” may have to do with 
rugged rocks or barren sands, while the “poem” may have a 
theme in keeping with some wholly harsh and rebellious mood 
of the human soul. By inference, at least, the reader will gather 
from the accompanying photographs that the Fabyan garden 
with its quiet pool, its drooping Willows, its velvety stretches, 
and its dreamy perspectives must have for the understanding 
Oriental heart a message of quite pleasing import. 
S TONES, as a rule, have quite a prominent part in most 
Japanese gardens. We speak not of stones as fashioned 
or polished by the hand of man, but of stones worn into varied, 
perhaps unique, forms by natural forces. In such as these the 
Japanese recognizes Nature—the workings of ice or water or 
volcanic fire, all of which the Western mind sums up vaguely, 
perhaps, in the single word, God. One is not surprized, then, 
to find in the garden at Riverbank a rocky hill created from 
boulders left in the vicinity by glacial drift. From between 
these rocks spring dwarf shrubs that soften but do not wholly 
hide the stones beneath. A narrow defile offers a passage 
through this barrier which rises from the water’s edge. Over¬ 
head a footbridge bends. Conspicuous among the weathered 
stones of which this tiny eminence is composed one sees an oval 
boulder of reddish hue. It is considerably larger than a man’s 
head and bears across its face a distinct cross of lighter shade. 
Sometime, when the earth was young, a mighty force shattered 
the parent rock from which this boulder came. Eventually, 
the seams filled with moulten adamant of another sort. One 
need not possess the mind of an occultist to glimpse somewhat 
of the message which this peculiar stone must have for a Japa¬ 
nese. 
T HE Pine tree and its near relatives are apt to have a part in 
such a garden. The evergreen, of whatever sort, speaks to 
most people a message of constancy through the changing sea¬ 
sons. Furthermore, its sharp needles are supposed by the 
Japanese to keep demons away. There is special need then, 
for evergreens in a sheltered acre where it is evident the motif 
deals with some gentle theme. Water, too, has its rightful 
place in a Japanese garden. The quiet pool is seen to image its 
surroundings and thus reiterate the message which is voiced by 
trees and rocks and sky. Inasmuch as a landscape picture is 
intended, one is apt to find, as at Riverbank, tiny hills separated 
by slender, pebbled paths more fit for the feet of a doll than of a 
person grown. Rivulets wind between these miniature hills and 
are spanned by tiny bridges that are humped curiously in the 
