out. When a meadow used as a baseball field begins to give evidence of hard usage, the bases, which are furnished by the commission, are slightly shifted so as to allow the grass to grow anew upon the worn spots. The accompanying pictures show better than words the deco-. rative possibilities of base-ball fields, tennis courts, wading-pools and skatingponds when planned with some consideration of their surroundings.

The boat houses in Branch Brook and Weequahic Parks are equipped for the storage and care of private boats and canoes at a nominal charge as well as for the renting of public boats. The lakes were made uniform in depth for the purpose of lowering the level of the water in winter and thus providing safe skating. There are also warm rooms for the use of skaters in winter. capacity of each boat, as estimated by a competent engineer, is posted conspicuously in the boat and the concessionaire who allows overloading does it at the risk of his license.

The

Smaller parks supply the daily needs. of the more densely populated sections. of the towns. In Essex county there exists a belief that a barren or neglected playground encourages disorder, founded, perhaps, on inspection of certain other systems. While making no attempt to demonstrate this thesis, the commissioners have proceeded to show that the practical and aesthetic are not inherently at variance with each other. Field-houses and shelters, of white or gray stone, redtiled or roofed with gray cedar shingles, are set in grassy meadows and surrounded by shrubbery and trees. The boys have athletic fields and out-door gymnasiums; the girls, swings, see-saws, giant strides and games; and the babies, swings and sand-courts.

both sand-courts and wading-pools are kept clean and fresh.

Teachers there are, and policemen, but they are merely incidental. The child learns that the "cop" is his friend and protector rather than the "guardian of the law," and the teachers, trained for their work with children, not only supervise the games, but suggest new ones. They see that there is "fair play" and that the bolder children do not infringe upon the rights of their weaker companions. And this is the greatest good, apart from the physical advantages, that the playgrounds provide. They teach children to live with their fellows and to adjust themselves to the demands of various kinds of personal relationship. The playground thus becomes a laboratory for the development of character in a sense not possible under the discipline of school rules.

No attempt has been made to describe the provisions made for comfort and convenience in the various buildings at the lakes, wading-pools, athletic fields, etc. It may suffice to say that there are refreshment stands, check rooms, lockers, baths of various kinds, all for use at a nominal charge, and all used to their fullest capacity. Weekly concerts are also given in all the parks, and the large audiences indicate the pleasure thus bestowed.

Unity is given to the system of parks by connecting parkways. They furnish the people with shaded driveways, give easy access to the larger parks and reservations and serve as highways between the different parts of the county.

The work of maintaining and supervising the playgrounds and playfields is under the direction of David I. Kelly, who served in a similar capacity under the New York Park Department. To his work Mr. Kelly brings not only a considerable fund of knowledge and experience but, what is more important, a genuine interest in children and an understanding of their needs which proceeds from his own spirit of play and of "fair play."

The administration is so well organized that at the end of each day what has been done throughout the whole system is accurately known to the engineer

and superintendent. There are forms provided for detailed daily reports on all the kinds of work done in the care and improvement of drives, walks, lawns, trees, plantations, flower gardens, ballfields, tennis-courts, playgrounds, wadingpools, buildings, water system, etc. The exact amount of time spent by each man, horse and wagon is known, as well as the exact nature of the duties in which each has been engaged. The cost of each item of work is also specified. In addition to these daily reports of the foremen, there are weekly and monthly reports. There are also statements as to the amount of salable wood that has been cut and as to the receipts from sales. The stable reports include detailed accounts of the condition of the horses, the services of veterinary surgeons, surgeons, the number of "extra feeds," and many other items that would not occur to the uninitiated.

The commissioners, as business men, believe in getting the largest possible returns for their money. They want the capital invested to yield proportionate social dividends. Thus their first aim is

to secure a large attendance at the parks; their second, to give profit to those attending. It is to accomplish this purpose that the reports just mentioned are used. If on fair trial it is found that an improvement costing $5,000 is used by only 500 persons, while another of like cost is used by 1,000, the latter is extended and duplicated in other parks; the former is not. In laying out a park system "the whole problem," as stated by the Metropolitan Park Commission of Providence Plantations, "is to devise a plan whereby for the least expenditure there may be the greatest results in ways of beauty, health, utility, financial returns from the development of cities, and preservation of the most useful natural fea

tures, reserving them for the everlasting benefit of the many against the temporary shortsightedness and greed of the few." This ideal Essex county has in large measure already realized and there is no reason to anticipate that what remains to be done will be substantially delayed.

Adding to its wealth at the rate of three million dollars a day, the South has unparalleled in American history. Infinitely greater in value than its mineral and timber wealth is the South's wealth in its undeveloped boys. There are thousands of poor white boys throughout the South in whom there are latent abilities which if

an opportunity for educational investment

quickened and developed and utilized, would make them great leaders in Southern upbuilding. The finding of a boy who has such abilities and the development of that boy into a real man, a leader of men, is far beyond the discovery of a new ore, or coal, or gold mine. The opportunity which the South will henceforth afford to such boys is greater than can be found in any other section of this or any other country. How shall we find the boys and how shall their abilities be utilized to their own good and to the blessing of the South?

This is a paragraph from an article by Richard Edmunds, of Baltimore. In the same article he discusses the boy who needs only the money to take advantage a technical education.

There are two distinct classes among the poor white boys of the South. Those who have ambition and no opportunity, and those who have neither ambition nor opportunity. opportunity. While there are numbers of the first class they are in the minority. For such boys Mr. Edmunds suggests a practical and possible means to the desired end, namely, pecuniary assistance, which, if rendered with the best of judgment would be of undoubted value. For the boys who have no ambition and no opportunity, he gives us no remedy.

When these boys are occupied mentally and physically, and are fired with ambition, there will be less need for concern in their behalf. Almost all of them are bright and their condition is due to ignorant or wicked parents, to the present lack of compulsory education, and to lack of means for establishing systems of juvenile improvement. We will use