Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1879 — Trees and Shrubs for the Lawn. [ARTICLE]

Trees and Shrubs for the Lawn.

There must be a catholic taste shown in selecting plants, if the lawn is to be properly laid out. The tendency to follow mere fancies, or to use particular and favorite plants, must be kept in strict abeyance. Many and various plants should be employed intelligently. Hardy deciduous trees, shrubs, evergreens, herbaceous and bedding plants —in short, everything that conduces to the beauty of the lawn, must, be united into one harmonious whole. Doubtless there are occasions when a mass of color, obtained by using many plants of one kind, is desirable, but generally a variety of plants and methods of combination is more desirable. The eye thus never becomes sated, and is ever renewing its pleasure. But what is the actual condition of lawnplanting as practiced to-day on myriads of small places throughout the country —places, moreover, that belong to intelligent people? The entire collection consists frequently of a few fruit-trees in the background, an elm, a Norway spruce, an arbor vitae hedge, with a bed of the glowing coleus. All these plats, be it noticed, are of the most pronounced and coarsest type, They may be and are valuable in suitable positions or in other combinations, but are decidedly illfitted for the interior of a small, place, both from the character of their beauty and their habit of excessive growth. We intend no disrespect fcr either of these varieties, many of their qualities being, in their own way, most admirable; but we do say that if other and good selections were made after studying parks or nurseries, fewer poor lawns would exist. Were this the general practice, the übiquitous tree dealer, with his wonderful plates of impossible plants, would be forced to seek for pastures new, and leave the field open for intelligent lawn-planting. Landscape gardening (or lawn-planting, which in a sense is a synonymous term, although the latter treats specially of planting, while the former includes also drainage, road-making, etc.) seems very difficult to some, and is practically considered a myth by others. To one class we can say, practice it yourself and difficulties will soon disappear; it has no arcana into which you cannot pierce. To the other we answer, lawnplanting exists, and has its aesthetic laws, just as taste in general has definite laws.— Scribner for May.

Vulgarity in Fiction and on the Stage. Writing of this topic in Scribner for May, Dr. Holland says: “The average playwright has a fixed opinion that certain definite appeals must be made to the groundlings, in order to produce a successful play. There must be coarseness or profanity, or the half-disguised obscenity that can be put forth in a double entente, or else the great multitude will not be satisfied. As a consequence of this, many ladies do not dare to go to the theater, or to take their children there. There is no question that these objectionable elements in plays have kept many more people out of the theater than they ever attracted thither. People—even vulgar people—are not pleased with vulgarity, and it is quite worth while to call attention to the things that the people are pleased with, both in the fictions of the book and of the stage. “We have had a lyrical comedy running in all the theaters of the country during the last season—“ Her Majesty’s Ship Pinafore which will illustrate a part of what we mean. Since we began to observe theaters at all, nothing has had such a run of popularity as this. Young and old, rich and poor, have been amused by it, and there is not a word in it, from beginning to end, that can wound any sensibility. It is a piece of delicious absurdity all through, and a man can enjoy two hours of jollity in witnessing it, which will not leave a stain upon him anywhere. It is simply delightful pure fun and the most popular thing that has appeared on the stage for the last ten years. We call attention to it specially to show that fun, when it is pure, is more popular a thousand times than when it is not. Nothing can be more evident to any man of common sense than that any admixture of unworthy elements in this play would damage its popularity. What is true of this play is true of any and every play. There is no apology whatever for making the stage impure. Even vulgar people do not seek the stage for impurity. They seek it for pleasure, and they find the purest plays the most satisfactory, provided only that the pleas-ure-giving element is in them. A playwright who is obliged to resort to coarse means to win the applause of coarse men, convicts himself of a lack of capacity for writing a good play.”