The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-10-20
WOMAN'S CLUB DEPARTMENT
Miss Shelton Souter, Editor
And Now the Park

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comfortable, it seemed fitting that al
other interests should be put aside
for the time being, but now that the
boys have left US. summer has sale
goodbye and Ocala has resumed hel
normal everyday life, it seems to be
an opportune time to put in plea
for the park, and Mr.. Benjamin has
opened the way very nicely in his vel
written, interesting letter to Mrs. W
T. Gary, president of the Woman's
Club, which appeared in the Star
Saturday afternoon, Oct. IA.
While our committee has been Civ.
ing Ocala a rest the weeds in the
park have been busy growing until
now one could almost get lost in the
! jungle of rank growth, but that does
not discourage US, for it only attests
to the great fertility of the soil there
and it's suitability for park site, for
we know that flowers and shrubs
would grow just as easily.
If Mr.. Benjamin could have heard
the report of our committee, which
was read at the last meeting of the
club in May and which will be pub
lished later, it would have surprised
him to learn the amount of work
that has been done during the year.
Twice with the assistance of the city
carts and men. loaned US by the street
committee, of which Mr.. D. E. Nc
liver is chairman. the weeds have
been cut down and burned and the
place cleared of all dead limbs and
brush. Mr.. Marsh had charge of the
men, and he took an especial interest
in having the work we'll done.
Capt. Drake surveyed several of
the walks according to Mr.. Swope's
plan. These walks were graded,
cleaned up by the street force under
Mr.. Marsh and everything began to
look quite park-ike, but the rainy
season came on, and of course it was
impossible to keep down the weeds,
but if the water was bad for the
weeds it was just the thing for the
trees planted last spring by our COM
mittee, assisted by the forestry COM
mittee. There were 25 trees planted,
and in spite of the extreme cold that
came Immediately after, most of the
trees are doing splendidly.
We knew in the beginning what a
stupendous task we had undertaken,
but we never dreamed of doing more
than get the movement started, and
try to get the city interested enough
to take up the work. We have met
with a great deal of opposition, both
in the council and outside, but we
have also met with a great deal of
encouragement, and the completion of
the union station only makes US more
determined that Ocala shall have a
park there, where tourists in passing
can have a pleasant place to spend
the time between trains.
Now if some public spirited engi-
neer will only lay out the walk where
the old S. S. o. & G. roadbed was,
diagonally across, so that we can
have it graded, our committee will
plant dogwood on either side, and we
will indeed have "thing of beauty
and joy forever"
Capt. Drake was trying to locate
the exact western boundary of the
park, so that we could have fringe
fringe of bamboo clear across, and
what could be more beautiful? Be-
sides hiding from view all the I'M
slightly buildings that have been one
of the objections made to the site.
l would like to say here that Capt.
Drake did this work for US free of
cost.
We have a plan made by Mr.. Mac
Kay and donated to US, for a beau
tiful pavilion, but until we get more
money l am afraid it would be i'm
possible to build it. However, all
things come to him who waits-long
enough, so while we are waiting we
are also going to be working, and
planting and hoping that some day
the city will take away that old rock
crusher and leave enough Of the
grotto to beautify. l quote from the
Tucson Citizen, sent me by friend:
"The city has five parks, which are
being improved as the requirements
of the city demand. They are Sunset
park, between the county courthouse
and the city hall, Santa Rita park or
the northside, Rincon park on the
east near the schools, and Military
Plaza, in which the armory is locat
ed. The armory and the Carnegie
library form one group of public
buildings with the Scottish Rite Ca
thedral nearby. The city hall, count!
courthouse and Elks' club form an
other, with Sunset park in the center
A bond issue of $4,000 has been ap
piled to the improvement of thes'
parks during the past few years. Tn
people have learned to guard tn
parks jealousy and any attempt t.
use them for other purposes meet
with effective protest. Trees, shrub
berry and flowers are maintained b,
Irrigation"
Tucson has about $4,000 inhabi
tants, and park for every 5000
Surely Ocala could support one, a
our city grows we could have others
Their is just one drawback to on
l.