unmistakable effects of the arbor gardens.  It is not easy work which the children perform, for spade and rake require muscular effort; but it is ennobling work, for it leads to self-respect, self-dependence, and respect for others, as well as willingness to aid others.  The most beautiful sight is afforded when, on a certain date agreed on by the members of a colony, a harvest festival is held.  Then flag raisings and illuminations and singing and music make the day a memorable one.”

Most of the families had not the means to buy the lumber and hardware to erect an “arbor,” and yet they were the very ones to whom the life in the open would be of the greatest benefit.  Hence philanthropy erected the structures.  The Patriotic Woman’s League of the Red Cross built half of all the “arbors” of the colony found on the “Jungfernheide.”  Many colonies reach into the woods, and naturally are of a different character from those in the open, for there tents are used instead of wooden structures.  For protection during the night watchmen pace up and down the lanes; this before the war entailed a cost of 7 1/2 cents a month to each family.  The season lasts from May 1 to October 1.

The school-going population meanwhile attend their schools, which used to be reached by means of the elevated cars or surface tramways for 2 1/2 cents and much cheaper if they have commuters’ tickets.  Many schools are near enough to be reached on foot.  The children do not loiter on the way, but when school is out they hurry “home” to begin work in the garden, or to sit down to a meal on the veranda, which is relished far more than a meal in a city tenement house filled with fetid air and wanting in light.  Nearly every one of these gardens has a flagpole, and at night a Japanese paper lantern with a tallow dip in it illuminates the veranda.  These, with flags by day, make a festive appearance.  The teachers find that city children who spend the five months in the open air are well equipped with elementary ideas in physical geography and astronomy.  Their mental equipment is better, indeed, in all fields of thought, their physical health is improved, as well as their ethical motives and conduct.

To realize the full extent of these wholesale efforts (for put children into close contact with nature and they will improve in all directions), it is well to take a ride on the North belt line (elevated steam railroad), the trains of which start from the Friedrich’s street depot and bring one back after a ride of an hour and a half.  Then one may do the same on the South belt line.  On these two trips one will see, not hundreds, but tens of thousands of such “arbor gardens” full of happy women and children at work or play.  The men come out on the belt line when their work in town is done.  The writer was riding through the city on an open cab, and seeing hardly any children on the streets and in the parks, he asked, “How is it that we see no children out?” “Ah, sir,” was the reply,