[19] No roads constructed with smooth surfaces have stood up under heavy automobile travel, except those made of asphaltum and those made like the Sheridan Road in Buena Park. The last-mentioned road has gone through two seasons of very hard usage, and although little repairing has been done, it seems unchanged as to its surface. In one section of England considerable stretches of the same sort of construction have been in service for some time, and with the same result as at Buena Park. In France two years ago, the main road from Versailles to Chartres was in first-class condition; going over the same road in June, 1907, it was found to be almost impassible, the wear upon it having come from automobiles; and yet this highway was constructed with care, on the best old-fashioned macadam formula. Asphaltum roads can be made that will not chip up or pockmark, but the surfacing must be done so that it will incorporate with the mass beneath, and not rolled on as an outer layer. A very moderate speed limit for automobiles will keep roads in good repair, for it is the high speed of the machines that is so destructive to roadbeds. [Illustration: XLIII. CHICAGO. WINTER VIEW OF GRANT PARK AND THE PROPOSED HARBOR, LOOKING EAST. From the original sketch by E. H. Bennett. COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO ] CHAPTER IV THE CHICAGO PARK SYSTEM: THE MOVEMENT FOR PARK EXTENSION: PLAYGROUNDS: OUTLYING PARK SYSTEMS IN LONDON, PARIS, BERLIN, VIENNA, AND BOSTON: PROPOSED TREATMENT OF THE LAKE MICHIGAN SHORE: AN OUTER PARK BELT Chicago, on becoming a city, chose for its motto _Urbs in horto_—a city set in a garden. Such indeed it then was, with the opalescent waters of the Lake at its front, and on its three sides the boundless prairie carpeted with waving grass bedecked with brilliant wild flowers. The quick advance of commerce and manufactures, the rapid building of railroads and factories, and the hastily constructed homes of operatives crowded out nature’s parterres of flowers. Still the motto lingered in the minds of men, and in 1839 the struggle began to secure for the fast-growing population park spaces which should at least recall the gardens that of necessity had been sacrificed. In the year mentioned, a half-square on Michigan Avenue, where the Public Library now stands, comprised the entire park system of the city of Chicago. Three years later Washington Square was added; then followed at intervals Jefferson, Union, Ellis, and Vernon parks, each representing the public spirit of individuals rather than the foresight of the city. In 1864 the Common Council, having been awakened to the necessity of providing recreation places for the growing multitudes of citizens, secured a portion of the lands which later came to be named Lincoln Park, and the sum of ten thousand dollars was appropriated for park improvement.