_Hop-o'-my-Thumb_, _Bluebeard_, and the rest,--so that the children
who roamed the gardens, and in their play gathered about the statues
of their beloved fairy friends, might have with them also a reminder
of the giver of all this joy, their friend Perrault. Two hundred years
before, Perrault truly had been their friend, not only in making for
them fairy tales, but in successfully pleading in their behalf when he
said, "I am persuaded that the gardens of the King were made so great
and spacious that all the children may walk in them."

Only in December, 1913, in Berlin, was completed the _Märchen
Brunnen_, or "Fairy-Tale Fountain," at the entrance to Friedrichshain
Park, in which the idea of the architect, Stadt-Baurat Ludwig
Hoffmann, wholly in harmony with the social spirit of the times, was
to erect an artistic monument to give joy to multitudes of children.
This fairy entrance to the park is a decorative lay-out, a central
ground surrounded by a high, thick lodge of beeches. Toward this
central ground--which has been transformed into a joyous fairy
world--many hedge walks lead; while in the sidewalks, to warn naughty
children, are concealed fantastic figures. There is the huge
_Menschen-fresser_, who grasps a tender infant in each Titan hand and
bears on his head a huge basket of children too young to have known
much wrong. A humorous touch, giving distinct charm to the whole
creation, pervades all. From lions' heads and vases, distributed at
regular intervals in the semicircular arcade in the background, water
gushes forth; while in the central basin, nine small water
animals--seven frogs and two larger animals--appear spouting great
jets of water. Clustered about the central fountain are the nine fairy
characters of Professor Ignatius Taschner, among whom are Red Riding
Hood, Hansel and Grethel each riding a duck, Puss-in-Boots,
Cinderella, and Lucky Hans; and looking down upon them from the