The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-04-01

will disappear, and sources Of corruption, n.y.
pocrisy and imposture will be dried up. For
our part we can only repeat to ono and all Of
the cosmical urihcators-courage
The Proposed City Parlk-The Plea OF HUI
mainly.
Our extremely conservative contemporaries
of the Journal Of Commerce have perpetrated
the following hard old fogy specimen of wit,
concerning the new park which it is proposed
to create for the direct benefit of the million
little island
The GREAT PARK-A proposition is before the
Legislature to convert SO much of the island as lies
between Sixtieth and 106th street and between the
Fifth and Eighth avenues, into public park. We
hope some member will move an amendment to in.
clude the whole city in the said park enclose it with
q good railing, and import suitable quantity Of
wild beasts for its use and occupancy. The whole
to be paid for by q tax on the Common Council.
That sounds like the voice of an interested
witness; for how any disinterested person. living
within this cramped. dusty, and suffocating
city, could object to giving it pair Of good,
wholesome lungs. accessible, free Of cost, to
the masses of this population, we cannot ina
CINE. What would be the mortality Of London,
Of Paris, Of Brussels, of Dresden, of Vienna,
but for their parks and public gardens! With
the low filthy sinks of restitution, crime, and
contagion. with which these cities abound, we
may safely conjecture that the lungs Of their
public parks save them from the horrors of q
perpetual pestilence. Give US the park in the
name of humanity, ye legislators at Albany
give US the park! We have now in this city
a population probably exceeding six hundred
thousand souls. Across the East river we have
Brooklyn and williamsburg; and the opposite
bank Of the North river is filing up with the
expansion Of Jersey City and Hobokcn, while
p III 81 goand IS Being rapidly
appropriated to villages and villas, stores fac
tories, homesteads, railway stations, groceries.
and hotels. Why, at this present rate of in
crease Of the business and population within
the island. and all around the island. including
Staten Island, Long Island, and the hills of the
Hudson, and the heights Of Jersey, the poor
working classes are in a fair way, within few
years, of being limited for recreation and fresh
air to the windy. sandy, dusty. desolate, and
blistering desert of Coney Island. Let us have
the park
We plead, then, in behalf of this park. az
our paramount argument, the simple, I'M
answerable plea of humanity. There are thou
sands upon thousands of men, women, and
children, in this vast city, living in close and
confined quarters, in narrow and unwholesome
streets, and toiling. from necessity, in the bad
air Of over-crowded workshops. and garrets,
and cellars, throughout the day, and often
throughout the night, for their daily bread,
who cannot afford as can the lords
of Wall STREET.-THE take an airing during
the heats Of summer at Saratoga, Sharon,
Niagara or Newport No! Here the la
boring classes Of our people have to stay, with
scarcely the abatement of twenty-four hours re-
Taxation through the oppressive heats of July
and the dogdays. What blessing to them
and their wives and children would be a city
park like that contemplated in the bill before
the Legislature. What a charming place of re-
treat, in the sultry midsummer, for the odd
hour or two which may be theirs of the long
Saturday afternoons. How grateful to them
would be the pure. uncontaminated. invigorating
air. in park large enough for the free winds
and the bright sun to play in untainted by the
fetid exhalations of reeking alleys and filthy
streets Let us have the park!
How much the prevailing and steadily aug
menting mortality of New York would be
abated by the establishment Of large attrac- |
tive park, with an abundance of shade and |
sunshine and forest and open fields. and foun-
tains and flowing streams of refreshing water. |
cannot be estimated. 1t is manifest. how
ever, that the SANITARY condition of the city
would be thereby vastly improved from
lhe very simple process of an occasional vent-
ation OF the lungs of our Industrial classes
How much the crimes engendered in the sinks
Of vice and dissipation within the city would
DC diminished. by afordng to the masses of the
people the more wholesome, attractive. and in
iocent recreations of park, may partially be
'onjecturcd from the amelioratinq Influences If
he parks and public gardens of Paris upon the
whole body Of its population Paris would NOT
'e faris without them 1t would be. more
likely. the scene Of constant plots. riots. street
'utcheries, and barricades. Let us have the
ark
We might suggest here the public policy of
making the city as attractive as possible TO It's
ltizens, and to strangers coming among us. A
'ublic park. like that proposed would largely
to this object. 1t would increase
'ur summer visiters for pleasure and business.
Is the browning glory Of our public institutions.
tut we adhere to the simple plea Of humanity.
Tic FaIk--tAe park--;et US have the Iark!