The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-07-30

sunday Recrsations-The Parks and
Gardens Around New York.
OF late years there has been growing up in
our community decided taste for Sunday ex-
cursons to the innumerable places of interest
in the vicinity of New York; and accordingly as
that taste has been developing itself, the means
of gratifying 1t have been also progressing with
more or less regularity. The opening of Gen.
trail Park, with its wide and sweeping drives,
it's pleasant paths for quiet strolls, and its many
objects of attraction, gave great encouragement
to this popular tendency; and the establishment
| of the numerous lines of city railroads contri-
buted also to the same end. Within the last
| few months the Harlem Railroad has given evil
dence of the growing liberalism of the age, and
| of the good sense of its directors, by running
half hourly trains to the Central Park, thus
competing with the regular city railroad lines
for the profitable business of carrying excur-
sicnists to and from the Park The Hudson
River Railroad has not yet thought proper to
run-as it might do-excursion trains from
Chambers street to the vicinity of the Park; but
| we presume that that corporation will also, in
good time, initiate the Harlem road in that re-
spect. The greater the facilities offered to the
public for travelling to and from those beauti-
| full grounds, the more will the taste for visiting
them be developed and strengthened, until
eventually the Central Park will be to New
| York what the beautiful parks Of European
| capitals are to those cities-the Sunday rendez-
vous for large proportion of the population.
In the interest of public morality and public
health, there can be nothing more desirable
| than such state of things.
Fortunately, however, there is no restriction
| upon the tastes of the community as to the 10
| calities where they may seek health and recrea-
ton on the Sabbath. On all sides, up the rivers
| and down the bay, on the shores of New Jersey
and Long Island on Staten Island, and around
| Harlem and High Bridge, are attractive places,
where, at very moderate expense, people may
| enjoy themselves according to their various
| tastes. Jones' Wood and Conrad's Park have
| their charms for some; East New York and the
numerous German gardens in the vicinity at
| tract others. Swarms Of operatives, with their
wives and families, pour into Staten Island by
the boats that leave the Battery every half
hour. The Brooklyn city railroads have barely
capacity to carry the thousands who get into
the country by the various avenues. The beach
from Greenwood to Bath is gay with saunterers
and picnic parties; Long Island is boisterous
with the merry shouts Of those who disport
themselves in the surf; dozens of excursion
boats carry passengers down the bay and up
the rivers; and, in fact, every beautiful suburb
of New York is the scene, on fine Sundays, of
life and animation; and the strictest Puritan
| might, on looking at such panorama, smooth
the wrinkles off his face and confess that, after
all, there might be something in the philosophy
which inculcates happiness as the great object
| of life.
There are, however, some sour visaged phari-
sees in our midst who hold up their hands in
holy horror at what they, in their narrow, I'M
| christian views, regard as a Dissertation of the
Sabbath and If these canting hypocrites
could have their will, they would have every
ferry boat and excursion boat moored at its
pier on Sundays-would prevent the running
Of cars on every city railroad, and would tole-
rate no movement in the streets except the
cles. Happily, however, they have not much
influence, and despite Of all their efforts, the
poor artisan, who has been toiling at his bench
or in the dusty factory from Monday morning
till Saturday evening, may, on Gods Sabbath
day, ramble along the ocean beach or over the
green fields, and with his wife and children
seek that health which would seem to be denied
them in their pent-up apartments in filthy tene-
ment houses. Probably not less than two hun
bred thousand of our artisan class thus leave
the city every fine Sunday. Yesterday was a
gloomy and unpleasant day; but still very
large number Of people congregated in the
different suburban resorts. Our. reporters
visited several of those places, and furnish
sketches Of the scenes which they witnessed.
One fact deserves specially TO be noted and
commended to the attention Of our so-called
reformers, and that Is, that with such perfect
freedom from police restraint as prevails in the
suburbs on Sundays, there is rarely an infrac-
ton of the peace, or violation of good order,
to be complained Of People learn to be po-
lite to one another in these cosmopolitan CON-
minglings; and in this way we regard them as
really conducive TO morality.
When the Erie and the Long Island and
the Hudson River railroads recognise the profit
and propriety of inaugurating Sunday excursion
trains, as the Harlem and the Staten Island
roads have done, and open up new routes for
Sabbath trips the good results Of encouraging
such taste will be still more apparent In
the meantime let or toiling artisans make the
most Of their present facilities, and laugh at the
grimaces of the Sabbatarians.