New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-08-02
m. HUNTS DESIGNS ~"
GATES OF THR CENTRAL PARK

Exhibition must have stIac'eu '"0 "' :,
sa,sep OF New.York who is interested i'll 'no
p.,l and oIeased with what has been accomplished
g.. For thew were perhaps the only things on the
~. g., sh,cb he could haze felt any strong personal
s,.rs., These were not pictures wbese trnh or false
80 .,ce,Ience or deficiency however much they
.,vht plea,e or displease him while the EXHIBITION
go oonla have neither SAVIOR nor sting for him when
should be closed; but. they were designs when ne
"a. Informed that he had ordered through his agents.
a..ons for expensye works which he was to pay iof
,a which he was therefore bound to examine with ert
NAL care 70 accept them if he found them TO his nihd
4, ,e,ect them if they were proved unsuitable
And we took il for good omen. that they were so
s,uoh ,tudied as they were. Scarce any one passed
Shsm BY without look and many gave them close scru
INV Nothing was moro common than TO see groups OF
SAree or four collected in front of these designs passing
hom one to the other examining, questioning and conn.,
uaring with as much apparent interest as II they had
been really personally concerned in them; as indeed
without figure or exaggeIation, they most emphauealy
vere
And II 1t was pleasure 10 see them studied ut all
was an equal pleasure to see that very few hkeu
them and that those who did said they did had very
little reason give for their liking The reasons were
IN the other side. and very good ones they olteh
vere too Certainly if the Commissioners conid any
way collect the public verdict as TO whether or not these
estes should be erected as Mr.. Hunt has designed
them believe the nays would carry the day by an
overwhelming majority We have ourselves heard
mach said about them. and talked them over with many
people; have never heard any one approve them In
view Of what people have approved In past days we
but look upon their disappro'a OF these designs as
sign Of real advance in the public taste. In the first
STAGE we really beginning 10 care little whether
things are ugly or beautiful suitable unsutable in
The second place beginning 10 find ont for our
solves whether they ugly or beautiful suitable or
unsuitable. And once having moved in each OF these
directions. shall not stop until We care great deal
about the look Of things obliged TO look at until
We get wellsharpeDed whereby TO distinguish
beauty from deormity and we shall end by utterly re-
sng TO permit pay for anything that displeases the
sye. and, through the eye, the mind.
These Gates which Mr. Hunt at the request Of the
Commissioners has designed for us, are both ugly and
unsuitable. And If We thought that the words which
have been added TO the photographs OF them published
since their Exhibition by Goupil Co.-"Adopted by
The Board Of Commissioners ofthe Central Park
anything than feeer put forth TO test the popu
hr judgment we should hold it high public duty TO
protest against any such infection both from motives
u taste and motives Of economy. Nor have we any
lesbt that in making such protest, We should be
oined by the best part of the people, and upheld by
Shem for we have said believe the verdict to be
snmstakab and it has only not been expressed in an
snmistakabe wav. because people have not believed
shat there any serious intention to carry these de-
signs out Of the harmless unreay of sepa and photo
gTsphy into the Notifying actualtes of marble and
Iron.
6til a. no one knows what disagreeable things may
happen; and as the Commissioners in spite of the
sslent taste and Judgment they have already shown in
thsir management Of the Park, are amer all, human,
aAd probably. quite capable the rest OF US, of 70
psing Of becoming slack remiss and Of marring
irreproachable past by ugly slip in the present
future think it well to look at these Gates if
tAsy were.-what still persist in believing they
e@-uncomfortabe possibilities and to show clearly
- can. wherein they break the law of Use and
Beauty law to which the Park has thus far been
aoby loyal, and to which all bound far as in
~ lies, to keep 1t nobly loyal in the future.
The Central Park ought 10 be particularly dear 10
those of who contending for the free admission OF
sAs peope-partcusrly Of that large number which is
apparently most hepeessy cut of from themto all the
Influences that Nature and Art IN the ednca.
Non Of their nobler and the leading them 20
healthier and better views Of life 1t is essentially
American Park its plan is founded the purest and
most elevated democratic ideas-ideas which, Tar
informed have not been carried ont thoroughly
end heartily anywhere else in the world IT, indeed such
thing carrying them oct at all has anywhere
been 90 mnoh thought OF. Certainly no such ideas
are TO be found In the English Parks which are mere
wild tracts of grass and trees, tie attempts at
thing in the way Of adornment in the little ST. James
Park Only serving TO prove the rule; and the French
and other European Parks and Pleasure grounds are
still more artificial and bear still the marks OF the
hands Of Government, shaping, controlling and guard
3ng what their generosity and cemency have bestowed
spon their subjects. The English Parks are great un
cultivated Commons which the people wander ike
she other Sheep what God chooses to say to them BY
tree and cloud sunset mOOnrse if he can say il be-
fore the gates closed in tie evehng-he may say
and welcomebut the people in authority will say moth
Ing not word. They will hardly cut the grass; and
- for the roads. they mere cart paths IL HYDE
Park hack cab is allowed to enter and the only
glimpse Of elegance or culture that the inelegant and
snculturoi get is that afforded by Rotten Row with its
pleasing display of homely English toiletes and its
crowd Of swes and snobs and vulgar rich, with the
sstentatious turn-outs of the demimonde. This il all
Ga; the English Parks can do for the crowd Of Lon
1sners and Of there is nothing democratic in
sheir design nothing generous elevated in the ideas
they are fouo ded
The French Parks are more cheerful places because
bhs French q cheerful people tho most Ameri
can people in Europe and yet French people complain
bitterly Of the Of oppression in the air. they say
shey cannot breathe there after living here And the
hand Of the "paterna" Government makes itself felt IN
these Parks in the way every other place Of
Uablic assembly-Gendarmerie permeates the whole
atmosphere OF Paris.
Now our Park vas nlapnod and a.. ..r.x;ox an. &c