Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-27
WORCESTER.
TUESDAY, JUNE "a, 1871.


istenee, is the seventh formally made to the city
government, and the first that has been issued
in pamphlet form. The letter-press of the cover
and of the first page of the reading matter, as
well as some other mechanical features OF TINS
city document, are not quite in the best style of
topographic art; nevertheless, the contents Will
be none the less interesting, even to those already
familiar with the liberal extracts therefrom that
have appeared in the newspapers.
1t would be an act of wanton discourtesy to
undertake captious review of this report, in
general or in any of its details. The elaborate
styleoflanguage distinguishing it favorably from
others of its class, sometimes perhaps rises
little above the appropriate level of the
topics treated. Occasionally, also, the reader
encounters foregnism of which our copiouS
English speech no longer needs the assistance
or some Dictionary word'' unceremoniousy
dragged from its refined seclusion and pressed
into service; but these, if faults lean altogether
toward the scholarly SIDE and are easy to be
overlooked as contrasted with the vast amount
of slipshod and ungrammatical inelegance now
daily rushing into print, to the manifest detri-
ment of the type-setter's education.
Although the claim is not to be disputed to which
MI GlnCOlu gives prominence III INT DS5ihinuS
of his report that "the amount OF work done in
1870 was largely in excess of that executed in any
former year." nevertheless the official care Of
the public grounds and trees, during the year
when the least was attempted, was found to be
no sinecure. The services rendered by the COM
missioners, from the very first, have been to a
large extentin the nature of perplexing drudgery,
as they have been altogether without compenSa-
ton. The sidewalk trees alone have required a
great deal of attention every year. In some
streets they are so huddled together that their
damp impenetrable shade has come to be often
sive; elsewhere, where the rustling foliage would
be decorative Ching of joy" there are none
at all; while in several places they darken win
dows by day, or obstruct. street-lamps by night,
so as to be justly regarded as a nuisance The
excess, the restitution, and the location of trees
are thus sources Of annoying complaints to
which the commissioners listen with such com
plaisanee as they can command Were these
leafy ornaments as easily transportable as ordi-
N 'ry merchandise, their redistribution would
clotbs this otherwise beautiful city with such
decoration If refreshing shade as could not be
found in anothe," town in North America.
As for the public grounds, deplorably and al
most dissracefuly insufficient as they are for a
city that, at no distant day, is likely to count
some of the present school children among its
hundred thousand inhabitants, the annual care
of these little parks requires time and labor,
which the commissioners from the first have
faithfully bestowed, doing their duty with COM
mendable indifference to praise or censure.
Special attention is now invited to the follow
ing extracts, as the burden of some further
friendly criticism of the portion of the report
which turns from thepast to consider what may
be necessary, possible, or desirable in the future;
1t is matter for profound regret with the commits
sioners that they can hold out such slight pros
poets, to the present generation of any material inn
provement in the appearance and condition of the
public grounds They do not even feel particularly
sanguine of preserving them from actual deteriora-
ton Certainly not unless their complaints of reck.
less or wful mischief receive more attention from
those who should anticipate or prevent offence, in
stead of turning an Indifferent and listess ear to
tales of its commission.
1t is their unanimous opinion that the city does
not now, nor will 1t hereafter, require the posses
sion and of large tracts of land for Public Com
mons Parks. Those now in rude occupation are
amply sufficient for the Training Field, the Brazen
Band, tour modern pdneEn ct cireenses,l and the
travelling Giraffe and Monkeys. Idle loungers with
no other object than the aimless consumption OF
time, may demand a Hyde Park Bots de
Boulogne. Nevertheless, beauty is not necessarily
encrce the fair city upon the banks of the Seine,
contribute largely to the facilities ointercourse and
traffic. similar Avenue, encompassing our own
Worcester, would contribute more to the develop
ment of the whole city, in the Judgment Of this
devised or consummated foryear
With such an Avenue constructed there would be
an amount OF intercommunication OF the eStremites
fthe city as of the outlying but adjacent towns,
that would astonish those whose ocular mote is
Main street That great artery of business would be
relieved of much needless yet serious membranes;
q relief which, ATTEMPTED season, be CleaDIy
and prudently afforded. As it is now, from Holden
to Leicester, from Paxton to Shrewsbury every
thing must pass through our one great thorough
fare, wearing out our payements, impeding our local
traffic, tanning beasts used for traction and soaring
into disease animals destined for consumption. All
these annoyances and evils would be obyiated; all
those benefits and more would be derived from the
construction of the avenue suggested. So broad as
to admit of adequate and grateful shade to ample
footpaths; thoroughly built as to be proof alike
against autumna frost or vernal hood conYen-
fence for the loaded team and attraction for the
pleasure carriage wooing occupation of hundreds
of charming des and hooks by its ruthless exposure
ofrustic beauty thereby benefting individuals and
augmenting the general valuation; measure which
commends itself in proportion as it is considered;
one which this Commission will advocate in season
and out of season, living or dying, in the hope and
faith of its ultimate contamination.
the plan and completion of such Avenue plainly
outlined TO this Commission as it has long been,
would of course be work Of time. 1t would aim to
take advantage of existing roads, whenever practi
cable; widening them to an infexible uniform limit;
Strengthening their course here and introducing
sweeping curves there; following the general trend
of the foothills whose lines of decentralization de-
scribe an irregular quadrilatera whereof the Mill
tary Academy and the City Farm, the Quinsiga-
mond Iron Works and the Davis Cottage should
constitute the salient and re-entering angles Goes
Reservoir and the Lake the points ddpps CT resist
dHce.
Above alias indispensable to the completion and
symmetry of the design, Lake Quinsigamond should
be embraced within its scope. The eye of eovetous-
ness already gances at that beautiful sheet of water
1t may be that the people Of Worcester will con-
sent TO hold the falrest ornament CT their city at
the will, upon suference, of the capital; but 1t is
not believed that such tame aequiescence will be
prompted by any who has the wit to foresee, In
unitarian sense only, the advantages that would
follow upon its undisputed control. The opinion of
the Commissioners il decided that the city of Wor.
cester should obtain, from the Great and General
Court, power to occupy and possess Lake Quinsiga-
mond, for the purposes of Public Park, without
ever they may be. In this way, if in no other
could the level of its waters be maintained at their
average height, thus preserving the smooth and
verdant banks which SO much enhance its beauty
Nor can any other method be devised, half as ef.
feetna OF foresaing future attempts to divert the
water OF the Lake for the supply of metropolitan
thrittessness and waste.
If by large tracts of land for public parks, .
it is intended to mean territorial dimensions
like the three or four thousand acres of the Bots
de Boulogne, or the seven or eight hundred of
the New York Central Park, the community will
pretty generally acquesce in the "unanimous
opinion" Of the Commissioners that the city
does not and will not require any unproductive
domains of such aristocratic magnitude, A
large park for riding or driving would be alto
gether superauous; for the suburbs of Wor-
cester leave nothing further to be desired in this
regard. Within from one TO half-a-dozen miles
OF the City Hall, and accessible by convenient
highways, there is an almost infinite variety of
park7iEe attractions; for the eye smiling land
scapes, glittering sheets of water, elevated
ranges commanding extensive views. pictur-
esque valleys, rocks, copses, tangled Tickets
the seclusion of the forest, and the social as.
pect Of highly-cultiyated farms for the ear
the cheerful melody of birds, the musical flow
of brooks aud streams, and the busy sounds
suggestive of productive industry respira
ton, the fragrant air of thepine woods, and tn,
fresh breezes sweeping down the hilisides t
play over the surface Of our regal lake or 0
many less pretentious mill pond. For all til,