Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-02-24

An rrepressibIe Conflict"
The Commissioners on Shade Trees and Pub
lie Grounds are ndoubted by efficient, public
spirited, and highly respected officers of the
city. Under their judcious administration, the
Central Park, and Elm Park-deplorabe little
paddocks as an English landscape-Gardener
would regard them, for town of the size of this,
have been greatly improved, especially the
half-dozen acres of the former, so that these
Liliputian breathing places have become more
creditable TO the city than they have been at
any previous time. Possibly, nevertheless,
among the failingS common to officials and other
fcatherless bipeds, there NAV be one from which
the chairman of the aforesaid commissioners
can not be wholly exempt, when, he, as he occa-
sionaly does, manilests undue Jealousy in re
gard to the slightest semblance of an invasion
of his official domains.
The loosely and inaccura;ely deiued author-
ty with which this redoubtabe commission is
vested by the city charter, may be found-all
there is of it-on page 122 of the Laws and Or
dinances" of the city of Worcester Published
ia 1867. Here is the text of the "Act relating
10 the Commissioners on Shade Trees and Pub.
lie Grounds of the City of Worcester, "-ap
proved april 80, 1866.
"Ihe city council is authorized TO elect by
joint ballot in convention, Il board of three com
missioners, &C., who shall have the sole care
superintendent and management Of the public
grounds belon Iing to said city of Worcester
and of all the shade trees standing and growing
thereon, and also OF all the shade and ornamen-
tai trees standing and growing in or upon any
OF the public streets and highways of said city;
but said board, or any member thereof, after
having had an opportunity to be heard in his or
their defence, may be removed at any time, by
concurrent vote of two-thIrds Of each branch of
the city council; &c, &C."
Now, mere site, or building-lot for a city
hospital, according to any fair Interpretation OF
the above, would not at all be classed-either
by statute, or by common law-with "public
grounds" such as are most obviously intended
to be indicated in the above extract. At all
events, any other construction of the law seems
to be unusually removed from that great bless.
Ing of the ignoblc vulgar, called common
sense!
Such site, or building spot, with its yard
for drying clothes, its garden, grass-plots, &C.,
comes no more under the jurisdiction estab-
does thar delightfully."- secluded Mechanic street
cemetery-whcre "lhe rude forefathers" sleep
so undsturbedly, and for which an uncommonIv
discreet board of aldermen have been so sud-
denly smitten with awful reverencep Not
even constructively, have the aforesaid commits
sioners the least rights whatever in the premises
beyond what is shared equally by private citi.
hp mn ig Ne TIor
in certain sense, is public ground, under the
charge of board of Commissioners whose au-
thority does not mount up 10 so high an antiqui-
ty as that of the Shade-tree Commission. The
same, still again, is the case in regard to that
other lonely and peaceful home of the dead
which has been model cemetery, ever since the
fine old English name of "Plne Meadow was
hunaanizediinto the soft, melfiuous east Wor-
cester" by which the regions round about that
chastely beautiful burial place are now knownl
So also is it with the public grounds IF so STYLED
belonging to the Poor Farm, including the
trees thereon, fruit aud ornamental It is the
same, also, with the Fairgrounds of the public
schools.
On page 10 of the "Rules and Regulations of
the Worcester City Hospital" is the following
bylaw, not likely certainly TO be repealed:
''No person shall visit any part of the prem
lses-eXcept on business or at such times as
ny oe liked for the reception of visitors-with-
Out the permission. of the Superintendent or of
some member of the board of Trustees"
Can, now, the Commissioners on Shade Trees
and Public Grounds override this regulation?
Could they override it, after the Hos
pital should be transferred to the land proposed
TO be given, even were the dimensions of the
new site thirty, instead of only three and half.
acres in extent? If they can, or could, then
they may, or might, undertake to dictate where,
on the Hospital grounds, the carpets are to be
busted, where the furnace ashes are TO be put,
where the soiled linen is to be dried, where the
patients may, or shall not walk, &c., &C., as
Stunning, as the city charter declares, "the sole
care, superintendent and management of any
grounds owned by the city, and occupied by the
CITY HOSPITAL Indeed rhe commission would
have the institution nearly in their control.
Powerful and aggressive, however as these
commissioners may sometime become, there are.
and are likely TO remain, boundaries which thev
may not pass. For instance. there are to-da,
hundreds OF trees growing in the public streets
of the city, within three miles of the Civ Han
that no member of this commission would Il,
bis official capacity, presume to prune, or cut
down. meaning the forest trees growing almost
up TO the carriage tracks of our suburban
roads. But, more than this, it is perhaps cues.
tionable, whether the commissioners can cut
down, or even prune, many street trees in the
city, against the wishes Of abutting propuetors
who hold clear tries to the land Wherein the
trees stand, l. G. by full warranty deeds, with
boundaries "by the middle of the street." or
What is substantially the same, "by the street
ITSELF
Suppose some wealthy gentleman should, per
chance, give thousand-acre park to the city
public grounds, IL the reader peascs-suDiect tC
the single prOviso that the trees thereon, fol
twenty-five years, only should be cared for ex
clusiyely by three men appointed, say, by hi'
honor the mayor is il 10 be presumed that, be
tween these :hree appointees and the officia
tnree Of the Commission, such Conflict Of au
tnorlty would blaze forth that the city would
DC "ohsed 10 appeal to the General Court for an
amendment Of Its charter, that would enable the
muniicent gilt TO be accepted7 W. ,ro,,, ~,
by long clalkl
CHRIST AND MS CHURCH" is tho ,,uo oe j..
very handsomely printed pamphlet which con.
taius the last two sermons preached hv pn,.
d