New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-01-11
MIR. OLMSTED'S DISMISSAL.


S,r. The porl, Commissioners last week, by
vote of Q IN I resolved TO abolish their Department
of Design and superintendent, meaning thereby
simply 10 dismiss Mr. Frederick Law Olinstcd, ana
one of his assistants. 1t so happened however, that
owing TO want of proper examination OF Their
powers under the law. the resolution did not operate
as LEGAL dismissal OF anybody and if it had had
legal effect in dismssing anybody II would nave as
missed five persons instead Of two. Consequently.
all action in the matter Las been necessarily post
poned for a week; but at this moment 1t seems not
improbable that it will be taken again, ana that
next time it will be regular and correct. mention
tbis circumstance as illustrative of the haste ana
want of consideration with which the Commissioners
have moved in the matter, and which IS made
the more remarkable by the fact that knowing that
Mr. Olmsted was going TO sail for Europe,
ON leave of absence on Tuesday morning thcy
only gave him notice on Saturday TO slow
cause on Wednesday, why his once shouIu
not he abolished. The delay Is fortunate IN that IL
will give time for some expression OF opinion on inc
mart of the public, and for further deliberatlon on
tho mart Of m, Commissioners, with regard to what
/ think can make plain in very few words, would
prove very serious change i'll the management Oh
the Park 1t hardly necessary TO say that the f"rK
is the one credtable thing the city has to show Tor Inc
enormous debt with which it has been saddied since
carried out within the last twenty years in which
there has been no gross fraud or i0bhery. lhde'dH
is the one municipal work, except the AQuednct'
which any of us can speak of without shame.
What il does every year. Winter and Summer ior
the health and pleasure of rich and poor every New
Yorker knows. But this is not all IL is the great
est indeed the only great piece of landscape gar
denng on this continent except the Brooklyn IafA'
and has been the suggestion and model OF all Inc
other city parks and gardens both in the United
States and Canada.
WHAT MIR. OLMsTED HAS ACCOMPLISHED.
In estimating its rank as a landscape we must
remember, though city politicians are not always
aware OF the fact, that landscape gardening Is
an art of the highest order. wi;ch has been eult7
waited in Europe for three hundred years, In winch
fabulous SUNS have been spent, and which
has nilnclous great masters, and VoillniAous
and growing literature and the principal
works on which are among the greatest
clories OF modern civilization. Now j 90 nOt
think exaggelate III sayiug-though If Mr. cimsted
,ere. in the country should probably have regard
enough for his modesty to refrain from saying it
thai he who designed the Park, and has for twenty
wears nearly, watched over It's execution, holds IL
leading position among the professors oil tAlS ART;
that this position is fully conceded 10 mn In
Europe and that his work III this city and Brooklyn
j. acknowledged everywhere TO be second TO moth
ing Of the kind anywhere. The credit due to him
is heightened by the fact that other American
has worked III the same field with equal success
In any European capital, and under any Euro
pean government, lis services would he highly
prized. and distinguished place in the pnbhc SCI
vice be absolutely secured 10 lin. lido not mean
to say that under our system he Is entitled 10 any
such reward. i am SIMPLY endcayOTing TO lndi-
cafe his rank in the noble pursuit to winch 80
much of his life has been devoted. We owe the sue
cess of the Park very largely 10 the fact that the
gentlemen who have successfully filled the Comns-
sion since 1857 have understood the nature
of his work sufficiently 70 have retained his
services, with an interval OF two or three
years during all that period. landscape gardener
design cannot be executed IN year. on ten, OF l"eI-
ty on piece of ground Where ali effects nave 10 DC
created FROM the beginning. IL may look very Wei
ON paper; but after the planting and grading aud
building is all done, Nature engages, through the
growth of trees and plants, in series of constant
departures from il which need to be watched and
controlled until the original picture of the magma
ton is more or less distinctly realized Ii must not
DE forgotten that size is also full Of suggestion to the
trained eve aud now ard then points out defects, or
proi.rs improvements which 10 training could
have foreseen Or Park COmn ssiOners have, there
fore wisely confined themselves hitherto to business
administration, leaving the artistic work To MI.
Olnsted, except during the Ring period. 1t Is re-
markable fact, and one which the public ought at
this iuucture TO remember that the very first thing
the RIM Commissioners. Judge Hilton, Swecny
and Tom Fields, did on taking possession of The
Parks was toa5O3h Mr. Omsteds Office and dismiss
him and his assistants, and begin " running tie
Park themselves wit the laboreTs and their fore
Inen or IN other words, the very inng the present
Commissioners row propose to do. The work of
devastation or which the Ring men, particularly
Hilton. who knew absolutely nothing about land
scape gardening, then entered, viii not take up
your space with describing. 1t is sufficient to
say that they did much irreparable mis-
chief by cutting and clearing III wrong
places, and tearing the ivy down oil the
Arsenal; and they wasted enormous sums of money.
as for instance, in the construction OF the useless
and ugly shccpfold. The early discovery of the
Tweed frauds probably alone prevented the ruin of
the Park. Sweeny's hostility TO poor Mr.. Water
house uawkinss archaeological models has be-
come popular joke, and was good illustration Of
the ignorance and baTbarisn OF the man and his
Confederates.
Now IT looks little if the majority of the pres
ent Commissioners were III danger OF trying the
Hilton-Sweeny experiment. that is OF taking this
beautiful work. whose beauty as wen as all else
belongs TO the public and before the design is
nearly completed, of carrying it on themselves,
with the assistance of laborers and a foreman.
This is what Mr.. OlInsted's dismissal means and
must come to- but / doubt very much whether
the public, when 1t understands the matter,
will be disposed to acquiesce in it. | do not
think it disrespectfu to the Commissioners 10 say
that if they have any qualifications for such task
the Taxpayers have yet to hear of them. They are
very respectable but rot conspicuous citizens. Mr..
Conover is president of the Produce Bank, and |
have no doubt is a good banker; Mr. Wcnman