New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-10-30
cEyTR1L PARK MANAGEMENT.

CENTRAL PARK MANAGEMENT.
There are evidences that the glimmer OF an
apprehension is beginning to steal over the
Park Commission to the effect that there is
q unanimous and emphatic demand by the peo-
ple of the city that something he done, ana
done promptly, to arrest the decay of the Park.
THE TRIBUNE has suggested the restoration "l
Nessrs. Olmsted and Naux to the position Of
Landscape Architects to the Department a.
the most natural and appropriate action just
now. While the Commissioners are preparing
TO get ready to make up their minds about IT.
il may not be improper TO advise them that
the mere proffer of an official title to the de-
signers of the Park will not he accepted as sat
isfactory Mr.. Olmstcd is already styled
Consulting Landscape Architect but he
never seems to be consulted, and if he
is his counsel is rejected. The people
have no night to ask these artists to accept
any position which does not carry with ii Il
substantial guarantee of permanent tenure and
unquestioned authority. Here is Mr.. Lane, for
example, who has worked himself into twlt-
ter of anxiety for reform; but once before on
q critical occasion, he voted against Mr.. Ohm
stcd at the dictation of Tammany. What en-
couragement is there to believe that the rein
stated artists might not be voted ont again by
the Commission at one of their weekly wran-
gles7
More than ten years ago, while Mcssrs
OlmStcd and NauX ranked rs Chief
Landscape Architects Advisory to the
Department, the Commissioners, in defiance
of their protest, began to dig mp the we'll
established turf in the broad meadows of the
upper Park to prepare dens for wild beasts.
OF course a resignation followed, and, after
the existing Commission had been swept away
by the storm of popular indignation. the
foundations of the mcnageue buildings,
which had cost several thousands of dol
lars, were properly oblitcrated at cost
of thousands more. y hideous fungus
has sprung up on the lake border
fronting the Terrace, which deTadcS and be-
Titles the central picture of the Park at its
key point, and totally destroys its artistic
unity. THIS ten-cent eXcrcsccncc is a standing
insult to the eye of every visitor, aud it
stands in spite of the public protest of Mr.
Vaux Mr. Lane has a cherished plan of
erecting a permanent skating house where it
will murder the finest landscape effect in the
whole pleasure ground. Is there any assur-
ance that this outrage would not be
pcrpetrated even with the designers of the
Park once more nominally in authority
What artist would undertake to paint n pie
ture for four citizens If these gentlemen
might be expected to walk into his studio
any Wednesday morning with the announce
ment that they had passed a resolution to
have browns put into the canvas where he
was using bues2
The designers of the Park are not respon-
sible for its present condition. What they
undertook to do they did. and did well. They
did not leave park on paper, but completed
work. They spent the money, and the world
knows they spent it wisely and with an art
result which is recognized as one of the con-
spicuous successes of the century. I'm one
sense, they have no longer any interest in the
Park. They have handed it over to the city,
and it rests with the city TO preserve it. 1t
reduired ten years to create the Park, and
during those years they endured for the works
sake what never can be told. But there Il no
reason now why they should BE- placed i'm a
humiliating position. The work of mainte-
nance and repair required to-day is of the sub
tlest and the Landscape Architect should be
port. Messrs. 0lmsted and Yaux if called
upon to save the pleasure ground, should
have the assurance of finding in the Board mt
no distant day some cOngenial elements, and
they will be justified in hesitating because the
precedcnts are all the other way. In reality,
it should not be for the Commission
ers to say what kind of artists
they will have, but for the artists
to say what kind of Commissioners they pre-
fer. What have these gentlemen ever done
except to set forth in their official walk and
conversation what a Park Commissioner ought
not to be 7 Can any single act of any one of
them be cited to prove that any theory they
may hold or opinion they may advance in re-
gard to the present needs of the Park is
worthy of serious consideration
At one time, while Mr.. Stebbins was abroad.
Mr.. Olmsted acted as President of the De-
partmcnt of Parks for some months. Could
any more sensible arrangement be devised
Does any sane citizen imagine that the Park
would look like dlsmantled wreck to-day if
the men who created it had been charged with
its preservation Can anyone doubt what the
result would be IL citizens should bestir them
selves and assert their mastery of the situation
The appeal should be carried to the Legislature.
If the present Board are incompetent to helm.
the Department should be reorganzed on COM
nonsense principles. The city does not select
a shoemaker to be at the head of the Croton
Board, but an engineer. When the people
want a man 10 lead an army they do not rest
until General Grant is at the head It. is "a