New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-23
WFSTCHFSTER PARKS.

The gentlemen appointed to consider the
ouestiop of parks In the annexed district are
wondering how to decide between the advant-
ages offered by one or two large pleasure
grounds and great many small ones. Little
squares here and there as breathing spaces are
not TO be despised. They are always threat
ened, however, tn be overruD and absorbed ny
the crowding city, just as the City Hall Park St.
Johns Square and the Battery have been
handed over by Commissioners and Aldermen
when some rich corporation or other power de-
manded them. They are forlorn-looking
spaces, too, unless maintained by such skill as
orr Park Department will never employ or sus-
tain. Besides this, the essence of park proper
is its landscape effect, and to furnish scenery
which will have any restful influence upon the
mind requires a considerable area of land to
begin with. An adequate escape from oppres-
siye urban conditions can only be offered when
the city is planted out OF sight. 1t ia the pro-
found peace of meadOwland, the smystery OF
woods, the joyful lite of flowing streams, which
have remedial effect, distinctly curative
value for Ithe city-weared The.wearinG re-
suits of town life are not to be cured by the
fresh air alone which the parks offer. That
greatest refreshment to the spirits OF man OF
which Lord Bacon speaks comes from the con-
temptation OF natural scenery on q scale which
no mere city square can furnish.
The advantages OF broad, tree Shaded park
WAYS, leading to the new pleasure grounds,
should always be insisted on. Such al. avenue
frcn Twenty third st. to Central Park was re-
commended twenty-five years ago, and 1t could
have been constructed for the cost of little
q L. ,urchacaI aftaryardg in Oruar TO
secure some dignity of approach at the Fifth
Avenue entrance. The failure of this project
was n mistake which everybody now laments,
bnt which cannot be repaired. The city OF to-
day Is deprived of what would have been one
of its most attractive features. The city OF the
future ought not to be lef6 20 take up the same
lament Nevertheless, it is plain that general
apathy prevails in regard to the whole subject.
The auesron Isl vital one-aGd one which
must be met If New York is TO hold any reput-
able rank among the great cities of the world.
But the fact remains that interest in the pro-
iect IS paralyzed by the fear that new parks
might fail prey to tho brutal ignorance of
some Board no better than the one which now
disgraces the city. After twenty years OF
almost constant Encouragement, Central Park
has at last passed under tue complete control OF
a Superintendent who is more dangerously ig-
norant than any of his predecessors, and whose
worst Offences have the open approval of ,the
Commissioners. Jones is therefore only the fit
instrument of masters who order ltrees cut
down to expose the back side of building
where summer drinks are retailed. The first
practical step toward acquiring new parks is to
wipe out the old Department. So long as there
are Olifles and Waleses to chop out gnger-Dop
vistas, and Veles to bargain away the parks to
every car company who wants the right of way.
and Jonescs to slash around In tho "under-
brush" the people will acknowledge the city's
need, discuss the matter III a languid way, and
then conclude that if the new parks are only 10
be fresh fields wherein such worthless are to
disport themselves, the city can afford to wait.