Morning journal and courier., 1884-03-12
NEW HAVEN'S FILMS AND GREEN
Descriptions, Historical Items and An- ecdOtes of Persons and h ngs Con-
 necteI Herewith.
BY HENRY HOWE.
D ho [Copyrighted 1883 by Henry Howe.l

Copyrighted 1883 by Henry Howe.l
 TN ABOUT THIRTY oHAPTERs-cHAPTER XXI. Upon the Importance of Rendering Our
 Green so Attractive as to Cause ie to be
 n General Place of Resort for Citizens
 I'm the Summer Season.
 Our Green is especially valuable in its hu manitarian aspects. East of Temple street, mainly in single line, are seats for one hun dred people, west of it for twenty-five only. These should be increased many fold, with 8 profusion of single and double Seats, where 8 single lady or gentleman cou d sit alone for entire seclusion, or with single companion, free from intrusion. The advent of third person is with us all at times destruction of the pleasures or advantages of converse tion, however desirable the presence of a third person may be on other occasions Furthermore, anyone of average sensibili- ties could not fully enjoy resting place even amid the most pleasing of scenes, if it could only be found beside another with 8 hard, imbruted face and unkempt apparel. Such is often the case in places of resort where as on our Green, there is 6 scarcity of seats. The obnoxious persons form but a 
 few seats are ample for their accommoda- ton. Let the seats be abundant and other attractions added, and our best citizens would form the habit of resortiug and meet ing there and often, to the general advan- tage by the interchange of views upon topics appertaining to the public welfare. Thus did the wise men of Athens meet and discuss ;,. aI~ hot tho knowing must have known every body of like value. Life among them was largely free, open and social. Conversation, the best of all educators, had full play. No printed page is so stimulating as the direct collision of mind with mind, when the brightest and best of thoughts often sparkle forth from hidden recesses all before un known to the possessor, to gratify him with the knowledge of their possession and to charm the listener with their truth and beau ty In conversation soul communes with soul and humanity is blest with the over aowings of the heart.
 It is a general complaint that we as cona- munity are cold, unsocial This is said to be 8 characteristic of New England, and of aca- demic towns especially everywhere. Many of our brightest people are entire strangers to each other. If these could be acquainted how great would be their increase or happi- ness and knowledge, and how enlargiDg often to their charity. What pleasant friendships would sometimes arise. And this ignorance among us comes from the want of some one place of mutual gathering, some one grand object of mutual interest. The men of Ath- ems knew each other with the familiarity of school-boys; and so our forefathers were alike social and friendly, coming from a common ancestry, going to the same church, singing the same tunes, and struggling ana fighting together for the subduing of the savage and the wilderness. We are now a diverse people from many nations, divided into many little streams, each going it's va- ried way and separated by wide intervals covered in places by the brambles of preju- dice and ignorance.
 In every city are many humble people whose lot in life is often hard and cruel When. amid the heats of summer, the labor ing man is out of work or toil-worn, for little comfort g change from coarse labor or the confined apartments of his humble home, he hies to the Green and sits beneath the elms, while before him stretches the carpet of living green, he takes such grateful rest that every humane spirit must sympathize. It is indeed to him an unspeakable boon. The educational influences of such spot in the heart of great city is far beyond the ken of the thoughtless and inconsiderate. A park tive miles away under and upon East Rock, magnificent and desirable as 1t can be rendered, is too distant and expensive with 1ES C&E 01ES TOT Gu6 1f01uSut Gd1AS u5C OA tAO working people and their families
 All are alive to the silent, subtle influences of nature A poetic vein the sense of the spiritual is all pervading. Even the savage has it, whether in the depths of the African continent or in the Wilds of our own.
 'His soul proud science never taught to stray
 Far as the solar walk or milky way;
 Yet simple nature to his hope has given
 Behind ths cloud -topp'd hill sn humber heaven.
 A railroad surveyor once told us that when running his lines through country, some times when the departed sun left them still at their labors, when perhaps there was not a single cloud in the heavens, there would steal over earth and sky an ethereal glow, wopdrous beauty that, seemly unconscious to themselves would affect even the very rouehest of his men. Their manner soft ] ened their movements were more tranquil, {! and the very tones of their voices became tender and musical They seemed to be pat in harmony with nature and for the time being became part of its hallowsd beauty.
 Such to 8 certain extent at times is the in- fuence of such place as our Green upon those who rest there. Beautiful as the place now is, it is nothing to what it might be made under the guiding hand of inventive taste prompted by bensvolence and this too at 8 mere tri1e in the way of expense com pared to the advantages. Thousands of dol lars are sometimes expended for the exterior decoration of single church for the pleasure of 8 comparatively few wealthy luxurious worshippers. This is delight-giving. is in the service of holiness, helps the artist and the laborer; but what might not be accom- plished by a similar expenditure for this beautiful temple of nature for the benefit and continued joy of the thousands of toiling families who make up the great mass of our citizens These by their labors enable the more fortunate few who draw the high prizes to dwell in palaces amid the choicest most refining associations to find recreation in passing in gay equipages through picturesque regions in their own naighbor- hoods or at option occupying an elegant