The Wilmingtonian., 1886-05-01

not appreciate the value of it. Did you do
so, the citizens of this community would he
up in arms, clamoring loudly against the
wand ais who are despoling it, who intend
ruthlessly to snatch it from you forever
= y If this be done, let it here be
clearly and definitively stated that there
was never perpretrated upon the face of the
earth suce piece of gratuitous and uncall-
ed for dissertation
Among the community there is at present
a strong feeling upon the subject. The idea
of alternating Brandywine Gorge or disputing
the citizeps's unwritteu right to its pleasures
has aroused public sentiment Aud this is
as it should be.
Did any great poet call this lis home, had
We Delaware Bryant, or Longfellow, or
Coleridge, or Wordsworth, were any of their
poetic natures welded in fancy to such a
fairy dell as this of ours no yandal specula-
tor or contractor would dare touch stick
or stone with sacrelgeous finger The
favored themes of these great writer's cannot
vie with ours. A Lodore of q Southey, a
Walden Pond of Thoreau, the themes of the
Lake poets, Derwentwater uileswater, or
Graslnere Oh, that we had the sledge ham
mer arm of a Ruskin to denounce and casti-
gate those who idly and by and let this
| fair public domain be annihilated. For pure
poetry's sake. tor such a theme as this let
us all rise up unanimously and declare
"Braudywtne must be free ~ 1t must be
the citizens property come what may. II, as
it seems necessary let 1t be made campaign
question of in the coming MUNICIPAL election.
| Let it be a shibboleth of any would-be aspi-
rants to civic honors. Let every debate upon
any public question terminate with it as a
test question. Let this expediency be recog-
uized now as was done in the Roman Senate
centuries ago upon the question OF war with
the neighboring state of Carthage, when the
elder Cato always ended his speeches with
the words ''delenda est Carthag0," Carthage
must be destroyed, So let us see that am ong
all the varied questions interesting MS at
this moment, the prominent one of the reten
ti1n of Brandywine Park be always held il
the forefront
Have you read Olmsteads report to tbs
Park Commissioners upon this subject? |
not then make it your business to do SO
Circulate it from hand to hand. This is tn,
time to do so. Later, the opportunity TO
the citizens to stand between its acquisition
and its loss will be forever gone.
Were you out on the Brandywine Sunday
last Did you hear the merry voices o
children and watch with pleasure their blith
tripping footsteps. Would you rob thes
innocents of their heaven! Would yo
stand quietly by and let 80 by default thi
only genuine source OF rational pleasure the
have. Blot out Brandywine Park, an
you tear away from your children the sun
light of their young lives.
: See them trooping along the pathway gal
: landed with wild flowers You are untru
to your natural intuiticns if you do not vo'
that your vote shall be for them and the pei
!, petuation of their gladness. To tolerate au
= oUher thought for one nom;Hy y pUsitiN
2 crime Not whit less.
OF what Importance is it that few spe
ulatos be disappointed in increasing the
sordid moneybags Let them bear their d
feat, but let us laugh and triumph with IL
y children.