The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-10-09
DESERTED BRONX PARK.
4 MYSTERY WHY so FEW PEOPLE
90 THERE

60 THERE
Those Who DO Go Not Anxious TO Have the
Park Overrun with Visitors, So Seldom
Speak OF the Bronx'sB Beauty to Strangers,
Although Plying Their Ignorance.
Nobody knows why 30 few persons go out to
Bronx Park. Those who do not 20 never
trouble themselves to find n reason. Those
who do 20 can never tell why they are the only
ones. 1t is a mystery all around. But the
true lovers OF the Bronx don't care how much
mystery there is, so long as the crow stays
away from their happy hunting grounds.
Some persons have an Alice in Wonderland
standard. They always try a few Alice quo
tations on a new candidate for friendship and.
II there is an answering CLEAN Of delight-be-
hold! IL is settled. The friendship is n go. II
Is a case OF kindred souls. And that's the
way IL Is with the Bronx. The average New
Yorker hears very little about the Bronx, and
there IL n mighty good reason for this silence.
Among the men and women who have tasted
the Joys OF n day out there there is a taclt I'M
derstanding that mum Is the word when II
comes to letting tho multitude into the secret.
They don't worry about the great unwashed.
but they feel a deep scorn and pity for the
great un-Bronxed.
In spite OF tho pity mum continues to be
tho word. TIL man who has staked out GER
tain dim recesses among the Bronx hemlocks
and hos treasured the knowledge of them as II
they contained buried gold is not going lightly
to invite everybody and his brother-or worse.
his sister-to share the secret. A true lover Of
the Bronx is as jealous as all true lovers are,
He wants to be pretty sure Of his man before
he takes him into his confidence. and when he
does make the plunge and finds. as he come
times does, that the other man is just as big
m A. L. I-.-z l. AIN- 49, L. -
season of rapture. Perhaps it goes even to
the point Of swapping information about out
of-the-way hooks discovered by one and not
known to the other. That is a mark of esteem
not to be SURPASSED. Putting up a man at
ones club is nothing to 1t.
H IIfn lovers Of Pr the n IT, BT gnpjLb an AIT article publicly
an nnSpardonabie SIM There q only seS" one I,et eSe
cuse for 1t, The great uniformed who read
this now will think Il is toe, late to go this year;
about the place before that time. 80 no harm
will be done.
nounced that 1t is not too late to go this year.
A warm, dry October day out there In. the
woods. is. with due regard to the force Of the
adjective. simply heavenly. Last Sunday was
such a day. And yet the wanderers under the
trees were so few that the squirrels couldn't
get over the surprise of seeing them, and
chased, ndign 1ntly from tree to tree scolding
until until the Woods rang; Mitn a little {, care one
not meet a, soul. Ever, when one went swing
ing. aown the main path to an ~alfresco dinner
at Williamsbridge. encounters with men and
women were fewer than those with the sQuir-
rels and caterpillars and frogs.
On a reedy point down by the water one
to time he became Violent and thrashed the
grass and mud. Then the attack subsidized and
a disabled frog found its way to the mans coat
pockets. When the frog hunter found that he
was observed he struck a careless attitude and
gazed ~serenely at the trees and the water us IL
he had never had q thought for anything less
aesthetic than the beauties of nature. He kept
the pose nretty well Until there TTEas a stirring
s s% ! sn eSs Esed 1n Sei1se s alm' Out The Of f the y dof-
ner OF his eye he verified his suspicion. An
other, stir. That was too much. Thrash!
into his bullying pockets he looked around
sheepishly and resumed his easy pose.
the sound of distant singing. a sound which
came nearer and nearer until eight or ten
young men. evidently members OF some Ger
man singing society, swung by. with rhythmic
| step In time to u German folksong. 1t was
like a leaf from travels in the Black Forest or
Rather more than half Of the true lovers OF
the Bronx are foreigners; Many Of them are
bridge is practically, a Franco German village.
with the accent on the Franco: 1t is ten years
Creased nofe th since sSrea Nj: Of F th a9BR 9dns sni sP 81 R1 !P:
ing "A, Day at, Laguerre's." Immediately
everybody, wanted TO go and have q day Of the
NJ. Laguerre. paddle down the windings of the
little river in an old fiat bottomed boat and. II
OF inc ARTIST Species. Dltcn an umbrella cent
on the sleepy bank Of the stream.
Even TO this day the strangers first inquiry
is for LaGuerre's. 1t is still in a state of semi
existence. but the Raines law. or the hard
times, or something, or many things. have
| proved almost too much for LaGuerre's. If
you go on a Sunday you, MAJ apply there in
garden remains to hint of good times gone by.
At least, SO it was not long ago. But there are
other places whore one can have the same kind
of a time: whore the big back yard runs down
to the sluggish stream. where screens Of
bushes and vines divide the place into half
private rooms. rooms with the blue October
sky for ceiling and green leaves for walls.
The people who rave and tear their hair
over the buGaboo of the Continental Sunday
would find a surprise at a place like this.
There is no Coney Island hurly-burly about 1t.
The best kind of quiet pervades the whole
place; a quiet which is only made sweeter by
the occasional, laughter of q child from behind
one OF the leafy screens. The Bronx evident
" appeals to families. Not to the families OF
messy children. slatternly women and
f1ashy men, such as one sees at many of the
beach resorts, but to the gentle, we'll bred
and. yes. well-dressed people. whose souls
ners are much more agreeable.