Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-07-04
Why not Some Comfortable seatsa

/ why NOT Some Comfortable Seats
South Paris has two parks, for tn
care of which the village corporation
expends something like 800 per year
One of them is simply little plot o
green turf in Market Square, enclosin,
one good-sized elm, with drinkin,
fountain on the lower side and Low
iron fence set on stone posts surround
ing it. This plot is simply ornamental
and intended to serve no purpose excep
to be looked at from the outside; ant
for what it thus adds to the appearance
of the square and the village, it is easil!
worth double what it cost to put it in its
present condition.
The other park is gift to the village
from a former public-spirited citizen
Hollis Moore, and is appropriately named
Moore Park. 1t is a good sized tri
angular plot of ground, we'll laid out
with gravel walks and green turf, sci
with rows of young naples, which
though yet small, will in few years
cast dense shade. Well placed within
ii in accordance with the general plan
are fountain and the soldiers monu.
ment-also few we'll distributed sign
boards bearing that time legend,
keep off the Grass"
Under present conditions, this park
serves almost exactly the same purpose
rs the little one in the square-tO be
looked at from the outside. To be
sure, there is occasionally some further
use of it. Once in a while group of
children get to playing on the soft,
smooth turf, till they are warned by
some one in authority that they are
violating the regulations; the path at
the north end makes convenient short
cut for some of the citizens; and on a
very warm Sunday afternoon one or two
couples may be seen sitting, with elbows
on knees, on some of the benches which
happen to be in the shade just then.
By the way, those benches. They
are part of the furniture of the park
which was not mentioned above. There
are about half a dozen of them, each
composed of plank on the top of two
posts set in the ground. They are to
sit down on, but when weary man,
whose tired muscles cry out for re-
taxation and rest, looks at one of those
backleSs benches, the ache in his back
grows louder and louder until he turns
and fees.
And that brings us back pretty close
this discourse has wandered long and
got a good ways from its text. Why
should this two acres of park serve no
other purpose than the half-dozen square
rods in Market Square-simply beauty
spot TO be looked at from the outside?
In one respect, at least, it falls short of
The other, for it is seen by less people.
In our sister village is a little shaded
square called Witherell Park. Ride by
IN the street car on any warm afternoon,
md you will see men sitting on the COM
portable seats, reading, or, in the words
IF Emerson or somebody else, "loating
md inviting their SOULS" presumably in
serenity of mind such as may not be
attained by a man who is out in the
,ustle and heat of the street or the store.
Vow that's just what a park is for, and
Why shouldn't it he made to accomplish
Is purpose?
IN. B.-There are also few backless
benches in Witherell Park, but nobody
S ever guilty of sitting on them when
me of the more comfortable seats is
To be sure, there are some of us who
lave native preference for unembellish-
d nature rather than the works of man;
nd when the Outdoors calls us beyond
esistance, we get far from the haunts
# men. in the fields and woods, where
We may stretch out on the grass and look
lp at the blue sky, and pick wild flow
RS, and watch the birds and the squir-
els, and listen to the tinkle of the brook !
nd the song of the thrushes-
But to get back once more from our |
to our text and stay there
his time-why not have some good,
comfortable seats, with good, comfort |
BILE backs to them, in Moore Park? /
Then the youths and maidens who were
aking walk might find it convenient !
o stroll through the park, and a COM
ortable seat might furnish a convenient |
lace for tete-d-tete; a tired man might |
lrop down for few minutes rest; and |
N a Sunday afternoon the family with |
United grounds at home might spend an
lour or two in the park, the parents |
eading or simply enjoying the out
loor air, while the baby coos in his
arriage, or toddles about on the walk
md even occasionally steps on the for
hidden grass.
But some objector says, if you put
.ood seats in there, the boys will stave
hem up. Well, granted that We have
loodlums, as everybody knows. And
.ranted that certain spirit of destruct-
veness is Unborn in about all boys, as
most of us can remember from our own
,oyhood. Still, the boys might be to a
Iegree educated by some form of moral
II legal suasion, and in any case the
eats might if necessary be made of iron
nd riveted to posts set in the ground,
o that a sledge hammer or spade
would be required to destroy or remove
hem.
So, to get back to the text once more,
Why not have some good, comfortable
eats in Moore Park, whereon men may
loaf and invite their souls" in peace and
erenity?