Year: 1874

The New York Geological Garden.


The publication in yesterdays HERALD has,
as we anticipated, drawn attention to matter
of more than ordinary interest to the people.
We have had many publications in our jour
nails as to the Central Park. The glory of
city is its park, and nothing has been done in
our city, for this generation, at least, that
has given New York SO much pleasure as the
creation of our Park. Twenty years ago
there wns nothing in the city as breathing
spot or place Of recreation but the small
squares here and there, the Battery and the
outlying suburbs. But the city, with its
gigantic strides toward metropolitan great
ness, in time smothered, as it were, the
narrow breathing places, where little spots of
greenery had been rescued from the effacing
fingers of hard civilization. The suburbs
could not be reached. Communication was
limited. New cities and villages grew up on
the outlying skirts of the great city as they
clustered about London, and in the ordinary
growth of the metropolis it seemed as if
generation would pass before the city would
reach its ordinary growth, and, gathering the
suburbs into its fold, be like London or
Paris.


The wisdom Of the last generation, inspired,
as we may say with pardonable pride, by the
stimulating influence of the HERALD founded
the Central Park. The barren rocks and
outlying stretches of uninviting pasture
lands were taken and beautifed. In time
there grew up q garden that recalled the
beauty Of the famous pleasure grounds of the
Old World and bade faif to grow
in beauty from year to year. And as pleas
ure and education go hand in hand the
geological garden was formed. AS We gathered
our experiences from the older world we re-
membered that in London there was the
famous garden in Regents Park, where the
animal life of all the world seemed to cluster,
from tho torpid boa of Equatorial Africa
to the grotesque and homely kangaroo
Jardin d d'Acclimatation Of Paris, where all the
domestic animals Of civilization seemed to
gather, andsthe Jardin des Plantes, with its
varied collection Of every form of savage ami
NAL life. We remembered the groves of
Schoenbrunn, where in the gardens attached
to the famous palace of Maria Louisa there
was varied and unique collection of wild
and tame animal life. Berlin. youngest of
the great cities Of Europe, had emulated
and almost surpassed her venerable sisters,
and in every city of Europe there seemed to
be the utmost care that the government should
give the people comfort and pleasure in the
wide and gracious spaces of the noble garden
ha aIr olx
tages of noble geological garden.


But how is it in our Central Park? We
have, it is true, q menagerie; but it lacks
system, purpose, definite fitness. New York,
of all cities in the world, would seem to invite
splendid geological garden. All the coun-
tries Of the world are brought tributary
to us by the sea. We have virtually mil
lion and half OF people clustering
III the metropolis and its confines. But We
have higgledy-pigledy harum-scarum collec-
tion Of animals thrown together in uncomfort-
able cages and dens, which tomorrow might
break loose and carry terror into every home.
There are really no educational purposes
student, sees little to amuse or instruct
him. We have in America a new continent
new and unknown-with marvellous develop
ments of animal life, living and extinct,
the puzzle Of scientific men and the problem
of students, and ye. nothing is seen of it in
New York. Nay, more; there is manifest
danger in what we do have, danger to the
peace and wellbelng of the citizens who on
every holiday throng the Park in thousands.


What, then, do we want? true zoologi-
cal garden, like what is seen in the Regents
Park in London and in the Jardin des Plsntes
in Paris Let us have an appropriation from
the city, and the formation of geological
society under the presidency of man like
Colonel Stebbins, who is at the head of
the Park Commission, and who would take
pride in the Park and do all in his power
to encourage the growth of the garden.
| Colonel Stcbbins is q man of vim and force,
and his pride in the Park will lead him to the
foundation of noble geological garden
The city could give on appropriation which
would meet tho wishes Of the people.
Let it be SO managed that there.
would be none of the dangers
that now threaten all who visit our own ..par-
den,'' none of the discomforts that make it a
nuisance and annoyance to those who live
around the Park. Let our people act in the
matter and act at once. We have the enter
prise, the wealth, the public spirit, the desire
to make New York second to no city in tho
world, not even in geological garden. There
] il no reason whv the CAntral Park should be