372 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cursion resorts, all of whicli are in evidence to sliow at once 

 popular need and popular appreciation. Hundreds of people 

 frequent some of these places every year as they are ; what would 

 he the case were it understood that such parklike regions were 

 indeed dedicated to the people for their use and kept and cared 

 for for their enjoyment ? Such localities are now generally pri- 

 vate property and the public enter by sufferance only. In some 

 places — alas for human nature ! — the beauty of the "den" or " pali- 

 sade " is by its owner ruthlessly defaced as the simplest method 

 of checking an undesirable invasion by the populace. The popu- 

 lace can and should own its own means of entertainment ; here 

 and there private benevolence may meet the need, be tolerant of 

 trespass, but it must not be expected. 



The second count in the way of objection is a real difBculty 

 whose gravity I do not for a moment attempt to minimize. How 

 to secure, own, and care for several hundred or, for that matter, 

 several thousand acres of land, to be used by all the people, is a 

 problem, especially under our form of government. Were we in 

 the Old World we should find no difficulty. Such localities are 

 owned by the king or his equivalent, and are cared for and 

 guarded with the same assiduity as any other private property. 

 Nevertheless, the people of Europe have free use of the most 

 splendid parks and beautiful woods in the world. The same thing 

 can be true of the United States, hopeless as the task may now 

 seem. In the Eastern States a movement to this end is even now 

 discernible. What Mr. Vanderbilt is doing in North Carolina at 

 Biltmore will doubtless be done presently in all our mountainous 

 and forested States. This is another opportunity for our million- 

 aires, and forest foundations properly established will prove for 

 future generations rich in benediction as any university endow- 

 ment left in the name of whatsoever State or sect. In Massachu- 

 setts five years since a movement was inaugurated for the accom- 

 plishment of similar purposes in New England. A board of trustees, 

 by Legislature authorized to act, becomes the legatee of suitable 

 property donated for public use, becomes the curators of such 

 grounds, and the custodians of funds bequeathed for the care of 

 such lands or for their purchase. The result in Massachusetts of 

 such a simple effort has in five years proved most gratifying to 

 the projectors as to every lover of his native land. Thousands of 

 acres have already been rescued from spoliation and subjected to 

 intelligent management such as will eventually result in the at- 

 tainment of all the beneficent ends for which public parks exist. 

 In most States nothing is done ; nothing will be done until some- 

 body or some association of our citizens make a beginning. That 

 the effort will one day be made there is no doubt. Whether it 

 shall be made in time to save that which Nature in this direction 



