THE NEW- YORK PARK. 



ground of five hundred acres, whicli makes the Arcadia of her citizens. Even the 

 smaller towns are provided with public grounds to an extent that would beggar the 

 imagination of our short-sighted economists who would deny " a greenery'' to New- 

 York ; Frankfort, for example, is skirted by the most beautiful gardens, formed upon 

 the platform which made the old ramparts of the city — gardens filled with the love- 

 liest plants and shrubs, tastefully grouped along walks over two miles in extent. 



Looking at the present government of the city as about to provide, in the Peoples' 

 Park, a breathing zone, and healthful place for exercise for a city of half a million of 

 souls, we trust they will not be content with the limited number of acres already pro- 

 posed. Five hundred acres is the smallest area that should be reserved for the fu- 

 ture wants of such a city, 7ioio, while it may be obtained. Five hundred acres may 

 be selected between 39th-street and the Harlem river, including a varied surface of 

 land, a good deal of which is yet waste area, so that the whole may be purchased 

 at something like a million of dollars. In that area there would be space enough 

 to have broad reaches of park and pleasure-grounds, with a real feeling of the 

 breadth and beauty of green fields, the perfume and freshness of nature. In its midst 

 would be located the great distributing reservoirs of the Croton aqueduct, formed into 

 lovely lakes of limpid water, covering many acres, and heightening the charm of the 

 sylvan accessories by the finest natural contrast. In such a park, the citizens who 

 would take excursions in carriages, or on horseback, could have the substantial de- 

 lights of country roads and country scenery, and forget for a time the rattle of the 

 pavements and the glare of brick walls. Pedestrians would find quiet and secluded 

 walks when they wished to be solitary, and broad alleys filled with thousands of happy 

 faces, when they would be gay. The thoughtful denizen of the town would go out 

 there in the morning to hold converse with the whispering trees, and the wearied 

 tradesmen in the evening, to enjoy an hour of happiness by mingling in the open space 

 with " all the world." 



The many beauties and utilities which would gradually grow out of a great park like 

 this, in a great city like New-York, suggest themselves immediately and forcibly. 

 Where would be found so fitting a position for noble works of art, the statues, monu- 

 ments, and buildings commemorative at once of the great men of the nation, of the 

 history of the age and country, and the genius of our highest artists ? In the broad 

 area of such a verdant zone would gradually grow up, as the wealth of the city in- 

 creases, winter gardens of glass, like the great Crystal Palace, where the whole people 

 could luxuriate in groves of the palms and spice trees of the tropics, at the same mo- 

 ment that sleighing parlies glided swiftly and noiselessly over the snow covered sur- 

 face of the country-like avenues of the wintry park without. Zoological Gardens, 

 like those of London and Paris, would gradually be formed, by private subscription 

 or public funds, where thousands of old and young would find daily pleasure in study- 

 ing natural history, illustrated by all the wildest and strangest animals of the globe, 

 almost as much at home in their paddocks and jungles, as if in their native forests ; 

 Horticviltural and Industrial Societies would hold their annual shows there, and 

 expositions of the arts would take place in spacious buildings within the 



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