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these impressions was the realization that Brooklyn has been un- 
usually favored in the large number of public-spirited citizens for 
whom the welfare of the city has always been a matter of prime 
importance; they have given freely of their time, their money, 
and their ability in order to make Brooklyn a better place to live in. 
All of this work has been without ostentation, much of it has 
been practically anonymous. Our citizens freely enjoy daily many 
opportunities for education and culture and wholesome recreation 
without having the slightest idea to whom they are indebted for 
such privileges, or indeed that they are indebted to any private 
individuals at all. Herein lies Brooklyn’s real justification for 
civic pride; not in her parks, her hospitals, her charity organiza- 
tions, her libraries, her schools, her Institute, her museums, her 
art gallery, her botanic garden, but in the splendid body of citizens 
whose interest in and devotion to the public welfare have made 
these institutions possible. 
One of the leaders of this group was the man in honor of whose 
memory we are assembled this afternoon. The details of his life 
and his public services have been reviewed in the well-merited 
tribute of the afternoon’s chief address; the chairman of the meet- 
ing has spoken of his sterling qualities as a man and a friend; his 
invaluable benefactions to the Department of Education and to 
the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences have 
been ably recounted, and I esteem it a great privilege to add a 
brief word of tribute in recognition of his interest in the Brooklyn 
Botanic Garden, and his generous support of this newest depart- 
ment of the Institute’s activities. 
The establishment of a public educational and scientific insti- 
tution requires something more than money; those who have im- 
mediate charge of the conduct of its affairs, however efficient they 
may be, require the sympathetic support of the public in the work 
they endeavor to accomplish. One could always count on Col. 
Woodward for such support. This was shown, among other 
ways, by the frequency with which he visited the Garden, and I 
recall with satisfaction one or two of his visits when he found the 
director somewhat discouraged because the development of the 
Garden had not been able to make more rapid progress; his words 
of counsel at such times made it impossible not to view things in 
