64 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
The Mayor decided to issue a letter that was equivalent to a 
proclamation, and also an order. Both were duly set forth in 
the press, and the latter was posted thoroughly throughout all 
the city parks. 
The Mayor called upon the Police Commissioner, the Park 
Commissioners and the City Magistrates to enter the campaign, 
and devote to it their best efforts. Accordingly, each one of 
those departments took up the matter very seriously. Chief 
Magistrate William McAdoo issued to all city magistrates a 
letter that was literally a call to arms for the stern suppression 
of vandalism in parks. The Zoological Society printed on linen 
and distributed several hundred park posters of three kinds, 
giving the ‘“‘Law Against Disorder in Parks,” the “Order of the 
Mayor,” and “Peanuts Forbidden in Parks.” 
One of the finest things done by Police Commissioner Wood 
was to detail detectives in plain clothes to mingle with the 
crowds in the parks, and arrest rubbish-throwers. The effect of 
this was paralyzing to the vandals who had been accustomed to 
watch for the uniformed policemen and evade them. 
Up to April 30 the vandals were in the saddle. The sneaks 
who sit on comfortable benches and slyly throw rubbish under 
or behind them, were enjoying life to the utmost. The thou- 
sands of sneaks who slyly strew peanut shells on the walks and 
grass borders were buying peanuts with great diligence, and 
the nine peanut stands near the three busy entrances of the 
Zoological Park were doing a thriving trade. Every Monday 
morning the peanut shells and waste paper in the Zoological 
Park was a sickening sight, and there were other parks which 
we will not name which were quite as badly disfigured. 
On May 1 the warfare began, in all the parks. The orders 
were to enforce the law, and show the grown men and large 
boys no mercy. Women who proved incorrigible in rubbish- 
throwing were also to be arrested. 
Chief Magistrate McAdoo opened the ball by holding Sun- 
day sessions of the courts that try park ordinance violations in 
the Borough of the Bronx, and he sat on the bench in the West 
Farms Court on Sunday, May 9. Monday, May 10, was a day 
that will be long remembered by the park vandals of the Bronx. 
The Court of Magistrate House (6th District) was crowded to 
the doors with offenders and their accusers. On that day 126 
