PUBLIC PARKS AND PLEASLTRE GROUNDS. 285 



interest us. Strange as it may appear, it is a fact that 

 these improvements in Paris, have not only been made 

 without cost to the town, but even with a balance on the 

 right side, the vastly increased value of the splendid new 

 sites for business purjioses in the improved parts, having 

 thus far, more than rei:)aid all the cost of the work. 



THE LESSON FOR AMERICAN ENTERPRISE. 



AVhy, with our wealth, intelligence, and foresight, ^ye 

 should not in hundreds of instances, acquire the Parisian 

 spirit of town improvement is hard to see. If the means 

 at command to do with, should measure attainable re- 

 sults, it would not always be said that Paris is the most 

 ]3eautiful city on the face of the globe. Her example is 

 now being followed in other French cities, such as Lyons 

 and Rouen, and also elsewhere in Europe, but where can 

 we expect so much in this direction as* in our own land, 

 preeminently favored in innumerable respects ? 



With the majority of our towns, if a comprehensive, 

 well devised plan, admitting of extension to any required 

 degree would be adopted early, taking an example from 

 Washington City in this respect, gains approximating in 

 character to those acquired by Paris might soon be 

 reached with a small corresponding outlay. True, the 

 Paris boulevards, as stated, were made without direct 

 pecuniary loss on account of the buildings that were de- 

 stroyed, but where any town can, by judicious action, 

 achieve equal results without making such a sacrifice of 

 property, the gain must be greater yet. 



It is on precisely these grounds that growing American 

 towns should meet the case. Much of the land needed 

 for complete systems of boulevards, squares, and parks, 

 could, in many towns, be secured at a low cost now, to be 

 laid out and improved in final details as the place grows, 

 so that in time advantages, proportionally equal if not 



