The New York Park :',,s:> 



in their paddocks and jungles as if in their native forests; 

 and Horticultural and Industrial Societies would hold their 

 annual shows there, and great expositions of the arts would 

 take place in spacious buildings within the park, far more 

 fittingly than in the noise and din of the crowded streets of 

 the city. 



We have had said nothing of the social influence of such 

 a great park in New York. But this is really the most in- 

 teresting phase of the whole matter. It is a fact not a little 

 remarkable that, ultra democratic as are the political ten- 

 dencies of America, its most intelligent social tendencies are 

 almost wholly in a contrary direction. And among the 

 topics discussed by the advocates and opponents of the new 

 park, none seem so poorly understood as the social aspect of 

 the thing. It is, indeed, both curious and amusing to see 

 the stand taken on the one hand by the million, that the park 

 is made for the "upper ten," who ride in fine carriages, and, 

 on the other hand, by the wealthy and refined, that a park 

 in this country will be "usurped by rowdies and low people." 

 Shame upon our republican compatriots who so little un- 

 derstand the elevating influences of the beautiful in nature 

 and in art when enjoyed in common by thousands and 

 hundreds of thousands of all classes without distinction! 

 They can never have seen how all over France and Ger- 

 many the whole population of the cities pass their afternoons 

 and evenings together in the beautiful public parks and 

 gardens. How they enjoy together the same music, breathe 

 the same atmosphere of art, enjoy the same scenery, and 

 grow into social freedom by the very influences of easy 

 intercourse, space and beauty that surround them. In 

 Germany, especially, they have never seen how the highest 

 and the lowest partake alike of the common enjoyment - 

 the prince seated beneath the trees on a rush-bottomed 

 chair, before a little wooden table, supping his coffee or his 

 ice, with the same freedom from state and pretension as 

 the simplest subject. Drawing-room conventionalities arc 

 too narrow for a mile or two of spacious garden landscape, 

 and one can be happy with ten thousand in the social free- 



