LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS 



the municipal edicts forbid ball-playing and 

 cricket, at which date there is reason to plan 

 some larger forage ground for our youthful 

 sports. 



And it is precisely this forage ground for 

 the developing muscle of Young America that 

 the town park should furnish. Cricket 

 ground, base-ball ground, and parade ground 

 for the ambitious troops of the municipality 

 should be as sedulously cared for as a good 

 roadway for carriages. A skating pond would 

 belong fitly to the requirements, and, if no 

 river or harbor offered better space, an oppor- 

 tunity for boating would be wisely included. 

 It is not supposed that a feasible spot of ground 

 in the neighborhood of most cities can com- 

 mand and make good these requirements. But 

 much more can be done than is imagined if 

 the best available talent is secured for the work 

 in hand. Even in our fast days, it is quite 

 wonderful to find what a multitude of peo- 

 ple go to sleep upon advantages which, judi- 

 ciously ordered, would make them rich. There 

 is many a river valley, in the close neighbor- 

 hood of cities, covered now with rank and un- 

 profitable grasses, over which, at small cost, 

 might be given flow to a lake that would wash 

 on either shore the banks of highlands, ad- 



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