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 Pohce 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 



