WEST ROXBURY PARK. 65 



sioners at less than its worth would be if not so doomed 

 and assessed. If this is not rol)bery, what is robbery? 



Yours respectfully, 



Horace Binney Sargent. 



I here take the liberty of annexing extracts from 

 another letter of General Sargent's, in which he still 

 more forcibly presents the striking points at issue, 

 which deserve the careful considei*ation of all conscien- 

 tious citizens. To wit: 



"Can any one believe that in a rapidly growing city 

 like Boston, where parks and other uses had already 

 diminished the mass of land in the market, the forty 

 acres of the beautiful old Sargent homestead were cor- 

 rectly assessed as worth over $200,000, when the park 

 commissioners desired a bond, and as worth only $60,- 

 000 when the city decided to take it, if it could get it at 

 the tax valuation? No matter what influences swayed 

 the assessors, was the assessment in both cases correct 

 under oath? 



The appraisers, purchasers, doomers, it must be re- 

 membered, are but one party, the city of Boston, which 

 is properly a trustee for its citizens and is bound to act 

 fairly, when in violations of general principles to prevent 

 fraud, it becomes both buyer and seller of the coveted 

 property of one citizen. No one can doubt that there 

 is a close connection between the fall of assessed valua- 

 tion from $203,000 to $60,000, and the city's vote to 

 base their buying price on that valu.ation, and the park 

 commissioners' desire to show themselves close buyers. 

 The heads and hands arc several, but they are all the 

 city of Boston. 



