THE NEW-YORK PARK. 151 



and strangest animals of the globe, almost as much at home in their 

 paddocks and jungles, as if in their native forests ; and Horticultu- 

 ral and Industrial Societies would hold their annual shows there, 

 and great expositions of the arts would take place in spacious build- 

 ings within the park, far more fittingly than in the noise and din of 

 the crowded streets of the city. 



We have said nothing of the social influence of such a great 

 park in New- York. But this is really the most interesting phase of 

 the whole matter. It is a fact not a little remarkable, that, ultra 

 democratic as are the political tendencies of America, its most in- 

 telligent social tendencies are almost wholly in a contraiy 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 repub- 

 lican compatriqfs who so little understand 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 distinc- 

 tion ! They can never have seen, how all over France and Germa- 

 ny, 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 high- 

 est and the lowest partake alike of th& common enjoyment the 

 prince seated beneath the trees on a rush-bottomed chair, before a 

 little wooden table, supping his coflfee or his ice, with the same free- 

 dom from state and pretension as the simplest subject. Drawing- 

 room conventionalities are too narrow for a mile or two of spacious 

 garden landscape, and one can be happy with ten thousand in the 

 social freedom of a community of genial influences, without the 

 unutterable pang of not having been introduced to the company 

 present. 



