6 Public Parks. * 



Pelasgicum,or vacant pieces of ground, serving as so many reser\^oirs 

 of pure air, for counteracting the contaminating atmospheric influ- 

 ences incident to cities, and the effect of epidemics and contagions. 

 In order more thoroughly to appreciate the full import of these 

 words, it may be proper to refer to the circumstances from vs^hich 

 they derive their origin. According to Pausanius, Pelasgicum was 

 the name given to the most ancient part of the fortifications of the 

 Acropolis at Athens, from having been constructed by the Pelasgii, 

 (or "wall builders," as they were called,) who, in the course of their 

 migi'ations, settled in Attica, and were employed by the Athenians 

 in the erection of these walls. The rampart raised by this people, 

 often mentioned in the history of Athens, included a portion of the 

 ground below the wall, at the foot of the rock of Acropolis. This 

 had been allotted to the Pelasgii while they resided at Athens, and 

 owing to the conspiracy formed by them against the Athenians, they 

 were banished ; and such was the abhorrence with which this con- 

 spiracy was regarded, that an execration was pronounced on any 

 who should build houses on this ground. In consequence of this 

 execration, it was not built upon ; and thus being necessarily left 

 vacant, the beneficial effects of this open space in the course of time 

 became so apparent that the Pythian oracle uttered, 



" Best is Pelasgicum empty;" 



and what was supposed, at the time, to have been a great curse, 

 proved ultimately to be a blessing in disguise. 



May not such be the case with regard to our own city? We 

 have already built up its surface from a morass, thus securing a well- 

 devised system of drainage, and it is believed, and I think I am not 

 stating too much, that, by making use of our local topography, we 

 can create parks which shall become the ornament of the city, and 

 a blessing to its inhabitants. 



Parks have been aptly termed "the lungs of a city." They are 

 emphatically the people's gardens, — places to which the overtasked 

 laborer and mechanic of the overcrowded city can, with his wife and 

 children, resort to breathe the breath of God's pure air, inhale the 

 odors of fresh, blooming flowers, and enjoy the pleasures of a rural 

 retreat on a larger scale, amid far richer vegetable forms, than in 

 the gardens created by mere private opulence. 



That the people of this country have a keen love of nature, and of 

 the beautiful in art, is evidenced by the general interest taken in this 



