FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1215 
now offers it, is an increase in the amount the Senate put on the bill 
from $200,000 to a million of dollars; and is it not the fact further 
that instead of purchasing 200 acres, as the Senate recommends, it 
provides for the purchase of over a thousand acres? 
A Memprr. Eighteen hundred acres. — 
Mr. Hemenity. Mr. Speaker, the object of the proposition sub- 
* mitted to the House, and upon which it is called to vote, is to procure ' 
a suitable park for this city. Ido not say the city needs it especially 
now, but it will need it if it continues to grow, and this is the proper 
time to getit. It is not only a proper expenditure, but it is economy 
to do it, for if this Rock Creek is allowed to flow through the city and 
be an open sewer to the people along its banks it will cost us not only 
more in the loss of health, but in money, than the expenditure here — 
proposed. ; 
Mr. Ranpatu. There is no healthier city on the Atlantic coast than 
the city of Washington. 
Mr. Hempuitt. There is a difference of opinion about that. If it 
be true that it is the healthiest city on the Atlantic coast, then it is 
the duty of Congress to keep itso. In one part of the city this stream 
is so polluted that it has become a stench to everybody living along its 
banks. 
Mr. Benzamin A. Entoxr. Will the gentleman yield to me for a 
question ? 
Mr. Hempeniiy. Certainly. 
Mr. Enitor. Would the gentleman have any objection to agreeing 
to an amendment to his amendment providing for the distribution 
among members of Congress of the increase of animals in this zoolog- 
ical garden, to be franked through the mails by members of Congress 
to their constituents ? 
Mr. Hempniiu. That has nothing at all to do with it, any more than 
the flowers that bloom in the spring have. The question is whether 
this city shall have a park like every other city, or whether it shall 
not. 
Mr. Diese. Let me call attention to the fact that if the proposition 
prevails in its present shape you will not only appropriate $200,000 
for a zoological park, but you will appropriate in addition $1,000,000 
for another zoological park. What I want to say is, so far as the 
zoological park is concerned, $200,000 is all that is asked and all that is 
needed to purchase the ground desired for that purpose. That appro- 
priation is accomplished by voting for the motion I made to recede 
from disagreement to amendment 124, as published in the Record. 
That will accomplish the plan in front of the official reporter’s desk. 
Mr. Ciements. I demand the previous question. 
‘Mr. Dress. I promised to yield to the gentleman from Maryland 
[Mr. Compton]. 
