February lo, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



69 



of the order Boraginaceae, to which it belongs, and which in- 

 cludes the common Alkanet, the Virginian Cowslip, the For- 

 get-me-not, and other common border-plants, with bright blue 

 flowers, and many plants once commonly used by the old 

 herbalist. t r, u 



Wellesley. Mass. I.JJ.Ji. 



Correspondence. 



In the Shore Towns of Massachusetts. — VI. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Mashpee is in some degree an Indian town — Indian 

 enough to be interesting. Before 1834 there was a reservation 

 here, managed by the commonwealth, and the Indians were 

 oppressed and depressed much as Indians usually have been 

 in this country. But since 1834 the people here have consti- 

 tuted a town, with the same organization and relations to the 

 state which other towns possess. These Indian people are 

 poor, and they appear to have more public spirit than the 

 average white people of this country. The town officers are 

 Indians, and the town records are admirably kept. One of the 

 principal Indian men here is a native of Boston, and he has 

 seen much of the world as a sailor. He is a man of broad and 

 varied intelligence and of very substantial intellectual charac- 

 ter. He was a Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature 

 some years ago. He resembles in an astonishing degree, in 

 looks, manner and speech, some of the principal chiefs of the 

 Sioux Indians of Dakota with whom I am acquainted. The 

 Indian Town Clerk here is a valuable man in his office. I tried 

 to persuade these Indian people to select a boy having sturdy 

 health, prepare him well and send him to Harvard, and I hope 

 they will yet do this. Mashpee has no holdings for places of 

 public resort. The village is "beautiful for situation" on the 

 shore of Great Pond, a lovely piece of water, with shores 

 wooded nearly all around. A hill on the shore at Mashpee 

 village has a fine grove of Pines, and a dozen acres here would 

 make a beautiful and valuable reserve, but the people are too 

 poor to buy the land, though it would not cost much now. The 

 summer visitors need it already, and will need it more and 

 more. Theyare only beginning to discover this beautiful region. 



The view from the head of the lake, on the road from Sand- 

 wich to Mashpee, is of great beauty and interest. Mr. Benja- 

 min Boardley, a colored man who lives here, is a manufac- 

 turer of philosophical instruments, and he is'also building a 

 steamboat to run on the lake for excursions for the summer 

 business. The three pretty islands in this lake are owned by 

 a company of friends — Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Gilder, the editor of 

 The Century Magazine, the two Jeftersons, father and son, and 

 another gentleman. The hotel at Mashpee is one of the best 

 in any shore town. 



Falmouth has no public holding except a town-landing, 

 which is not much regarded. I called on Mr. Joseph Fay, 

 who has had much experience in tree-planting. The peo- 

 ple in all that country say that he has not only planted thou- 

 sands of trees himself, but has influenced other men to plant 

 many more. He formerly planted Scotch Pines, but afterward 

 concluded that they are inferior to our native trees for plant- 

 ing in this country. He thinks trees can be made to grow 

 almost anywhere, and that any sea-shore waste in this state 

 can be reclaimed by the methodical planting and care of suit- 

 able trees. Mr. Fay has a beautiful Pine-grove of about fifty 

 acres, which he bought many years ago to preserve it. It is 

 an old picnic-ground and much-used public resort. He thinks 

 of offering it to the town or to the Trustees of Public Reserva- 

 tions. Mr. Fay thinks it wrong for towns to yield their public 

 holdings to the attacks of private greed, and regrets the lack of 

 spirit to contend for public rights, as it is this spirit which has 

 built up the structure of protecting laws and institutions for 

 our civilization. 



Wareham has no place of public resort. An area large 

 enough for a pleasant green in front of a church is claimed 

 by two men, and the Court adjudged the right to improve it to 

 the two acting together. But as they do not act together it lies 

 waste and unattractive. There are some beautiful White Oaks 

 in Wareham which in form resemble the Live Oaks of Loui- 

 siana and Texas. 



Marion has beautiful woods along the shores, all private 

 holdings. Mr. Gilder, of The Century Magazine, lives here in 

 summer. A great rock, which has a large White Pine grow- 

 ing up through it in a curious way, was about to be broken up, 

 when Mr. Gilder interposed and paid the price asked for the 

 rock. It is thus preserved for the present, and it is an inter- 

 esting object. A small area of land around it should also be 

 bought, so as to provide for its permanent preservation. 



Mattapoisett has two bathing-places on the bay-shore, each 

 perhaps one hundred feet square, four bath-houses and a pa- 

 vilion. Some years ago the town obtained a special act of the 

 Legislature, authorizing the formation of a park to include the 

 entire water-front of the village — all the land between the main 

 street and the water's edge. The ground was very cheap then, 

 but the plan was opposed by two or three persons and finally 

 abandoned. Now the land has all been taken up by the sum- 

 mer people, and its purchase by the town would be impossible. 

 There is no park or common. 



Fairhaven tried about twelve years ago to buy a square for 

 a common, but the project was opposed and relinquished, and 

 there is nothing of the kind in the town except Fort Phrenix, 

 an area of about four acres, to which the national Government 

 holds title. Mr. C. J. Tripp, the custodian of this property, is 

 also chairman of the Committee on Property of the vigorous 

 Town Improvement Association here. He has had charge of 

 the fort about five years, and the trust could not be in better 

 hands. The view from the parapet is of great interest, and 

 from 1,000 to 2,000 people enjoy it daily in warm weather. The 

 association wishes to buy the guns and keep them in place 

 on the walls, but a man on the Hudson wants them for his 

 door-yard. There are five of them, rifled 24-pounders, made 

 at West Point for the Mexican war. The association hopes to 

 acquire title to a bathing-ground on the beach. This society 

 was started to set out trees, but Mr. Henry H. Rogers now buys 

 all the trees needed by the town, and the selectmen plant 

 them. Mr. Rogers is building an extensive library and town 

 hall for the town. There is a cannon at the centre of the vil- 

 lage which was captured from the British in the war of the 

 Revolution. An inscription on a bronze plate on the gun re- 

 cites the main facts in its history. An old Indian burying- 

 ground at Sconticut Neck is now covered by a grove of trees. 

 John Cook, the last survivor of the Pilgrims, is buried in Fair- 

 haven, and the Improvement Association will care for his 

 grave and erect a monument. 



New Bedford has a population of 45,000, and a common of 

 seven and three-fourths acres. A drive-way eighty feet wide 

 leads around Clark's Point. The long, winding and very nar- 

 row bridge over the Acushnet River, between New Bedford 

 and Fairhaven, is painfully crowded on summer evenings. It 

 offers hardly more than space for the wheel-way. People 

 on foot can barely avoid obstructing the drive, and are in con- 

 stant danger of being run over by carriages. The dust is suf- 

 focating, but the bridge crosses the wide water, and along its 

 course the crowds meet the delicious breath of the sea. It is 

 the only path of escape from the heated city on suminer nights, 

 and it should be broadened so as to be a clean and comfort- 

 able promenade for the thousands of men, women and chil- 

 dren who would seek coolness and refreshment here if there 

 were rooin for them. It would promote the health, happiness, 

 morality and civilization of the city. 



Dartmouth has no public holdings for places of resort, but 

 there are two or three landings at the end of streets or roads. 

 Westport has town-landings on both sides of the river at the 

 head of Westport ; their area perhaps four or five acres in all. 

 Part of it is leased to citizens for building purposes. About 

 two acres of land on Horseneck Beach are owned by the town, 

 including a highway, landing and watering-place. There are 

 no commons or parks. 



Fall River has two parks — North Park, of fifteen to twenty 

 acres ; South Park, sixty acres. There is a public bathing-place, 

 but it is not in good condition, although it might be made so 

 by a breakwater. Leading men here and in New Bedford say 

 that the operatives in the factories appear not to value or 

 use the parks so much as they should. They seem to need 

 some kind of out-of-door amusement or means of entertain- 

 ment to attract them to the parks. They stay indoors too 

 much, and go to miserable shows in hot, close halls and the- 

 atres when they should be in the open air. Is this a new prob- 

 lem, or an old one ? It would require fime and considerable 

 special observafion to ascertain whether the working people 

 of Fall River are less inclined than those of other cities to use 

 and enjoy the public parks. No doubt, the journalists of the 

 city could give us interesting and valuable information on 

 these subjects, and their discussion of them would receive 

 general attention. 



I believe there are forty-six of the shore towns and cities of 

 the state named in these notes. Only Newburyport, Manches- 

 ter, Salem, Lynn, Ouincy, Weymouth, Plymouth and Fall 

 River can be regarded as fairly well equipped with parks and 

 commons. Perhaps Essex should be added to this list. Row- 

 ley, Marblehead, Hingham, Cohasset and perhaps a few other 

 towns have small commons, but most of the shore towns have 

 no park, common or open^ space of any kind to which the 



