CHAPTER III. 
PRELIMINARY WORK COMPLETED. 
THE inspection and selection of park sites within a terri- 
tory possessing the varied topography and variety of nat- 
ural scenery found in Essex County was a most agreeable 
and interesting experience. 
Three of the commissioners at this time, 1894, belonged 
to that numerous contingent in Northern New Jersey, who, 
in common parlance, “live in New York and sleep in New 
Jersey.” They knew, from everyday experience, something 
of the practical workings of “the strenuous life,” having 
passed the years of business activity under the exacting con- 
ditions imposed by close application to commercial affairs 
in the metropolis, yet, in common with many well-inten- 
tioned citizens of this class, they had felt some degree of 
interest and pride in their locality and in the county at 
large. It was, therefore, a pleasure for them to become 
better acquainted with the beauties of their own county by 
the personal contact and observation required in looking 
over possible park sites. 
It is one of the unfortunate elements in all the 
matters pertaining to good citizenship that Essex 
County, and, in a greater or less degree, the entire 
State of New Jersey, should be deprived of the local 
interest of so many of her most active residents and voters, 
as results from so large an egress from their homes of busi- 
ness men and workers every day, excepting Sundays and 
holidays, throughout the year. 
In roaming over “green fields and pastures new,” all the 
commissioners were deeply interested in what they saw. 
One day they were looking at the then very unattractive 
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