PRELIMINARY WORK COMPLETED 41 
a misty morning casts a somber aspect, which, in turn, is 
transformed into brightness as the sun dispels the shadow, 
and the scene changes, refulgent with the warmth and glow- 
ing tinge of light. The alternating lines of sunshine and 
shadow, as the fleeting clouds pass over the landscape below, 
call to mind the words of the poet, when he describes the 
grandeur of nature’s greater mountains, in the lines: 
“The snow-capped peaks of the azure range, 
Forever changing, yet never change.” 
From these experiences the reader may readily infer why 
the first park commission favored the acquirement of liberal 
areas on the Orange Mountain for parks, and may recog- 
nize the conditions that controlled such locations as were 
afterward made there, and which are now a part of the 
county park system. 
COMMISSIONERS AS HOSTS. 
In October, while the commissioners were devoting con- 
siderable time to the Orange Mountain, it occurred to me 
that it might widen the scope of the enterprise to bring to- 
gether a number of men, active friends of the parks, and 
enlarge the acquaintance and congenial interest of some 
of the earnest supporters of the movement. Accordingly I 
arranged a dinner and invited a number of those interested 
in the enterprise. After the commission and its guests had 
spent the day of October 20 on the mountain, the evening 
at the Country Club, with the entire party there, was de- 
voted to discussing with much interest and earnestness the 
pending park question. 
Mayor Lebkuecher, of Newark, thought “the work of the 
commission had thus far commended its recommendations 
to public favor” and hoped “there would be no difficulty in 
carrying out the work so auspiciously begun.” Senator 
Ketcham, after referring favorably to the action of the 
court in the appointment of the commission, said: 
“You have in this undertaking the good will of all classes 
of our people. Often there are hindrances to public im- 
