100 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
Of the responsible bids received, the United States Mort- 
gage and Trust Company offered 101.25 for a million 
bonds at four per cent. interest; J. & W. Seligman, 100.34 
for a million of the 3.65 bonds—$500,000 payable on 
delivery of the bonds and $500,000 six months later; New 
York Life Insurance Company, “par flat for a million,” 
$300,000 on delivery and $100,000 per month thereafter ; 
Vermilye & Co., 100.77 for a million, averaging thirty 
years’ maturity; and the Howard Savings Institution, par 
for $50,000 of the bonds as advertised. 
The award was made to Vermilye & Co. and the 
$1,008,400 proceeds were received by the freeholders in a 
certified check for that amount on August 26, 1895; 
$945,000 was paid over to the Park Commission five days 
later, $55,000 having been previously received. And thus 
was closed the first transaction whereby a 3.65 rate of 
interest bond issued by a county at par had, so far as could 
be ascertained up to that time, been sold. 
In commenting upon this sale, The Call said editorially: 
“The sale of a million of county bonds bearing interest at 
$3.65 per $100 at a shght premium showed that the Park 
Commission and freeholders of the Finance Committee 
who worked together in this matter had gauged the bond 
market pretty accurately in fixing the interest.” 
While this observation was no doubt correct, it was the 
suggestion made by Mr. Morgan, in the interview as 
stated, which resulted in a direct saving to the people of 
Essex County in their taxes for the thirty years’ average 
life of the bonds, of $3,500 per year in the interest charge 
alone; and the particulars are here narrated, as having an 
important bearing, as will be mentioned in a succeeding 
chapter, at that juncture of park affairs. 
ACQUIRING PARK LANDS. 
With an abundance of cash in bank—these funds having 
been promptly deposited in various county banks and 
trust companies of accredited standing, subject to call and 
with interest at two per cent.—the commission proceeded as 
