SELECTION OF ORANGE PARK 141 
Mr. Scott soon got the*floor and made the announcement, 
which was loudly applauded by those present, even by some 
of the aldermen. 
Early the next morning Mr. Shepard came to my office. 
Mr. Reynolds had already advised him of the result of our 
negotiations the evening previous. For eighteen months or 
more, both officially and personally, he had opposed the 
proposition for a triangle park with apparently all the re- 
source he could command, and with a persistence against 
an emphatic public sentiment and the expressed wish of 
his own immediate constituency which challenged my 
admiration. 
On the morning in question, however, in a gracious and 
agreeable manner he said: “Well, now that we are to have 
a park in Orange, let’s go right ahead with it.” The senti- 
ment was accepted in the same spirit in which it was ten- 
dered, and from that time the acquirement and development 
of the park went smoothly forward. Mr. Reynolds soon 
received the $17,500—the agreed price—instead of the au- 
thorized price, $20,000. A direct saving of $2,500 was thus 
effected. The citizens’ committee proceeded to collect their 
subscriptions for the park and turned over to the commis- 
sion for that purpose in cash, as before stated, $17,275. 
Commissioner Murphy’s attitude, after the purchase was 
closed with Mr. Reynolds, was quite in contrast to that of 
Mr. Shepard. At the meeting of December 14, Mr. Murphy 
sent an official letter to the board “formally protesting 
against the purchase of property for the said triangle park 
until the sum promised by neighborhood owners shall have 
been received.” On my motion Mr. Shepard was appointed 
“a committee of one to reply.” 
When, later, the official map of the park had been pre- 
pared and was signed by the other four commissioners, Mr. 
Murphy declined to attach his signature, and it thus re- 
mained for a long time unsigned by him. 
Commissioners Peck and Meeker were all along favorably 
disposed toward the park, but when the decided opposition 
referred to developed in the early part of 1895, they were 
