194 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
satisfactorily disposed of; likewise the details as to surface 
embellishment. And the opinion was expressed by the 
commission, that after the transfer “the trolley people 
would find it necessary to have the consent of the Park 
Commission, in addition to that of the municipality, the 
Board of Freeholders and the property owners, as now.” 
Then Committeeman Crippen put this poser of a question: 
“Now, I want to ask if the Park Commission proposes 
to bring the trolley if it gets possession of the avenues?” 
The reply must have been a surprise to some of those 
who had relied upon the statements and insinuations of 
the traction company’s agents and attorneys, for Commis- 
sioner Shepard promptly declared that “the trolley had 
never even been considered.” 
Finally the understanding was reached that the town’s 
disposal works would, if transferred to the commission, be 
accepted for a park, and that if the avenues were trans- 
ferred, the commission would promptly proceed with the 
work of improving them into parkways. The conference 
was then closed. 
When the Township Committee members met the com- 
mission face to face, and ascertained that there was no in- 
tention of running away with the avenues, or of proceed- 
ing at once to place trolleys upon them, or of “keeping 
out the poor people” by the closed gates process; then there 
was, with the irresistible public sentiment of their East 
Orange constituents behind the transfer movement, no 
longer any delay or question as to the result. On March 
15, 1897, the Township Committee, by a unanimous vote, 
passed the ordinance, as prepared by the Park Committee, 
transferring both Park and Central avenues in East Orange 
to the Park Commission for parkways, and, by the same 
vote at the same meeting, the “trolley ordinance” for Cen- 
tral avenue, then on second reading, was killed. At an- 
other conference soon afterward between the commission 
and the Township Committee all the details of transfer 
were finally agreed upon. 
The popular verdict had won, and the curtain had been 
