252 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
there was no legal obstacle in the way of the avenues’ 
transfer. 
NEW CONVERTS. 
Six members of the Orange City Council were evidently 
converted to the Stetson-Munn railroad side of the ques- 
tion. When the Mayor’s veto came up for action before the 
council on December 15, 1902, five weeks after its unani- 
mous passage there, these six new converts (?) voted the 
other way, and in support of the veto. And thus, for the 
third time, the parkway ordinance was killed in the house of 
its supposed friends. At once there were the usual charges 
and recriminations. ‘Under the eye of public scorn” was 
the caption of a drastic editorial in one of the leading papers 
in referring to the action of these six councilmen, who had 
shifted their votes; and “not a single soul of the group 
could or would explain his astounding action,” was the way 
the article went on. And “the insidious influence of the 
trolley interests may, for a time, prevail, but we do not be- 
lieve that those who have lent themselves to this scheme of 
interference, will, in the end, have to give away to a mercen- 
ary corporation a franchise for that which is the people’s 
right,” was the conclusion. 
The News of December 17, said, editorially: “It is won- 
derful the number of obstacles that have been found to de- 
lay the transfer of these avenues to the Park Board. In 
this respect it almost equals the service of the local traction 
company.” 
December 9, 1902, I wrote the Park Commission as 
follows: 
“The time has come for plain speaking and prompt ac- 
tion unless the commission wish to assume the task of car- 
rying a load which will now rapidly become a staggering 
burden, I think, in the minds of all fair-minded men, cer- 
tainly of the men well-informed on park matters throughout 
the Oranges. 
“T want to say to you, in all kindness and with all ear- 
nestness, that the lines are now drawn, and the Park Com- 
