276 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
tributed rails for quite a distance on both sides of the ave- 
nue in Orange. 
These events cast their shadows before, and no surprise 
was therefore occasioned when, on August 11, 1904, the 
Board of Freeholders danced to the “organization” music 
and put through, without a hitch, the Central avenue fran- 
chise just as had been done in East Orange—on the cor- 
poration’s own terms. 
Before the passage of the ordinance a communication, 
which, on behalf of the Joint Committee on Parkways, I 
had prepared, was read. This letter called attention to the 
inconsistent position of the board in now doing for the 
trolley company—in ignoring the non-action of the Orange 
authorities—just what for years they had declined to do 
for the Park Commission and the public; referred to the 
vast sums being expended in other growing urban communi- 
ties for parkways to unify their park systems, instead of 
destroying the available parkways, as would result in grant- 
ing the avenue franchise; and cited numerous instances 
showing these conditions; also the favorable results of re- 
strictive franchises, and the inimical effects to the public 
of such a franchise as that formerly granted for South 
Orange avenue. In the letter it was also pointed out that 
the passage of the Central avenue franchise “under its pres- 
ent terms, will, if not otherwise prevented, destroy the 
parkway and hand over to the traction company at least 
hundreds of thousands of dollars—the property of the 
people of the county, as much as the courthouse, the hos- 
pitals, asylums, or any other county property.” 
Soon after the freeholders had passed the franchise the 
case was again taken into court. The property-owning 
plaintiffs were handicapped from the outset by the care 
exercised by the corporation attorneys in avoiding legal 
defects, as a result of the failure of the previous ordinance; 
but more from the fact that they found nearly every con- 
spicuous lawyer in the State retained, or in some other way 
under the direction of, or indirect obligation to, the Public 
Service, or its allied corporations, R, V. Lindabury, hav- 
