48 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



re exhausted, where is the quiet reverse side of this picture of, town 

 fe, intensified ahnost tcr distraction ? 



Mayor Kingsland spreads it out to the yision of the dwellers in 

 lis arid desert of business and dissipation — a green oasis for the re- 

 •eshment of the city's soul and body. He tells the citizens of that 

 iverish metropolis, a^every intelligent man will tell them who knows 

 le cities of the old world, that New- York, and American raties 

 enerally, are voluntarily and ignorantly living in a state of com- 

 lete forgetfulness of nature, and her innocent recreations. That, 

 ecause it is needful in civilized Ufe for men to live in cities, — ^yes, 

 nd unfortunately too, for children to be bom and educated without 

 daily sight of the blessed horizon, — it is not, therefore, needful for 

 lem to be so miserly as to live utterly divorced from all pleasant 

 nd healthful intercom'se, with gardens, and green fields. He, in- 

 )rms!theni that cool umbrageous groves have not forsworn them- 

 slves within town limits, and that half a million of people have a 

 Ight to ask for the " greatest happiness " of parks and pleasure- 

 rounds, as well as for paving stones and gasJights. * 



Now that pubJic opinion has fairly settled that .a park is neces- 

 iry, the parsimonious declare that .the plot of one hundred . ajid 

 txty acres proposed by Mayor Kingsland is extravagantly large, 

 hort-sighted economists ! If the future growth of the city were 

 onfined to the boundaries their narrow vision would fix, it. would 

 3on cease to be the commerciahemporium of the countiy. If they 

 rere the purveyors of the young giant, he would soon present the 

 jrry spectacle of a robust youth magnificently developed, but whoae 

 xtremities had outgrown eveiy garment that. they had provided to 

 over his, nakedness. 



These timid tax-payers, and men nervous in their private pockets 

 f the municipal expenditures, should take a lesson from some of 

 iieir number to whose admirable foresight we owe the unity of ma- 

 srials displayed in the New- York City-Hall. Every one familiar 

 rith New- York, has wondered or smiled at the appstrent pervei-sity 

 f taste which gave us a building — in the most conspicuous part of 

 he city, and devoted to the highest municipal uses, three sides of 

 rhich are pure white marble, and the fourth of coarse, browji ston,e. 

 Jut fev of those who see, that incongruity, Jcnow that it was dictated 



