DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. 29 



The music in Prospect Park was provided by the Thirteenth 

 and Twenty-third Regiment Bands, under their respective leaders, 

 Adolph Kirchner and Alfred D. Fohs. These concerts occurred 

 on Saturdays and Sundays, and were highly praised. 



In Washington and Tompkins Parks Saturday concerts were 

 given by the Fourteenth and the Forty seventh Regiment Bands, 

 directed by their able leaders, Louis Conterno and Louis Borjes. 

 Concerts were given in Winthrop Park by R. L. Halle's Band, a 

 local organization enjoying high repute in that section of the 

 city. 



The musical programmes arranged by F. E. Hutchings were 

 exceedingly artistic, and were valued as souvenirs by the Park 

 visitors. 



THE RAILROADS. 



There is perhaps no other subject that causes as much em- 

 barrassment to the Park Department as that of railroads. Their 

 operation, as a matter of public convenience, is an absolute 

 necessity, while their presence about the parks and parkways is 

 a positive nuisance, and especially so since they have disfigured 

 the landscape with their poles and wires. 



Upon both sides of the Park Plaza, and upon all sides of the 

 Park, except at the main entrance, cars are operated by electric- 

 ity, and application has been made to the Department for switch- 

 ing facilities on Prospect Park West, near Union street, and for 

 a location of tracks upon the east Plaza street, between Douglass 

 street and Vanderbilt avenue. Even the main entrance to the 

 Park has been threatened with a trolley road. Across all the 

 Parkway lines of cars are operated, and the Ocean Parkway has 

 been disfigured by trolleys and an elevated road, while a company 

 has made application for permission to operate cars on one of 

 the side roads. In every instance where it has been possible, the 

 applications for increased privileges have been denied. 



The only valuable consent given was to the Coney Island 

 & Brooklyn Railroad, to cross the Ocean Parkway at Neptune 

 avenue, their tracks having been partially washed out on Surf 

 avenue by the ocean. The privileges granted them were set 

 forth in the following document : 



