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and opportunity for people to come together for the single purpose 

 of enjoyment, unembarrassed by the limitations with which they are 

 surrounded at home, or in the pursuit of their daily avocations, or of 

 such amusements as are elsewhere offered. 



It may be observed, that these two purposes are not quite com- 

 patible one with the other ; for that scenery which would afford the 

 most marked contrast with the streets of a town, would be of a kind 

 characterized in nature by the absence, or, at least, the marked sub- 

 ordination of human influences. Yet, in a park, the largest provision 

 is required for the human presence. Men must come together, and 

 must be seen coming together, in carriages, on horseback and on foot, 

 and the concourse of animated life which will thus be formed, must 

 in itself be made, if possible, an attractive and diverting spectacle. 



How can these opposing requirements be harmonized 1 



Perfectly harmonized they cannot be, and, because they cannot 

 be, success in realizing either must be limited. Yet, by a careful 

 adjustment of parts, and by accommodating the means necessary to 

 the effecting of one purpose to those necessary to the effecting of the 

 other, both may be accomplished in a degree which experience shows 

 is satisfactory. 



In the endeavor to accommodate the requirements of the one pur- 

 pose to those of the other, a perfectly equal compromise, at all points, 

 is not essential. On the contrary, it is desirable that each should be 

 carried out at some point in high degree, and if the natural topog- 

 raphy is varied, it will not be difficult to select points suitable for 

 doing this. 



It is, however, necessary to a satisfactory result that what is 

 wholly incompatible with one purpose and at the same time not 

 absolutely necessary to the other should be everywhere rigidly 

 avoided and excluded. For instance, a railroad station, a manufac- 

 tory with chimneys and steam engines, advertising displays, wagons 

 for commercial traffic, fast driving, gambling booths, a market place, 

 though all of these may be seen in some town parks, are clearly 

 there by mistake and want of proper consideration. We may add 

 that whatever the numbers to be accommodated, it is incompatible 

 with the rural character required in a park, that anything like the 

 embarrassing turmoil, confusion and discordant din, common to the 

 crowded streets of the town should be necessarily encountered within 

 it, while it is equally evident that no regard for scenery should be 

 allowed to prevent the assemblage and movement of great crowds 

 within the park — of crowds much greater than occur anywhere else 

 in the town. 



