11)1 



CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF VEHICLES. 



Still another important change or class of changes in the habits of 

 the people of towns may be referred to the much greater elaboration 

 which has recently occurred in the division of labor, and the conse- 

 quent more perfect adaptation to the various purposes of life of many 

 instruments in general use. A more striking illustration of this will 

 not readily be found than is afforded by the light, elegant, easy car- 

 riages which have lately been seen in such numbers in your park. 

 When our present fashions of streets was introduced, sedan chairs 

 were yet, as we have shown, in general use for taking the air, or 

 making visits to neighbors. The few wheeled vehicles employed by 

 the wealthy were exceedingly heavy and clumsy, and adapted only 

 to slow travel on rough roads, a speed of five miles an hour, by what 

 was called the " flying coach," being a matter for boasting. Now 

 we have multifarious styles of vehicles, in each of which a large 

 number of different hands have been ingeniously directed to provide, 

 in all their several parts, for the comfort, pleasure, and health with 

 which they may be used. For the sake of elegance, as well as com- 

 fort and ease of draft, they are made extremely light, and are sup- 

 pl ied with pliant springs. They are consequently quite unfit to be 

 used in streets adapted to the heavy wagons employed in commer- 

 cial traffic, and can only be fully enjoyed in roads expressly prepared 

 for them. In parks, such roads are provided in connection with 

 other arrangements for the health of the people. 



INADEQUATE DOMESTIC ACCESS TO SUBURBS AND 

 PARKS. 



The parks are no more accessible than the suburbs, however, 

 from those quarters of the town occupied domestically, except by 

 means of streets formed in precisely the same manner as those which 

 pass through the quarters devoted to the heaviest commercial traffic. 

 During the periods of transit, therefore, from house to house, and 

 between the houses and the park, there is little pleasure to be had in 

 driving. Riding also, through the ordinary streets, is often not only 

 far from pleasant, but, unless it is very slowly and carefully done, is 

 hazardous to life and limb. Consequently much less enjoyment of 

 the park is possible to those who live at a distance than to those who 

 live near it, and its value to the population at large is correspond- 

 ingly restricted. The difficulties of reaching the park on foot, for 

 those who might enjoy and be benefited by the walk, are, at the sea- 

 son of the year when it would otherwise be most attractive, even 



