DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. 85 



The number of inhabitants to one acre of hind, the number 

 of acres allotted to one thousand inhabitants in each city, the 

 ten principal cities of the United States and eight of the 

 principal cities of the old world, are given in these tabulated 

 statistics. They also disclose the fact that Brooklyn has not, 

 in her area, one fifth of the space devoted to parks that the 

 other American cities have; while as compared to the cities 

 of Europe she has seven times less park acreage. Taking, as 

 shown in the tables, these different centres, scattered all over 

 the world, re] (resenting different races of people whose repre- 

 sentative minds have bestowed great thought and study upon 

 this subject, the conclusion clearly reached proves that in 

 order to the proper maintenance of the public health, there 

 should be an acre of ground, reserved for public use, to every 

 250 inhabitants. 



The inhabitants of Brooklyn are crowded in at the rate of 

 over 1,100 to the acre. Think of this a moment — every acre in 

 the city is about the size of a city block, viz., 208 feet square. 

 Every person in Brooklyn has a right to use the public parks 

 at the same time. Suppose this should happen, how could 

 1,100 people use simultaneously a space 208 feet square, for 

 public purposes ? 



Why is it that Brooklyn is so far behind all other cities in 

 her quota of parks? How does it happen that she has a park 

 at all? Simply and solely because, in spite of their being heaped 

 with calumny, a few intrepid public minded men persisted in 

 carrying out such a project and could not be diverted from its 

 forthright. 



Recently, leading men of Boston and New York have 

 recognized the fact that those cities were behind the great 

 cities of the world in this important particular, and set them- 

 selves about remedying this defect. To this end they secured 

 additional territory and placed New York and Boston on the 

 scale of computative comparisons at a respectable percentage. 



Another important topic for consideration that follows in 

 the track of great cities, is good sewerage. We find on exaini- 



