erty. Their experts say there were no sales — in other 

 words, there was no market. How little they realize 

 what a fatal admission that is to any claim for high 

 values, for all political economists will tell you that where 

 there have been no sales and could be no sales, the re- 

 sult is always a lowering of the market price. Now, I 

 wish to illustrate. Take the dry goods trade. If there is 

 an over-production, or a glut arises from any cause — a glut 

 arises from the failure to sell, or from a general stag- 

 nation of the market — prices go down, irrespective of 

 what the goods have cost ; and it is not very rare 

 in this City to see great sales of print-cloths where the 

 production of the mills are sold out at a great loss. 

 What is the cause of that? Because there had been 

 no sales of any magnitude for months before. So, natur- 

 ally, the market price goes down, and the goods have tobe 

 disposed of ; and, I say, the same general rule applies in 

 regard to this land. They couldn't sell it, and therefore, 

 there was no market, and whatever price was upon the 

 land necessarily declined. 



What do we propose to do ? We propose to show your 

 Honors that the lands and buildings here taken were not 

 worth in 1884 — in June, 1884, when this act was passed — 

 more than one million and a half dollars. We propose to 

 show it by four distinct kinds of evidence. We propose, in 

 the tirst place, to show you the sales within the park itself. 

 It is true, as the experts on the other side have testified, 

 that there have not been many sales, but still, there have 

 been seventeen or more sales since 1 8Tl>, and whereas, it 

 might be claimed that the older sales were no indication 

 of values, it is certain that sales made within a short period, 

 and within the area itself, are evidence of what the true 

 value should be. 



Where, in December, 1881, 55 acres and the buildings 

 were sold for $26,000, it can hardly be claimed, with any 

 show of right, that 31 acres of the same land are now 

 worth, without the buildings, $103,000. 



Nov where, in 1884, 7 acres of a certain piece of land 

 were sold for $7,000, and in the same year an acre and three 



