9 



quarters of the same for $2,500, and in 1879, 107 acres of 

 the same tract had been sold for $51,677, 1 say that the claim 

 of $308,443 for thattract, without the buildings, is a mani- 

 fest fraud. And so, too, the $17,000 paid for the 32 acres 

 of the James Morris property is some indication of what 

 the real value of the property is, because that sale took 

 place in June, 1883 — only a year before the passage of 

 this act. And again, the $8,500 paid by Mr. Hoyt for 

 Twin Island in 1881 is very significant, and at once stamps 

 as preposterous and ridiculous his claim of $100,000, which 

 he now presents for the land alone. So, too, the sale in 

 1880 of Hunter's Island for $102,000 shows that the 

 claim of $575,000 now presented is beyond the bounds of 

 reason, and is absurd. We shall also call your Honors' at- 

 tention to the fact of the recent foreclosure sale of the Secor 

 place, where some 45 acres were sold for $14,000 — 

 14 acres of which are included in this park. 



Our second branch of evidence will be the sales in the 

 vicinity — the sales in the lower part of Westchester 

 County. Of course, the latitude of our proofs, and the 

 extent to which we shall go into these sales in the County 

 of Westchester, will depend largely upon the ideas of 

 the Court; it is certainly within the discretion of 

 the Court ; but we can show that, in some localities even 

 within the limits of the City and County of New York 

 itself, no such prices as those claimed here have 

 ever been realized. I mean to say that there have 

 been sales within the limits of this County 

 within a few years which would fix the values asked for 

 now for the Pelham Bay Park property at much lower 

 figures then their experts claim. We will take the lower 

 towns of the County of Westchester — Westchester, and 

 Eastchester, and Yonkers, and "New Rochelle, and Pel- 

 ham. The Pelham Bay property, property in the town of 

 Pelham, is worth less than land in any other of these 

 towns, and we shall show you sales in the other towns — 

 of course, we shall not go into Yonkers, because that is a 

 city by itself — but we shall show you sales in Westchester, 

 and Eastchester, and New Pochelle, which will prove how 

 fabulous are the sums now sought to be recovered. 



