10 REPORT OF THE 



The Commissioners continue to be more strongly impressed 

 in each recurring year, with the greaft value of the Park as a 

 sanitary and moral force, affording health, instruction, pleasure 

 and contentment to thousands, not to our adult population 

 alone, hnt those who are growing up to take their places. 



The thoughtful observer can hardly fail to be impressed with 

 the fact that the Park, maintained with wise economy, and 

 sufficiently provided with means to keep it from shabbiness of 

 appearance, and its resources fully developed, exercises all the 

 beneficent and differing influences we have noted. It is a 

 wholesale purveyor of healthful recreation at no cost to the 

 individual, — it enlists his sympathies and interest in the public 

 welfare; it gives him a greater respect for his own citizenship, 

 and elevates the entire plane of public morality considered in 

 its broadest sense ; it ^ives welcome to the poorest, and, to 

 those more favored by fortune, it is a resort full of attractions. 



Its facilities for pleasure and recreation in riding, driving, 

 walking, boating, skating, for held sports, picnics, &c, each in 

 their season, are unrivalled in this country. Already its fame 

 and beauty have been potent influences to bring and hold 

 many good citizens to Brooklyn, and with prospective and en- 

 larged conveniences for transit between our suburbs and New 

 York, the Park will exert a greater force in the future. 



FORCE. 



The force employed for all purposes upon the parks of the 

 city, the parkways, Bedford Avenue and Coney Island, is not 

 large, and is made up of experienced men, whose term of 

 service varies from three to fifteen years; they are industrious 

 and reliable, and their knowledge of the character and variety 

 of the work ensures to the park a useful and faithful service. 

 The rates of compensation in every branch of labor continues 

 to be more moderate than are paid* to any similar class of em- 

 ployes upon any public work in either city. 



