43 



certain hoodlums who dishonored themselves by overturning 

 this recent memorial, it is said from some spite against police- 

 men. We have wrought for science when we have given 

 free lectures on matters of science, especially of local interest. 

 We would promote both science and history by enriching our 

 museum in the Lorillard Mansion. We want for this pur- 

 pose a thousand members, that we may have a night and a 

 day custodian. In Brooklyn, with only three and one half 

 times as many people as The Bronx, they have seventy times 

 as many members of their Society of Arts and Sciences. It 

 is because Brooklyn has had a corporate life of its own for 

 an entire century. The Bronx never had a separate corporate 

 life. There were here only a half a dozen little hamlets, 

 poor country cousins distantly related to the rich and grand 

 lady, Mistress New York. Now we have become, both by 

 law and by fact, a younger sister of the great Borough of 

 Manhattan, while the whole city is a family of five sisters. 

 The ancient mother, called New York City, is no longer alone. 

 Her five daughters together share her glory and her name, 

 and Bronx is not the smallest nor the poorest among these 

 five sisters." 



The tablet was accepted by Commissioner Higgins, who 

 said: 



" If that special Park Commission of Seven had done no 

 other work than to acquire this park it would have been de- 

 serving of these commemorative tablets, expressing the grati- 

 tude of the present generation and generations to come. The 

 Bronx Park is the most beautiful in the country, and it is 

 one of which we well may be proud. I am sure the citizens 

 of this city will feel grateful in future years to the Bronx 

 Society of Arts and Sciences for providing these commemo- 

 rative tablets." 



Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton, Director-in-Chief of the N. Y. 

 Botanical Garden and a member of the Council, was next in- 

 troduced, and after stating that Commissioner Higgins was 

 the father of the tablet idea, said : 



