56 



hattan and the Bronx ; particular thanks are due to the Board 

 of Managers of the New York Botanical Garden who paid 

 for the large bronze tablet and cost of erection in the gorge 

 of Bronx Park on land in the jurisdiction of the Board. 



By a happy coincidence, the 96th anniversary of the first 

 publication of The American Flag in the New York Evening 

 Post fell on the eve of the day dedicated to the memory of the 

 men who, in our Civil War, gave their lives that not one star 

 should be lost from that flag. The exercises of Drake Me- 

 morial Day began in the Morris High School at 2 125 P.M. 

 The music under the direction of Director Tracy was very 

 much enjoyed. Principal John H. Denbigh welcomed the 

 Society and its guests, which was responded to by the Rev. 

 Dr. Henry Mitchell MacCracken, President of the Bronx 

 Society of Arts and Sciences. After paying tribute to the 

 work of Albert E. Davis, chairman of the Council, and Victor 

 Hugo Paltsits, Chairman of the Drake Memorial Committee, 

 Dr. MacCracken said : 



The Bronx is the borough of parks and parkways. Out of 

 its wealth of parks, exceeding four thousand acres, it estab- 

 lishes one little park primarily to encircle forever and defend 

 the resting-place of Joseph Rodman Drake. Not alone be- 

 cause his ashes have lain here near one hundred years. Nor 

 because, born in this city, he lived in this neighborhood a good 

 portion of his brief life of only five and twenty years. But 

 especially because here he mdt nature most lovingly. His form 

 is buried, yet he lives here still as the voice of the natural 

 world all around us. From the bank of yonder little river 

 he sings of "my own romantic Bronx," 



" Thy face, more pleasant than the face of men ; 

 Thy waves are old companions. 

 I shall see a well-remembered form in each old tree 

 And hear a voice long-loved in thy wild minstrelsy." 



On my library shelf for half a century has stood his fairy 

 tale of the great river which is in part the western boundary 



