Art Out-of-Doors 



them better than the poorest people in our 

 largest towns. This fact is always cited in 

 excuse for the defacement of naturahstic de- 

 signs, like the Boston Public Garden, with a 

 multitude of flower-beds ; and it is a fact 

 against which inteUigent lovers of our great 

 urban parks must perpetually fight lest their 

 pastoral scenes be similarly ruined. But it 

 is not a fact against which we should always 

 fight ; rather, it is one which should be 

 gladly accepted and carefully considered by 

 the guardians of our public grounds. Wher- 

 ever a flower-garden can appropriately be 

 made within crowded city limits, there, I 

 am sure, one should be made ; and not only 

 for the sake of the people's delight, but also 

 for the sake of the integrity of the naturalis- 

 tic parks. If we had in New York a proper 

 place for a fine floral display, no one would 

 have an excuse for demanding, as some peo- 

 ple continually do, that there should be 

 more flower-beds in Central Park. Such a 

 spot as the little triangle where Broadway 

 and Sixth Avenue meet — which now shows 

 a bit of grass, one ragged pine-tree, two or 

 three straggling bushes, and a hideously 

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