SELECTION OF OEANGE PARK 141 



Mr. Scott soon got tlie floor and made the announcement, 

 which was loudly applauded by those present, even by some 

 of the aldermen. 



Early the next morning Mr. Shepard came to my office. 

 Mr. Reynolds had already advised him of the result of our 

 negotiations the evening previous. For eighteen months or 

 more, both officially and personally, he had opposed the 

 proposition for a triangle park with apparently all the re- 

 source he could command, and with a persistence against 

 an emphatic public sentiment and the expressed wish of 

 his own immediate constituency which challenged my 

 admiration. 



On the morning in question, however, in a gracious and 

 agreeable manner he said : "Well, now that we are to have 

 a park in Orange, let's go right ahead with it." The senti- 

 ment was accepted in the same spirit in which it was ten- 

 dered, and from that time the acquirement and development 

 of the park went smoothly forward. Mr. Reynolds soon 

 received the $17,500 — the agreed price — instead of the au- 

 thorized price, $20,000. A direct saving of $2,500 was thus 

 effected. The citizens' committee proceeded to collect their 

 subscriptions for the park and turned over to the commis- 

 sion for that purpose in cash, as before stated, $17,275. 



Commissioner Murphy's attitude, after the purchase was 

 closed with Mr. Reynolds, was quite in contrast to that of 

 Mr. Shepard. At the meeting of December 14, Mr. Murphy 

 sent an official letter to the board "formally protesting 

 against the purchase of property for the said triangle park 

 ^ until the sum promised by neighborhood owners shall have 

 been received." On my motion Mr. Shepard was appointed 

 "a committee of one to reply." 



When, later, the official map of the park had been pre- 

 pared and was signed by the other four commissioners, Mr. 

 Murphy declined to attach his signature, and it thus re- 

 mained for a long time unsigned by him. 



Commissioners Peck and Meeker were all along favorably 

 disposed toward the park, but when the decided opposition 

 referred to developed in the early part of 1895, they were 



