The First County Park System in America—II 
of this immediate prospect, it might be truthfully 
written: “All the world’s a roof.” The points 
from the northern sections of the crest are again 
more open and picturesque. Standing there, one 
looks down upon the rolling country in the direction 
of Brookside, and the attractive section of Franklin 
Township and Nutley, and the still more picturesque 
central eastern portion of Passaic County. 
Over all this wonderful panorama is cast the 
varying shades of sunshine, cloud, and shadow. 
The gray dawn of a misty morning casts a sombre 
aspect, which, in turn, is transformed into bright¬ 
ness as the sun dispels the shadow, and the scene 
changes, refulgent with the warmth and glowing 
tinge of light. The alternating lines of sunshine 
and shadow, as the fleeting clouds pass over the land¬ 
scape below, call to mind the words of the poet, 
when he describes the grandeur of nature’s moun¬ 
tains, in the lines: 
“The snow-capped peaks of the azure range, 
Forever changing, yet never change.” 
From these experiences the reader may readily 
infer why the first park commission favored the 
acquirement of liberal areas on the Orange Moun¬ 
tain for parks, and may recognize the conditions 
that controlled such locations as were afterward 
made there, and which are now a part of the county 
park system. 
Before passing from the work of the first Park 
Commission, there are two or three matters that 
were considered and acted upon in the preparation 
of the charter creating the permanent commission, 
which it may be of interest to 
refer to here. There were two 
vital principles involved. First, 
as to whether the commission 
for establishing and maintaining 
the park system should be 
elective or appointive, and, if 
appointive, in what ofiicial or 
court or courts the appointing 
power should be vested. And 
second, should provision be 
made for directly assessing tbe 
cost of the lands for the parks 
and the improvements, or both; 
or should a portion of the cost, 
or all of the cost, be provided for 
by a general tax according to 
the ratables upon the county as 
a whole. It was deemed im¬ 
perative to have these conditions 
clearly defined, and, before 
John R. Emery submitted the 
first draft of the proposed 
charter, on January 25, 1895, 
the points pro and con, as to 
an appointive board, had been 
seriously considered by the commissioners. They 
were unanimous in the conclusion, in consideration 
of the methods by which candidates for important 
county offices secured, or were accorded, nomina¬ 
tions through the customary channels of party 
selection, that, for such a position as that of park 
commissioner, charged with the responsibility of 
locating, acquiring and developing an extended 
park system and the consequent expenditure of 
large sums of public funds, the chances might be 
more favorable for satisfactory results under the 
appointive plan than under the elective system. 
The Appointive Plan. It was recognized that 
the work of locating and developing a series of parks 
for so large an area of such diversified interests as 
in Essex County, would, if undertaken to the best 
advantage, require men especially qualified, from 
tastes, training and experience; and that, as the 
plan of having men selected because of fitness had 
been so well received, the continuation of a similar 
provision in the new charter might be equally fa¬ 
vored by the public. It bad been shown that, in 
many instances where the elective plan of selecting 
commissioners had been in vogue, the practical 
results had not been acceptable to the municipali¬ 
ties or to the other local officials, and that “prac¬ 
tical politics” was not a desirable factor in park 
making, whatever might be claimed for its con¬ 
tributory influences in other public activities. 
It was solely and only for these reasons that the 
commission decided for the appointive system, and 
not with any desire to extend the scope of a method 
47 
