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BARKS FOR Mae PEOPLE.

PROCEEDINGS

OF A

PUBLIC BE TING

HELD AT

(i FANEUIL HALL,

Pal JuNE 7, 1876.

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BOSTON:

FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, & CO.
1876..

CONTENTS.

ORGANIZATION OF MEETING . é : :

SpeEcH oF Mr. Joseru S. Ropes

66 66

66 66

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6: 66

Mr. Grorce B. CHASE :
Mr. RicHarp H. Dana, sun.
Dr. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Rey. Roti H. Nears, D.D.
Rev. J. P. Boprisy . : b
Cou. CHARLES W. WILDER 4
Mr. JosepH F. PAUL.

Hon. P. A. Conuins . -

LETTER oF Dr. Epwarp H. CLARKE

COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED

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FANEUIL HALL MEETING

IN

mA VOR OF PRBEIO PARKS

Pursuant toa call published in all the daily papers, and
signed by a large number of prominent citizens and tax-payers
of Boston, a iaike meeting was convened in Faneuil Hall on
the evening of Wednesday, the Tth of June, 1876, to take action
on the pe eeiencenods contained in the Report of the Park
Commissioners. The hall was crowded by an intelligent and
enthusiastic audience; and the proceedings, as reported verbatim
in the columns of the ‘ Boston Morning Journal,” were as
follows :—

The meeting was called to order at eight o’clock by Mr.
JoHN W. CANDLER, who said, —

GENTLEMEN, — As Chairman of the Committee of Arrange-
ments, I have been requested to call this meeting to order. It
is usually the case, that, when a mass meeting of citizens is to
be held, a great deal of labor has to be performed in preparing
for and organizing the meeting. But I am glad to say, that, on
this occasion, the important advantage of having a public almost
entirely in our favor was enjoyed by the Committee. We found
a strong and intelligent and deep-seated sentiment almost
unanimous throughout the community, in favor of having the
City Government take prompt and favorable action upon the
report of the Park Commissioners. [Applause.] We found
the community earnest and enthusiastic in the desire that a
system of parks should be projected for the city of Boston, to
insure the health, and to make certain and positive the prosper-
ity, of our citizens in the future. The Committee had only to

6 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

present the call or address through the press, which some of
you have read, to find hundreds ready to indorse it; and the
authorities had only to open wide the doors of Faneuil Hall to
have the people throng here, as they have to-night, to manifest
the sentiment which they feel so generally.

Gentlemen, we have with us to-night men of science, philan-
thropists, the representatives of the learned professions. We
have the capitalist ; we have the merchant; we have the me-
chanic ; and we have the daily laborer, who toils from the rising
to the setting sun, — we have them all here, to give out a voice
to-night, expressing the opinions of the people, which can
neither be misrepresented nor misunderstood. [Applause. ]

It is not my duty, gentlemen, to make a speech. You have
here this evening to address you, the representatives of every
class, the best that can be afforded in any city, the leading men
of the city of Boston in the different professions. It is only
necessary, in the discharge of my duty, that I should read to
you the names of the’ gentlemen whom you will be asked to
elect as the officers of this meeting. They are as follows: —

PRESIDENT.
Tue Hoy. JOSEPH S. ROPES.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

CHARLES Francis ApAmMs, WiLtt1AM Amory, RIicHARD FROTHINGHAM, PETER
C. Brooks, Martin Brimmer, GEorcGrE C, RicHArRDSON, BENJAMIN F, THoMas,
Epwarp S. Ranp, Henry P. Kipper, THomas J. GARGAN, EBEN J). JorDAN, C.
A. Ricwarps, JoHN C. Crowxey, WILLIAM B. Bacon, Aaron D. WILLIAMS |
CHaries F. Donnetty, Wm. W. Cuarp, BENJAMIN Deane, RicHarp OLNEY,
Wiviiam ATHERTON, TuoMAS Gocin, WiLLIAM Enpicort, gun., ALBERT Bow-
KER, DanieLt J. Sweeney, Patrick T. Jackson; R. M. Poutsirer, ROLAND.
WorrHinaton, Joun G. Buare, M.D. J. H. Coapwick, Lewis CoLeman.

SECRETARIES.

HAMILTON A. HILL. WILLIAM E. PERKINS.

The list of names was unanimously approved; and the an-
nouncement of the election of the gentlemen named therein
was received with applause. .

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH 8S. ROPES. ¢

Mr. CANDLER continued, I have the honor of introducing to
you JosepH 8. Ropes, Esq., a merchant of Boston, who has
been called to fill a great many places of trust, and who has
always been found able in the discharge of every duty, and
faithful in every trust committed to him.

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH S. ROPES.

FELLOW-CITIZENS, —I thank you for the honor you have
done me in inviting me to preside on this auspicious occasion.
You have come together to-night, not to quarrel with one
another’s politics, not to abuse one another’s rival candidates,
but to hold a friendly consultation upon one of the most impor-
tant and interesting and agreeable subjects which can engage
your attention, —the subject of public parks for the any ne
Boston. [Applause. ]

Gentlemen, I was born in Boston; and I well remember tlie
time when our cows were pastured on Boston Common, when
the Back Bay, was not a myth, but.a reality, and when at least
a portion of the summit of Beacon Hill was covered with green
fields, on which were seen sometimes ‘‘ raree shows”’ and tray-
elling menageries. Since that time, our city has grown and
swelled, and stretched itself north and south, and east and west,
striding over one arm of the sea, filling up another, swallowing
the neighboring towns one by one, taking two mouthfuls for
Roxbury, and one for Dorchester, and one for Charlestown and
Brighton together, until it has expanded its population seven-
fold, and its area almost seventy times seven, within fifty years.
Yet there stands Boston Common just where and just what it
was—no larger, and thank heaven! as yet no smaller [loud
applause] — than it was fifty years ago.

Where are the breathing-places for this enlarged metropolis?
Where are the places of common resort for quiet and healthful
enjoyment and peaceful recreation for this expanded population ?
Where are the noble parks and the wide-spreading groves?
Where are the places fit for public entertainment, which we find
in every other large city in the civilized world? —such as we

8 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

see in London and Paris and Berlin and Vienna and Florence
and Rome and Naples—yes, even for the few brief months of
summer, in the northern capitals of Stockholm and St. Peters-
burg? And echo answers, ‘‘ Where?” [Laughter and ap-
plause. ]

1»

“ Gone like a vision

My friends, I need not tell you that this matter has excited
the interest of our philanthropic and public-spirited citizens,
and especially of the medical faculty, to whom it is, in its
sanitary aspect, a matter of most important practical interest.
And, through their representations to the city government and
to the state legislature, a bill was brought before the legisla-
ture, which I had the honor myself to report in the House of
Representatives a little more than a year ago, and which was
passed by large majorities in both houses, authorizing the city
of Boston to purchase and to take lands within its own limits
for laying out public parks, and to co-operate with adjacent
towns in laying out conterminous parks for the common benefit
and advantage of citizens on both sides of the line.

This measure was opposed (as all such measures are opposed)
on the ground that “it would lead to jobbery and extraya-
gance.”’ And the answer was ready at hand, that all public
enterprises are liable ‘to lead to jobbery and extravagance,”
but that the abuse of a good thing is no argument against its
valid use [applause]; that it is for the citizens themselves, and
for the government of the city of Boston, to see that their trust
is rightly and honestly carried out.

Again: it was argued that the people of Boston possess already,
in their beautiful suburbs, all that is required in pure air and
beautiful scenery. And this, again, is most true as regards
those who live in those suburbs, and those whose wealth enables
them to pass to and fro in their carriages, and regale their senses
with the luxury of what they there find. But what application
has this, my friends, to the working-man, to the masses of our
population, whose sole idea of the suburbs consists of an hour’s
rattling drive in a crowded street-car, and an hour’s seat by the
side of a dusty thoroughfare ?

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH 8S. ROPES. 9

Again: it was argued that the city of Boston could not afford
this expensive luxury of parks. And to this again it was easy
to reply, that so long as the city of Boston could afford prisons
and jails, and any number of millions spent for liquor and for
hurtful indulgences, and for the repression of vice and crime,
it could afford to spend money for this peaceful and healthful
and elevating enjoyment for the people.

In a word, gentlemen, this bill became a law; and, in pursu-
ance of that law, a Commission was appointed by the city of
Boston, the names of the gentlemen composing which Commis-
sion I need not repeat to you; for they are in all your hearts,
as well as on all your lips. The Report of that Commission is
now, and has been for weeks, in your hands ; and it is the object
of this meeting to indorse that Report, and to stimulate and
incite the government of the city of Boston to act in accordance
with its suggestions. We cannot expect that all its details will
be approved by every one; nor are we to suppose that all its
details will be carried out in action by the government. But it
is not too much to say that it is so well digested, so full and
complete, and in every way so satisfactory to the city and the
citizens, that we cannot do better than recommend it as a whole
to the municipal authorities. [ Applause. ]

Now, my friends, it is not for me to do what will be so much
better done by those who succeed me on this platform, — to give
you the reasons, and enforce the arguments, for your action at
this time. But as a representative of the city of Boston, as an
almost constant resident within it for nearly thirty years past, as
in my humble sphere a representative of the merchants of Bos-
ton, as a taxpayer of Boston, and in every way identified with
the best interests and all the highest and best aims of our city,
I call upon you to-night to adopt and to indorse and to com-
mend this admirable system to our city government. [ Applause. ]
I have now the pleasure of introducing Mr. GEorGE B. CHASE,
who will present the resolutions.

PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

SPEECH OF MR. GEORGE B. CHASE.

Mr. PRESIDENT, — On behalf of the committee who have had
in charge the arrangements for this meeting, I have the honor to
offer for its ‘acceptance several resolutions which have been
prepared for it by a gentleman, than whom none is more versed
in all that relates to the business questions and interests of the
city of Boston, and who, during long and faithful service as
secretary of the Board of Trade, became familiar with all sub-
jects relating to the development and prosperity of the city. It
is hardly necessary, Mr. Chairman, in such a connection, to men-
tion the name of Mr. HAmitron A. Hi. [ Applause. ]

Mr. CHASE then read the resolutions as follows : —

Resolved, That this meeting would hereby emphatically
re-affirm the opinion which has been expressed, at the polls and
elsewhere, by the citizens and tax-payers of Boston, that the
time has arrived when this city should be provided with a park
or parks similar to those which have been projected by the other
ereat cities of the United States, adapted to the wants of our
large and steadily increasing population, and on a scale commen-
surate with the growing commercial importance and metropoli-
tan influence of the city.

Resolved, That the plan for a system of parks and parkways,
prepared and recommended by the Park Commissioners, com-
mends itself to this meeting as broad and comprehensive in its
general features, fair to all sections of the city in its details,
admirably suited to meet all the necessities of the case, and
promising, when carried out, to make Boston one of the most
healthful, attractive, and beautiful cities in the world.

ftesolved, That the pressing need which exists for a radical
improvement of the sewerage in some parts of the city, the
present cheapness and abundance of labor, the diminished value
of land, and the exceptionally favorable terms on which the city
can now negotiate for money, render it of the first importance
that there should be no delay on the part of the city government
in the acceptance of the proposed plan, and in the adoption of
decided and vigorous measures for carrying it into execution.

SPEECH OF MR. RICHARD H. DANA, JUN. aD:

Resolved, That this meeting would therefore respectfully and
earnestly ask for immediate and favorable official action upon
the Report of the Commissioners, and that the chairman and sec-
retaries are hereby authorized and requested to communicate a
copy of these resolutions, properly authenticated, to his Honor
the Mayor, and to each branch of the City Council.

Resolved, That a committee of one hundred be appointed by
the Chair, to represent this meeting before the city government,
and to secure the desired action by it without loss of time.

THE CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, you have heard the resolu-
tions, which evidently meet with your unanimous approbation.
You will now be addressed in behalf of these resolutions
by one who needs no introduction from me, Mr. RicHarp H.
Dana, Jun. [Prolonged applause. ]

SPEECH OF MR. RICHARD H. DANA, J

FELLow-CitTizEns, —I thank you from the bottom of my
heart for this very kind welcome I have received at your hands
to-night on coming upon the platform. I assure you, gentlemen,
if I felt at liberty to waste the precious hours of this evening
upon any thing relating to myself, I could say much more than
I do to thank you for your great kindness.

But, gentlemen, we are met here on public business. You
have heard what we are asked to do. We are asked to petition
the city government, and send a committee of force to the city
government (not as if the government were at all reluctant,
but that they may know the feeling of the people of Boston),
and ask the city government to go to work at once, and see
that Boston has, as soon as possible, these necessities for her
honor, her health, and her beauty. [Applause. ]

- In thinking of this subject, Mr. President and gentlemen,
it occurred to me that it was a very singular fact, and not
altogether to the credit of human nature, that great numbers
of persons cannot live together without extreme inconvenience.
Now, Robinson Crusoe, when he lived on the Island. of Juan.

ee’, PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Fernandez alone, was not troubled with any question of public
parks, or drainage, or health. Things took care of themselves.
But when you get two or three or four hundred thousand Robin-
son Crusoes in a few square miles, you find the whole state of
things is reversed, that you require all the patience, all the
science, a large part of the money, and a large part of the indus-
try, of the population, that you may live at all, and on any terms.
The lower parts of our nature, the animal parts, tend to produce
certain results which the intellectual parts are expected to meet
and control. If they do not that, men become savages ; if they
do, they are enlightened.

Now, in this great and enlightened city of Boston, the pride
of us all, the ** Athens of America,’ as we all know we are
[laughter], and, as our friend Dr. Hotes there has told us,
the “ Hub of the Universe” [laughter], it would hardly be
respectful to say that one of the questions before us was, Which
of those two roads we were going to take, — whether we were
going to let the intellectual and moral parts have the upper
hand, or whether we were going to sink beneath the material
part. And yet, gentlemen, that is a good deal the question that
is before us to-night.

Why, look at the progress which is inevitably made where
you get great numbers of human beings together. You must
have drainage, you must look to the health of the population,
and then you must look to their recreation and their amuse-
ments (for they will have them); and, if they are not good and
creditable and honorable, they will not cease to exist, but they
will come before us in the most shameful and unwholesome
form. We used to be told, gentlemen, that Boston had natural
parks all about her, and she did not need any artificial parks.
Well, now, I am not in favor of any artificial parks. All I ask
is, that the beauty of the environs of Boston may be preserved.
[ Applause. ]

We are on the defensive. Weare defending the wholesome-
ness and the beauty of our beloved city against this encroach-
ment of population. Why, the time was— Mr. Rorpgs will tell
you when the time was— when the Back Bay was a beautiful
sheet of water, filled at high tide, carrying the healthful air

i)

SPEECH OF MR. RICHARD H. DANA, JUN. 18

through the whole city. But then the necessity of population
called for its filling up, and it is now piled in upon, and we have
there now what Dr. CLARKE called “a natural cesspool.” —<+
We changed the Back Bay from a beautiful bay, where the |
wholesome tides of the ocean swept in, to a natural cesspool.
Well, now, look at the lanes and roads in the suburbs of Bos-
ton — beautiful. As you ride over them, there are trees hang-
ing over them, and there are bushes on each side: you say it is
charming. Well, go out there the next year. The selectmen
if it is a town, the city government if it is a city, have changed
all that. They have made a straight line right through it, and
widened the streets sixty feet; cut down every tree, and made
it one of the most disagreeable and painful spectacles that the
eyes could rest upon. It is their duty so to do: it is a neces-
sity. And so you go on destroying the beauties of the city,
destroying its wholesomeness, destroying its charm; and now
we have got to meet that tendency, and we have the power to
meet it. We have the intellect, we have the money, we have
the will, and we have the taste; and we would be incensed if
any one should suggest that we do not. And yet we have
allowed every city in the United States to get in advance of us.
[A voice, “ That’s so.”] Chicago has three thousand acres
of parks; Philadelphia, five thousand; New York, one great
park ‘of about one thousand acres; and almost every city in
Europe has better, more handsome and attractive acecommoda-
tions than the city of Boston. Iam ashamed to say it; but it
isso. I trust, however, gentlemen, that, before I ever have the
honor of addressing you again, we shall have taken the first
step to remove this odium from the city of Boston. [ Applause. ]
Some six years ago, I think it was, the people got greatly in
earnest that this park should be undertaken. They saw that
the progress of the manufactories was fast destroying the beau-
ties of Boston ; that they were taking up the land in the suburbs
apidly: and, when I said that your green lands were destroyed,
with their beautiful curved lines, I forgot to mention that your
beautiful sheets of water are in the same danger. Why, look
at Fresh Pond, look at Jamaica Pond! They are beautiful
objects to gaze upon: but when manufactories begin to surround

14 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

them, when there are soap manufactories and tanneries, and I
do not know what, draining into the pond, the result is, that the
water is unwholesome, that the fish die, the water cannot be
drunk, and then physicians begin to tell their patients, “* You
had better move out of that neighborhood.” Are you aware,
gentlemen, that that is coming upon us, that we must meet it,
and avert it ?

Some years ago, the people of Boston were earnestly in favor
of a park, or system of parks. The legislature, for some reason
or other, required that the project should receive a vote of two-
thirds of the people. That was extraordinary and hard. But
it did receive a-vote of two-thirds of the people of Boston
proper, and more than two-thirds ; but from the accident of a
newly added portion of the city, for some reason or other, tak-
ing a slant in a certain direction, they voted very largely against
it, and it fell through. We must 'take warning from that; for
land that would have made then a handsome park, which we
could have had, we cannot have now at all. It would cost
altogether too much to much to take dwelling-houses and fac-
_tories and railroad beds, if we could, for a park.

Well, after six years of restlessness, at last we went before
the legislature again; and we got an act passed, authorizing the
appointing of commissioners with powers. That act passed,
helped by our most able fellow-citizen, Mr. Ropgs, chairman of
this meeting; and it was submitted to the votes-of the people
of Boston; and the park project was carried by the votes of this
entire population, — Boston, East Boston, Charlestown, South
Boston, Dorchester, Brighton, which make, all together, a very
large and most decisive majority. And therefore, gentlemen, the
question is not, Shall we have parks? you have decided that;
but the question is, Whether, having determined to have them,
we shall rest content with saying so? whether we will have
our paper parks, as we have our paper money, with nothing to
rest upon [laughter], or whether we shall have genuine parks,
with life and trees, and have sheets of water? Now we are
here to-night to say it is the latter that we want. [Applause.]

Fellow-citizens, that statute authorized the appointment by
the Mayor, subject to approval, of three commissioners. Well,

SPEECH OF MR. RICHARD H. DANA, JUN. 15

that was wise. It was not nine, seven, nor five; but it was three.
Well, his Honor the Mayor, who has~ presided with so much
dignity, wisdom, and integrity [applause] over the city of
Boston for two years, — and we would be glad to get him for a
third year, if his health would permit it [applause], — his Honor
the Mayor appointed three gentlemen as commissioners, in whom
this community have entire confidence. There are no politics
among the Board of Commissioners ; there is no jobbery in the
Board of Commissioners ; and I will venture to predict, gentle-
men, that, when they finish there task, there will be no investi-
gation. [Great applause. ]

I was amazed on looking over their charge. Why, I found
an item of coach-hire for the whole period of their service, nine
dollars. Why, it would not have been enough to take three
common councilmen from Parker’s or Young’s. [Laughter.]
But it is all they have charged; and how, on that sum, they
succeeded in riding around Boston, I do not know. Their
experience with persons who let carriages must have been much
more favorable than mine has been. But not only have they
done honorably, economically, and frugally, they have put into
their work an amount of brain-labor, an amount of patient
investigation and of good judgment, which no one can have ‘an
adequate opinion of who has not read their book ; but, if he has
not, I hope he will. And at least this I may be allowed to say,

I do not think any citizen of Boston has the right to object to
those parks, or to be silent or indifferent on the subject, unless
he has read the Report_of the Commission, and knows what is
proposed, and has been done. [Applause.] They have consulted |
the best authorities. They have consulted Mr. FREDERICK |
Law OLMSTEAD, who laid out Central Park in New York, and
he is the highest authority on the construction of parks in the | ,
country ; and he has been all over this neighborhood, viewing VA
the localities, and they have taken every thing into consideration ; [x
and, gentlemen, what is the result? They do not propose to ay A ie
one great park of a thousand acres, at an almost unattainable
distance ; they do not propose @ great park that nobody can get
to, unless he gives a day to it, and a good deal of money: but
they have adopted a system based upon the natural character-

16 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

istics of the neighborhood of Boston. And what better could
they do? At East Boston, they have given them a ) park upon
the water-side, where they will always have the fresh breezes
of the sea. At South Boston, they have given them a park upon
the water-side, one directly opposite Fort Independence, and
then another one, called the South Park, larger; and Chester
Park, which you are all familiar with, is already extended, and
nearly ready to be used as far as Beacon Street; and thence it
is to go over to Cambridge, and be the quickest means of access
to the University. That same avenue is to be extended easterly
till it strikes the farthest of the South Boston parks, opposite
Fort Independence ; and, when that is done, you will be able to
drive or walk, according to your powers of walking, from the
park opposite Fort Independence, into the city, and across it, to
Harvard University.

Now that is a good deal; but they have taken another step.
They propose to take the water-front of the Charles River basin ;
and there is nothing in Nature so beautiful, so well adapted
‘to the needs of a city, as a park, or boulevard, or promenade,
directly on a water-front, especially if that water is sea-
water, —if it is brought in and carried out by two daily tides.
What more beautiful, what more wholesome, what more invigo-
rating, during the hot season of the year, than to have an open
boulevard, where you can sit, or walk, or ride,—a place for
the fresh sea-water of the ocean brought in pure to you every
__day! Well, they mean to preserve that, and give us about
two hundred feet fora driveway, a saddle-horse way (a saddle-
pad, I think they call it), and footpath, a place for flowers
and trees, as it extends along the water-side, beginning by
Leverett Street, and going out as far as Brighton. Then from
there they mean to take this great Back Bay, which Dr. CLARKE
properly called a natural cesspool, and keep a large part of it
under water, the ocean to be let in and let out at our option, so
that it can be always kept pure; and yet such a quantity of it,
that it will be a sort of inland sea, where we can have regattas,
and where every gentleman may keep his boat, and every boy
may keep his scull; and perhaps it is just as well a boy’s skull
should be there as anywhere else a large part of the time.
[ Laughter. ]

SPEECH OF MR. RICHARD H. DANA, JUN. 17

Then, gentlemen, they are going to take Jamaica Pond,
and have a park or driveway around the pond; then the
Chestnut Hill Reservoir, that has a parkway one hundred feet
in width, where you can drive or walk at your pleasure. In
West Roxbury they are to have a mountain-park, which will be
the largest (about five hundred acres) ; and it is well called a
providence, because it is high, it is rocky, it has a thoroughly
sylvan look, like a forest. You would feel as if you were fifty
miles from Boston, if you were where you could not see the
city. At the same time, it is beautiful for a park. There are
very few houses there ; and it is difficult to make it salable for
residences. But they have selected this spot; and they are
going to give us the best park of the city, and then have all
these parks connected by parkways, thus making them so con-
venient of access, that every poor man in Boston can take his
child by his hand, and for five cents a head can be carried out
to any one of those parks by the railroads. [Applause. ]

And, when he gets there, he can show this poor boy or girl,
who has passed all the winter, and all the opening spring, in an
alleyway, —he can show them, by a wholesome ascent of two
hundred feet only, slow, gradual, one of the noblest prospects
in the world, — the ocean pouring up into these great bays; and
floating the great ships that come and go, the Bunker Hill
Monument and the Navy Yard, the University, and the great
series of cities that surround us. And, more than that, he can
show him or her Wachuset Mountain, and even the top oh
Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire. RY

Now I ask you, fellow-citizens, if it is not worth while for
the city of Boston to improve these opportunities. We have
been most fortunate in our Commissioners, —in their wisdom,
in their frugality, in their intelligence, and their public spirit ;
and I hope, gentlemen, you will study their Report. It is easy
reading, pleasant reading ; and if, when you get home, you find
your boy or girl engaged over some novel, especially if it is a
yellow covered one, take it right out of his or her hand, and
ask them to read that Report.

You may think it absurd; but, ten to one, it will interest the
children more than the novel would. It will certainly give

——

18 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

them more valuable instruction; and I venture to say it will
interest them more. I felt quite carried away by it. It seemed
to me it must be a fancy ; but, when I turned to their accounts
(and they are all mercantile men), I was amazed to see at what
small cost it could all be done. And, gentlemen, I want to
detain you a moment longer on statistics, and show that it has
increased the value of property in every city that has hada
park, by bringing houses all about the parks, and by detaining
as inhabitants of the city, to be taxed in the city, those men
who skulk in small towns to throw the burden of the expense
of their own city on those who stay behind. [Applause.] All
we want to do to-night is to say to the City government that
we are in earnest about this matter, and that we want the work
done now. [Applause. ]

I tell you, gentlemen, it is very doubtful, if this fails, shothes
you will have another Board of Commissioners to compare with
the present. I tell you it is doubtful, whether there will be a
state of things in Boston which will be any thing like as favora-
ble as the state of things we are in now. ButIcan tell you one
thing that is certain; and that is, if you postpone it, you cannot
have the parks that they propose. The growth of population
will be crowding over it ; speculators will buy it; the ponds will
become injured ; and the expense will be so great, that you will
shudder at the thought of it. And, more than that, the parks
that you ask for in another ten years will be four or five miles
from the centre of population now, and I confess that one great
argument with me for instant action is, that I want the parks to
be as accessible as possible to all those persons especially who
do not own their private carriages, and cannot give a day to
it. [Applause. ]

And last of all, Mr. President and gentlemen, it should be
done for economical reasons, as has been stated very well by
the address and in the resolutions, because there never was a
time, and I hope there never will be a time again, when the land
was so cheap as it isnow ; and, when we take this land for parks,
we take it at its present price. There has not been a time for
many years, and I hope there never will be a time again, when
the price of labor is as low as it is now [applause]; and that

~—

SPEECH OF MR. RICHARD H. DANA, JUN. 19

labor we would employ at once, and the laborers are begging
for employment. Why, there is not one of you who has not
often and often, within the last two years, perhaps it is not
extravagant to say, felt his heart bleed when he has been
stopped in the way by evidently honest men, who would say,
‘* We can’t find any thing todo. We have looked everywhere ;
and there is no work for us.” [A voice, “ That’s so.”] Yes,
that is so. Now, some philanthropists, and some political econo-
mists, have told us that the government ought always to find
employment for everybody ; it is the duty of the city to see that
everybody has work: but, though I do not advocate any such
doctrine as that, I advocate this doctrine, — that whenever the
community has any thing it ought to do, and which will employ
laborers (and this is a hard time on the laborers), then is the
time that they ought to do it. [Applause.] So that it is
not only good economy, but it is humanity, that dictates an
instant advance upon this work. To save the land that we
can get now in a low market, and to employ laborers who
are paid low wages, but are glad to get even that, and
to prevent the entire failure of this scheme so carefully and
beneficially made, we shall ask the city government to work at
once.

Now, there are others much more able to speak of the finances
of the city government than Iam; but we always do find, that,
when a thing ought to be done, there is a way of doing it; and
we sometimes find, that, when things ought not to be done, there
is a-way of doing them. I wish to say one word more, before I
take my seat, on the report and scheme of these Park Com-
missioners ; and that is its entire equitableness in its attention to
localities. It has left no part of the city that is not benefited.
Charlestown cannot have a park, because it is built over, and
there is no room for one. If there was room, they would have
one. They must annex; and then they can have a park.
[Laughter.] East Boston has a park ; South Boston has a park ;
then comes the great West Roxbury Park; then comes the Bus-
sey Farm, whichI omitted to mention ; and then comes Jamaica
Pond and Chestnut Hill Reservoir Park, and the park roads
connecting them all, and uniting them; and then the water-front

20 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

on all that part of the city of Boston where the water-fronts are
not needed for commerce.

I say, therefore, this plan is equitably divided among the
citizens according to their residence ; and it is accessible to all,
and the plan is economical, and the time is auspicious. There-
fore I hope that you will with unanimity adopt the resolutions,
and call upon the city government to proceed at once. [Ap-
plause. |

THE PRESIDENT. Allusion has been made to the “ Hub of
the Universe ;” and you will all understand, that, when any
thing is the matter with that Hub, the diagnosis must be made
not only by an able physician, but by an able spokesman.
[Laughter and applause.] I have great pleasure in introducing
to you one who combines both, and a hundred other qualities,
Dr. OLIVER WENDELL Hotmgs. [Applause. |

SPEECH OF DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

You will not ask for rhetoric or eloquence in the few remarks
upon a vital subject to be offered you by a member of the silent
profession. What could be so eloquent as the hollow voice
which announces the Boston annual death-rate as being 26.18
against 23.7, that of the great paved nation of London;
against 19.3, that of Philadelphia; and approaching that of our
two unhealthiest cities, New York and New Orleans? This
high death-rate has been shown to be largely due to the exces-
sive mortality among infants and children under five years of

age. The most fatal of the diseases which assail them is that’

destruction which wasteth at noonday, to which our American
practitioners give the name of cholera-infantum., And this dis-
ease prevails chiefly, almost entirely, from June to October, the
season when all out-of-door influences are most tempting and
most needed. The weekly record of August and September is
that of a pestilence. The destroying angel carries off the first-
born, and, oftener still, the last-born, out of almost every house-
hold in certain districts, as in the heaviest curse laid on Egypt,
Thousands have fled the city, as they deserted London in the

SPEECH OF DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 21

season of the plague ; but thousands are left to follow in the
funeral procession of those who were the hope of their house-
holds.

A considerable part of this mortality, it may be feared, is
unavoidable. Our climatic influences are permanent factors,
and must always count in the bills of mortality. But there are
certain agencies which we can, to a great extent, control. We
can and do submit the dwellings of our citizens to inspection
and sanitary regulation ; we can and shall provide our city with
proper drainage ; we can and do inspect the food in our market,
and condemn it if unfit for use; we can and must secure for
our citizens the influences of unroofed and unwalled Nature, —
air, light, space for exercise and recreation, the natural birth-
right of mankind.

Of the uses of these larger breathing-spaces, which we call
parks, —for the relief of the imprisoned dwellers in crowded
streets, for the recreation of poor and rich alike, for the health of
mind and body which they offer to all, —it seems almost need-
less to speak from the medical point of view ; for all know what
cities would be without open areas, where children can play in
the shade, and old people warm themselves in the sun. I wish 4a
to call your attention to a single point intimately connected
with the alarming fact of the excessive death-rate of which I
have spoken. That point is the influence of the air they breathe
on the health of children, with the bearing of this on the ques-
tion before us.

If a child is found to have been starved to death in a cellar
or an attic, a ery of horror is raised over it. If two or three
wandering boys, as it happened the other day at Lowell, come
upon some noxious roots, and, in obedience to their omnivorous
instinct, devour them, and pay the forfeit, the whole country
hears of it. If a family or two get hold of some ill-conditioned
meat, and suffer for it, the groans of their colics are echoed all
over the land. If a milkman misrepresents his honest cows by
falsifying their product, the chemist detects him, and the press
puts him in the pillory. If the Cochituate or Mystic water is
too much like an obsolete chowder, up go all noses, and out
come all manner of newspaper paragraphs from ‘ Senex,”

Hs PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

‘* Tax-payer,” and the rest. But air-poisoning kills a hundred

where food-poisoning kills one. Let me relate a circumstance
which happened in Ireland, to which circumstance, in all
probability, I owe the pleasure of being listened to at this
moment by some among our hard-working, adopted citizens who
are before me.

When -I say to you, meaning to speak the words of sober
truth, that a single physician, by a single and simple measure,
saved more lives than were lost at Waterloo by the British

army and all its allies, leaving out the Prussians, you will sus-_

pect me of exaggeration, not very uncommon in public speakers.
I will therefore intrench myself behind certain details which I
have often before cited, but not in the presence of a gathering
of this kind.

Dr. ROBERT COLLINS was Master, as it is called, of the great
Dublin Lying-in Hospital, where the annual rate of births
was between two and three thousand, from the year 1826 to
1833. A work of his, containing the results of his practice
during his seven years of service, was published in Boston in
1841, by order of the Massachusetts Medical Society, for the
use of its members. I consider him vouched for as authority,
therefore, by men in whom you can put confidence. Dr. CoL-
LINS makes the following statement : —

When his predecessor, Dr. JOSEPH CLARKE, was in office, in
the year 1784, he found that seventeen children in the hundred,
nearly one in six, died within the first fortnight after birth,
nineteen-twentieths of these of one particular disease peculiar
to very early infancy. Looking for the cause of this frightful
mortality, he thought he found it in a foul and vitiated state
of the air of the hospital. So he had some openings of con-
siderable size made in the ceiling of each ward, and three holes,
of an inch in diameter, through each window at top: the doors,
too, were perforated with numerous holes. In this way, a free
circulation was secured, and so arranged, that the nurses could
not control it; for some of the old-fashioned nurses. would
not have opened a window in the Black Hole at Calcutta, for
fear the inmates should catch a cold.

What was the result of this simple proceeding? Why, the

SPEECH OF DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 23

mortality fell, from seventeen in a hundred, down to between five
and six; and Dr. Collins gives us the result up to his time in
these words, ‘“* Thus, by his valuable suggestions, 16,371 lives
have been saved, as, had the mortality of infants continued one
in six to this day (1833), the number of children dying of the
131,227 (which is the total number born in the hospital) would
be 21,871, as the hospital registry now shows.” In the battle
of Waterloo, the British and their allies lost 16,186 men; that
is, 185 less than the great army of very light infantry saved
from death by letting out the smoke of the battle of life, and
letting in the sweet air of heaven, through the walls of the
Dublin hospital.

So much for what air alone can do for children. Now, it is
not the “nine-day fits” of that hospital in its unventilated
condition which kills our poor children in the hot months, but
that other disease of infancy, which to name is like sounding
a funeral knell in the,ears of many a parent. This one malady,
more than any other, gives Boston its place on the black list of
unhealthy towns. All parents having young children leave the
city during the worst part of the sickly season, if they have the
means of so doing. Our best streets look as DEFOE tells us
London streets looked during the Great Plague. But thousands
of families must remain; and we are bound to do what we can
for them in their dearest interests, — the lives of their children.

With regard to cholera-infantum,—the deadly scourge of
which I have spoken, —the testimony of experience shows that
change of air, even temporary, often effects the cure of which
the apothecary, who ‘pestles a poisoned poison behind ‘his
crimson lights,” cannot bring about with his drugs, though the
wisest of physicians had written the prescription. This point
is so important, and bears so directly, not only on the necessity
of park-spaces, but upon their distribution so as to bring them
within reach of all the crowded and unhealthy districts as
far as possible, that I shall borrow a few sentences, enforcing
it, from writers recognized as authorities on the diseases of
children.

‘¢ Even in eases in which a removal to a healthy and airy
situation in the country is impracticable,” says Dr. CoNDI& of

24 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Philadelphia, long and well known by his writings, “much
benefit may be derived from carrying the patient frequently into
the open air in a carriage, or in the arms, or, when its residence
is near a large river, sailing it daily in an open boat.” And Dr.
JOHN BEwu of the same city says, “ The restorative effects of
fresh air in cholera-infantum are strikingly evinced in the relief
procured by many hundreds of children every summer in Phila-
delphia, by their simply crossing and recrossing the River
Delaware in steamboats once or twice a day. New life is
restored to the little beings, who, on leaving their homes in the
city, seemed almost exanimate, and in the last stage of incurable
exhaustion.” Dr. JAMES STEWART of New York, in his treatise
on the diseases of children, and our own honored patriarch of
the profession, the late Dr. JAMES JACKSON, in his letters to a
young physician, speak in similar terms of the great advantage
of change of place and of air. The ‘aquatic jaunts” recom-
mended by Dr. STEWART, and spoken of as so efficacious by
Dr. BELL, are among the advantages to be secured by the plan
proposed by our Park Commissioners. I wish twenty tons of
little children could be shipped every fine summer day for a
good sail.

There is one particular region which I will mention as like to
be specially benefited by the plan referred to, —a region which
would get the advantages of the fresh air coming over the wide
estuary of Charles River without the expense and trouble of
taking boats. The narrow and crowded streets of the northern
slope of Beacon Hill, and a wide region extending northward
from it, are inhabited by the very class most exposed to cholera-
infantum and diseases of that nature. Having lived for many
years in Charles Street, where I am no longer an owner, I had
occasion to learn the incomparable comfort and delight to be
got ina hot summer’s day, when the wind is from the south-
west, by turning the corner of Charles and Cambridge Streets,
and getting into the current of air cooled by passing over the
water. Some of the poor mothers with sick children had found
out where to bring them for relief; and I often thought, if there
were an open green filling up that corner, with shade trees and
seats, what a priceless sanatorium it would be to all that suffer-

|

SPEECH OF DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 25

ing quarter of the city! The proposed green margin, beginning
at Leverett Street, and extending along the river, will meet this
very want; and this is only one locality of many which will
thus turn its natural advantages to account.

I have preferred to insist on a single point rather than to
expatiate on a larger number. But I trust that the eloquence
of others will enforce and illustrate the innumerable advan-
tages our city will derive from the only chain she would submit
to, —a chain of pleasure-grounds all around her. The Bostonian
has looked up at the gilded dome of the State House, and down
at the reflection of his own features in the Frog Pond, long
enough. Our city has always been a centre; and it must not
act as if it considered itself a mere feeder. We must provide
ourselves with the complete equipment, not of a village com-
munity, not of a thriving town, but of a true metropolis, large
enough for a citizen of the world to live in without feeling him-
self provincialized, and not too large for one honest mayor like »
our own to handle. The marrow-bones of the past are pretty
well cleared out, or will be before the Centennial year is over,
and we must not be content to live on them for another century.
The Old Elm got enough of it, — grew discontented, and started
on its travels for wider quarters, but, unfortunately, stumbled
and fell. Let us take the hint, and plant a thousand acres with
young elms and all other trees of the forest, where the hillsides
are not already clad in foliage ; so that the children of coming
generations may bless our memory, not only for all the happi-
ness they have had in their shadow, but for saving more lives to
the country than were lost in any one of the battles which
scarred and crippled their fathers. [Applause. ]

THE PRESIDENT. Gentlemen, you have been addressed by
two of the learned professions. It follows, as a matter of course,
that you will now be addressed by one from the third, the
most important and most respected of all. I am happy to intro-
duce to you the Rev. Dr. NEALE, the oldest settled pastor of
the city of Boston. [Applause.]

26 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

SPEECH OF THE REY. ROLLIN H. NEALE, D.D.

I do not intend, my friends, to trespass much upon your time,
and certainly shall not presume to give any new information on
the subject which has been presented. Owing, probably, to my
long residence here, it has been thought, I suppose, that my
testimony, in these days of calling for witnesses, may be of some
importance. Of the financial bearings of this proposed enter-
prise, of course I cannot judge. These are to be considered
and acted upon by men on whom the public responsibility rests,
who will, doubtless, act considerately and wisely; but the
desirableness of the thing itself is unquestionable. I have had
opportunity, with some gentleinen here present, of wandering
of a summer’s day through the beautiful and extensive parks of
Europe and of this country, and know how welcome and refresh-
ing they are to the weary traveller. ‘ Boston Common,” of
course, we praise everywhere ; and when abroad, and thinking
of dear home, say there is nothing like it the world over.

It is a good feature in the character of Bostonians to love
their own city. There is something delightful in its old build-
ings, and even its crooked streets. We forget political and even
religious differences in view of ancient landmarks. We cling
to the Old South, and would gladly have kept Brattle Square
with its cannon-ball, whatever might have been thought of its
theology. We cherish the memory of our fathers, and wish to
keep among us, as far as possible, signs of the good old days.
This is right and noble; but equally right, and quite as unself-
ish, is it to think of those who shall come after us. HoRACE
BUSHNELL was a scholar, and wrote many elaborate works on
metaphysics and divinity ; but the Bushnell Park of Hartford
will probably be that for which coming generations will thank
him most. Certainly it will keep his memory fragrant and
green forever. .

Our good city is justly famous for its hospitals and physicians,
as well as its churches and clergymen. I hope the contem-
plated parks may not supersede the sanctuary and the sermon,
though, as they say, there are ‘‘ sermons in stones, and good in

:

SPEECH OF THE REV. J. P. BODFISH. — 27

every thing.” But certain it is, that a ramble through green
fields at any time, and along sparkling streams, is better than
a sick-bed, or the apothecary’s drugs and doses.

We are all of us, I suppose, more or less subject to the blues,
business-men, clergymen, and even politicians. In such cases, it
is of no use to shut one’s self up in the house, and brood over
trouble. The best remedy is a walk, a good long stretch into
the country, fresh air, a hearty laugh with some friend; or an
exhilarating ride, Brother MuRRAY would say, probably, behind
a “perfect horse.” And these are some of the blessings it is
proposed to secure for us. The very season now here speaks
impressively for this enterprise. The glories of a June day, how
they make us yearn for rural scenes! Nature everywhere is
beckoning. ‘ The mountains and the hills break forth before us
into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands.”

THE PRESIDENT. We have listened with much satisfaction
and enjoyment to the address of one of the clergymen of the
city of Boston: but all denominations of the Christian Church
are included in this call; and I am now happy to introduce to
you the Rev. Mr. Boprisa, Rector of the Catholic Cathedral
of the Holy Cross of the city of Boston. [Applause.]

SPEECH OF THE REV. J. P. BODFISH.

Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN, —I am happy to stand
here, where so many of my ancestors have stood, and to address
my fellow-citizens on such a measure of public importance.
When this matter was first brought to my attention through the
papers, when the plan proposed in all its grandeur first came
before my mind, I was reminded of a saying of a musical friend
of mine. He belonged toa band. He came'from the: father-
land; and his great specialty was to play on the trombone.
After a while, it became rather remarkable, these solos on the
trombone; and some of the college boys wanted to put him
down a little: so they commenced by applauding. That seemed
to have no effect. So one night they thought they would try

28 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

another plan. He was playing his best on the trombone; and
one of the boys cried out, “ Louder!” And so he began again
on the trombone; and the boys said, “* Louder!” And he tried
again on the trombone; and the boys still eried, ‘ Louder!”
And they still kept on, “* Louder!” until he almost burst every
blood-vessel. And he put down his instrument in disgust and
said, “It is very well to say, ‘ Louder!’ but where is you going
to get the vind?” [Laughter. ]

Now when I thought of this system, and the immense expense
it would be, I said to myself, Now, that is a grand system; it
would be beautiful indeed: but where are you going to get the
money? But then [ took the Report of those able Commission-
ers, this pamphlet that is spoken of; and I read it myself care-
fully to see if it was a practicable and feasible plan, and was
surprised to see the ability with which the whole matter had
been treated. So thorough had been their investigations, that
they had demonstrated it was perfectly clear that this grand
and beautiful system of parks could be built at this time, now,
with a very slight taxation upon the whole business commu-
nity ; and, furthermore, that by the improvement of property
in the neighborhood of the parks, and by the advantage to
the city in general, the money expended would soon return to
the taxpayers of the city; and so that objection is disposed of
at once.

There seems to be no difficulty. There are so many solid
men here in Boston, that a work of this kind surely can be car-
ried out with greater ease than it has been in other cities ; and
we know in other cities they have reaped great pecuniary ben-
efit from the establishment and building-up of their system of
parks. But you would hardly expect a clergyman here to talk
on the financial question: that is a little out of order. But the
physicians have considered the medical point of view, the sani-
tary point of view, how necessary it is to the health of the
city ; and the financiers have demonstrated that it is easy in a
financial point of view; and it would be natural for me to
speak here to-night, perhaps, on the moral necessity of such a
system of parks.

Now, when I think of the conditions under which a great

SPEECH OF THE REV. J. P. BODFISH. 29

many of our poor people live, I am not very much surprised
that they are goaded into desperation to commit some fearful
crime, because we know very well, where a person lives in the
country, and has the blue sky over his head, and the running
brooks gurgling through the meadows, and the green trees and
villages, and every thing cheerful and pleasant about him, why,
he is removed from a great many temptations that are common to
a large city; and we know, that, in a moral point of view,
the people of a town or of a country district are removed from
a great many temptations and incentives to crime: therefore
every one who wishes well for the religious welfare of the
people would be glad to have these parks established as a real
moral agent in the community and to the people of this city.
And, as my respected friend has suggested, perhaps the people
would rather go out in the park than to stop and hear our dull
sermons. But I would run even that risk ; for the Lord’s Day,
you know, is a day of rest; and, after we pay our homage to
our Creator, I think it would be pleasant even to Him to go
and take your family, and take a stroll out into these pleasant
parks that are proposed for your health. [Applause. ]

And then there is another feature which pleases me very
much. You know, in the olden time, the lords and nobles, and
those who possessed the landed estates, they felt it their duty to
provide for the welfare of the laboring classes, upon whom they
depended really for their riches; for they tilled their lands, and
brought them in their incomes and the returns from their estates :
and so they watched over them with a kind of a paternal care ;
and, when they were sick, they provided for them hospitals, and
they watched over them as a father would over his family. Now,
we live in a little somewhat different order of society ; but still
there remains the same common duty for the men of wealth,
for the men who possess capital, to look out and provide for the
wants and necessities of the poor, on whom they depend to a
great extent ; for capital cannot be independent of labor. [Ap-
plause. ]

Now I see around me, I may say, the nobility of this city.
They may not have long, sounding titles; but they have the
wealth, they have the philanthropy; and their presence here

30 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

to-night shows you that they have those same generous impulses
toward the whole of this city’s population. They have come
here as a unit: they are willing to pay whatever is required to
build this magnificent system of parks, that all the people of
every class may enjoy its benefits. I say they are acting the
part of the nobles of old; and they are taking care of the people
of this city as though they had a certain paternal influence and
responsibility toward them [applause], and it rejoices my heart.
And in another point of view, we know that the safety of any
community and society depends upon the contentment and
happiness of all classes of its people.

If there is one class that is ground down, and unhappy, and
living under unworthy conditions, they are, of course, immedi-
ately a dangerous element. I say that it is a matter of good
policy, as a stroke of political economy, to provide for the wants
of all classes of people in this way, that they may live contented
and happy, and have every thing that is necessary for the health
and recreation of their families. [Applause.] |

I cannot, of course, at this late hour, delay you with arguments.
You have had sufficient already. That, as I understand it, is
not the chief object of our meeting here. The arguments are
at present before the authorities in this excellent Report of the
Commissioners.

We meet here to encourage them to go forward, to speak out
in such a positive manner, that they can hesitate no longer.
It is our duty to cheer them and encourage them in their
work, and we hardly realize what an influence this meeting will
have in encouraging them to the great and arduous work which
they have undertaken to accomplish. Why, it reminds me of a
little incident that happened in New York not long ago, when
one of those great buildings was on fire, — those nine-story tene-
ment-houses. When the great crowd gathered there in the
night, and they were surging there, the police were trying to
keep order, and the firemen were working, and the hot flames
shot up toward the sky, and the black smoke rolled forth, and
all was din and confusion; and, in the noise and tumult of that
dark and threatening night, there was one voice heard. It wasa
mother’s voice above the noise; and she cried, * Save my child!

~

SE Paretin

in

ae

SPEECH OF COL. CHARLES W. WILDER. 31

Will no one save my child?” And they would hush her; but
still she cried, ** Oh, save my child!”” And there was one of the
brave firemen, when he learned that a little child was in the
fourth story of that building, who thought of his little ones at
home; and he said he would risk his life, he would dare any
thing, rather than that child should be lost. And they brought
the great ladders, and they spliced them together, and they
swung them up against the burning building ; and he commenced
to ascend. And, when he was halfway up, he looked at the hot
flames and the dense smoke rolling forth, and his heart trembled
with‘fear: it seemed to be instant death. But some one in the
crowd below, who knew the springs that govern the human
heart, cried, ‘‘ Cheer him!” “ Cheer him!” And there went up
from that great crowd the wild hurrah, and it cheered his heart
like an electric thrill; and he rushed on, and disappeared in the
smoke. All was suspense ; they waited with breathless anxiety :
and at last he returned with the child, and placed it in its
mother’sarms. [Tremendous applause.] So you see the power
of a word of encouragement and cheer when any one has ardu-
ous work before him; and that is our duty here to-night, my
fellow-citizens, — to speak out with one voice, and determined
voice, and to cheer those who have undertaken this work, and
to let them know that we are ready to support them, that now
is the time, and that we are determined that this great work
shall be accomplished. [Applause and cheers. ]

THE PRESIDENT. I shall now have the pleasure of introdu-
cing to the audience Col. CHARLES W. WILDER. [Applause.]

SPEECH OF COL. CHARLES W. WILDER.

This large gathering of our citizens in Faneuil Hall is for
some purpose: it is significant that the people want something.
Ido not understand that it is in any sense to re-affirm their con-
viction that their best interests will be served by adding to our
public property a park or parks. That question has been fully
discussed and decided by the people themselves for themselves:

32 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

they settled that by their, with remarkable unanimity, voting
to accept the act of the legislature, giving power to the city
government to purchase or take land for that purpose. All
classes seem to agree upon the necessity. The entire medical
faculty with one voice say we want it for sanitary reasons, and
have joined in the general petitions. Our capitalists and mer-
chants have spoken for themselves unmistakably by their peti-
tions to the city government, bearing more than seven thousand
names, and representing, I am informed, more than two hundred
millions of taxable property. An able Commission, after a year
of careful study, and diligent devotion to their duty, have made
their report. The people have examined, discussed, criticised,
and finally approved and accepted it, and now come here in Fan-
euil Hall to speak direct to City Hall for its adoption. Mr.
President, our professional men, our merchants and capitalists,
have spoken for themselves by their petitions and voices here to-
night. It remains only for me to speak for the more numerous
class of our fellow-citizens who pay but two dollars poll-tax.
Yet they are as good citizens, have and feel as deep interest in the
growth, prosperity, and progress of our city, as their more fortu-
nate neighbors ; and in the name and behalf of the mechanics, the
laborers, the great mass of men that build our cities, and whose
labor contributes so much to our growth and prosperity, and
whose employment is the one thing more than any other needed
to-day to inaugurate the beginning of our old-time prosperity,
I appeal to our city government to complete the work so
opportunely and well begun. It is immediate action we ask
for.

There being no difference of opinion as to the necessity and
utility of parks, and their ultimate payment for their full cost,
the only open question is the time to begin. We say that time
is now, — now, while thousands of unwillingly idle hands are
waiting for work, and money is cheap; cheap, because labor is
unemployed. We say to you, gentlemen of the city govern-
ment, respectfully but earnestly, Act upon this matter now.

Don’t wait till your summer vacation; don’t wait till next
month; don’t let any personal matter intervene to prevent the
performance of this public duty the people now ask at your

9

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH F. PAUL. O38

hands. The present truly great debt of our city, the bulk of
which has been created in improvements, made enormously more
costly by the failure of city governments in past times to com-
prehend the wants of a growing metropolis, admonishes you to
act now, and secure the advantages the present favorable com-
bination of circumstances offers. We confer on you the power
to spend our money for the public good; and we ask you to act
now, because we clearly see that delay means largely increased
cost for what we must have in the near future.

THE PRESIDENT. The Act under which this Commission was
appointed, and has discharged its duty, was supported, I think,
by nearly every member of the Boston delegation; and I may
be allowed a single moment to.add a tribute of respect to that
delegation. Boston has been well represented, with one excep-
tion, perhaps, during the last two years, in the State legislature ;
and I am very happy to know that you are now to be addressed
by a member of that delegation, who, as I said, supported this
Act when it was passed; who did not always vote with me on
every occasion, but who never voted against his conscience,
never supported any thing dishonest, or unjust, or unfair; and
who will stand up, I have no doubt, to-night, and speak well his
mind, as he did on every fit occasion in the State House, for
what he deems just and right, and for the good of the people:
Mr. JoserH F. PAuL, whom I am very happy to introduce to
you. [ Applause. ]

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH F. PAUL.

Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN, —I hardly know what
reply to make to the remarks of the gentleman who has just
taken his seat. In fact, I think I had better let them go, and
allow you to judge for yourselves after I have said what I pro-
pose to say. I may say, in the first place, that this is my first
appearance upon this stand as a speaker; and, when called
upon to speak after such gentlemen as you have listened to
to-night, [ trust you will make all due allowance for any
mistakes that I may make. But I claim the right as a citizen

9

o4 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

of Boston, as a tax-payer of Boston, to express my opinion
upon this subject, as upon all others in which I take an
interest. The necessity of parks has been made apparent to
every gentleman here by those who are better qualified than
I am to do so. I believe that there is no man here who
does not believe that we are to have parks. I have not
heard from such; and I do not believe that there is such a
man, unless it is one who does not expect to enjoy them
himself, and is unwilling that posterity should.

Taking it for granted that that question is settled, the only
question which seems to be before the people is, whether this is
the proper time ; and I propose to address myself to the consid-
eration of that question. I propose to speak of it as of a private
enterprise, and as an individual business-man. It has been ex-
plained to you in regard to the condition of the labor-market, and I
think that I may say fairly and squarely that labor of the character
to be used about parks has not been so cheap for twenty years.
Money is cheap; labor is required; parks are wanted ; and it is
better to keep the men at work, and retain them in the city,
than to sustain them and their families at the public cost. It is
not like sending out of the country to import something for
which we must pay our money. All the money is to be paid to
our own citizens; and, unless some show of enterprise is made,
we shall lose business-men from this city. They will not stay
here, and do nothing, unless the city government makes some
show of enterprise. I have had some experience myself in the
city government, having been a member of it, whether that is
an honor or not; though I hold that the honor or dishonor of
any society depends upon one’s own conduct. There is always
some doubt about making a move in the city government; and,
in a matter like the park question, such a meeting as this will
be a great encouragement to action. ‘The public feeling on this
question is so great, that the parks must be established. The
project has been fought no harder than the Water Board was ;
and where would the city of Boston be, if the friends of that
enterprise had not succeeded? Act here to-night, and then let
the city government do its part. Objections may be made by
some gentlemen, made conscientiously ; but, five years from

SPEECH OF MR. JOSEPH F. PAUL. 35

now, these gentlemen will not remember that they raised any
objection.

This meeting is called for the purpose of giving the city
government to understand that the business-men, the working-
men, of the city, mean what they say, when they say that they
want public parks; and there is no question that an impulse
will be given to the action of the city government by this
meeting. We are the city of Boston; and the members of the
city government act for us.

Gentlemen, it is getting late, and there are those to follow
who will entertain you better than I can. But I propose to
close with a little story which I heard; and it was in church
that I heard it, in an excellent sermon. Just after the war of
1812, our laboring men stood, as they stand to-day, idling about
the wharves and public places. That was the case in a little
town to the east of Boston. They had enterprising men, as we
have now ; and one day a gentleman stepped into a bank, and
said to the president, ‘‘ Mr. President, I am going to build a
ship.” — “ What do you know about shipbuilding?” asked the
president. ‘+ Nothing. But I can do the business ; and there
are men here who can do the work. We have the money, and
there are the men. I will build the ship, and sell it; you will
get your money back; and the profit will be divided among the
men.” The idea was a novel one; but the president wanted to
set the wheels of business in motion; and so he said that he
would give an answer the next day. The gentleman called
promptly the next morning; and the president informed him
that the directors had agreed to advance the money. The gen-
tleman then went out among the idle men, and said, ‘‘ lam going
to build a ship, and I want you to do the work. I will pay
you enough to live on; and, when the ship is built, we will
divide the profit.” So they went to work as co-partners, and
built the ship, this gentleman generously attending to the busi-
ness. The ship was built and launched and sold, the money
was paid to the bank, and the profits divided. That was the
first ship built on the Merrimack in Newburyport, which has
since become one of the largest shipbuilding places in Massa-
chusetts.

36 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

So we want something to set the wheels in motion. The city
of Boston can borrow the money, and buy the land, for these
parks, more cheaply now than ever again; and the men are ready
to do the work. I know of nothing more that I can say. I am
glad to see this hall filled to-night. There are men here to-
night who have at heart the interests and prosperity of the
city of Boston. That is what we are acting for; and I trust
that that hundred men will go up to City Hall, and, if the
city government will move in the matter, every true man will
deem it his duty to stand behind and encourage them.

THE PRESIDENT. My friends, the best things and the most
enthusiastic meetings must come to an end; but those who wait
till the last generally get the best. I have now the pleasure
of introducing to you the closing speaker, the Hon. P. A.
COLLINS.

SPEECH OF THE HON. P. A. COLLINS.

I know that no word of mine can add to the force of this
movement. I am neither great tax-payer nor eminent sanitarist.
I cannot hope to equal others who have discussed the moral,
esthetic, sanitary, and economic phases of the question before
us. But, happily, there is no need of such discussion now. The
question of public parks has been submitted, in all its forms
and probable effects, to the ablest, keenest, wisest, of our citizens ;
and there is but one answer. The answer is, that we need
more out-door life than our sedentary race enjoys, and that
public grounds, accessible to all, are not only desirable, but
necessary to the moral and physical health of our crowded pop-
ulation. :

This is the verdict; and, granted this, there remain but two
questions, — ‘Is this the time?” ‘* Can we afford it?” To
some, the present is never the time for any thing. Their motto
seems to be, “ Don’t do to-day what you can put off till to-
morrow, because you may not live till to-morrow, and then you
won’t have to do it at all.” This principle has been acted upon
by short-sighted Boston too long; and the result is a melan-

SPEECH OF THE HON. P. A. COLLINS. on

choly looking-back to the time when improvements could have
been made for a tenth ora fifteenth of the present cost. We
are told of our beautiful suburbs, as if they can be suburbs
forever. Even now, they are but for the rich. Beware of
trespassing in the fields and woods: they are private property.
The roads seem to belong to blood-horses and their owners.
If you wish to know the future, look at the past. Look back,
you aged men, to the fields and gardens of Tremont and Boyl-
ston Streets. Look back, you younger men, to rambles through
South Boston farms, and land at “South End” sold bythe
acre. Always comes the old conservative admonition, ‘* Wait!”
— yes, wait till the great sea-wall makes City Point of Castle
Island, — wait till the now extended arms of Boston clasp
Brookline to the bosom of the metropolis, — wait till private
avarice and easy legislation, acting intermittently, deface the
shore and basin of Charles River, — wait till the dense and ever
growing population, bursting from its narrow bounds, spreads
itself in streets laid out at random, over what you are pleased
to call owr suburbs, — wait, in short, till the inevitable happens,
and where are your public parks? You may have them, even
then, I grant you; but you will have them where the people
cannot reach them, and where the cost will be too great.
Remember that our city growth is like the growth of all cities
in the New World and the Old; and, if we want green places
in the future Boston, we must seize them now.

Can we afford the expense? Rather, let us ask, Can Boston
afford to be less comfortable to live in, less attractive, less
healthy, than sister cities? We can afford police, paved streets,
light, sewers, scavengers, a fire department, a board of health,
and a score of other agencies, not because they give salaries and
employment to certain men, but because the public health and
safety require it; we can afford schools, maintained at enormous
cost, though it may be conceded that we could live without
education ; we can afford pure water in abundance, be the
expense never so great, because we need it: and, if we need
pure air, we can afford to pay for it, to seize the means of hav-
ing it, and keeping it forever.

And suffer me, with due modesty, to say, that we in this

38 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

meeting — representing as we do the commerce, industries, and
professions of this goodly town — have a right to demand that °
what we ask shall be given us, and that Boston shall take and ‘
hold for the use of its people this needed reservation, while yet :
there is time. I trust our city fathers will need no further

admonition than this meeting gives; but, if they should, we are '

enlisted for the war. f
As Cromwell, grimly looking down on the fair fields and :

shining streams of the land he came to conquer, said, ‘ This is

a land worth fighting for,” so let us, as we survey the magnifi-
cent area of shore and hill and glade which fortune now permits
us to dedicate to public use, exclaim, “* This, indeed, is worth :
our effort ;”’ and let us strive for it till the battle is won.

THE PRESIDENT. I have been requested to state that the
well-known physician, Dr. Epywarp H. Ciarkg, who is too ill
to be present here to-night, has written a long and interesting
letter on the subject of this meeting, which will be published in
the morning papers; and I desire that every citizen present will
make a point of reading that letter.

LETTER OF DR. EDWARD H. CLARKE.

Hamitton A. Hitz, Esq., SECRETARY, &c.

Dear Sir,—1 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your note of the 2d inst., requesting me, in the name of the
committee who have called a public meeting on the park ques-
tion, to address to them a letter which shall contain my views
upon ‘“‘ the necessity existing at the present time for action on
this subject, and upon the Report of the Park Commissioners.”

If my views are of any value to the community on this ques-
tion, or if I could exert any influence, however little, in bringing
about a result so necessary to the comfort, prosperity, and health
of all the citizens of Boston, as the establishment of a public
park within the limits of the city, I should esteem it not less ,
a privilege than a duty to present those views, and exert that
influence. ‘a

LETTER OF DR. EDWARD H. CLARKE. 39

Among the many and weighty considerations that might be
appropriately urged in favor of the establishment of a park in
this city, three stand out so prominently, that their importance
can scarcely be overestimated. These are, first, the sanitary,
second, the educational, and, third, the economic aspects of the
question. Let me call your attention briefly to these three
points.

The first is the sanitary aspect of the park. The discussion
of sewerage and drainage, and of the ventilation of sewers,
drains, tad houses, with which our community have latterly
been made familiar, has impressed upon our citizens, to some
extent, the importance of introducing pure air into our houses,
and of keeping foul air out of them. The importance of such
ventilation cannot be overstated. But we are in danger of
forgetting that the importance of ventilating a city is as great
as that of ventilating all the houses in it, with this difference,
that if a city is not well ventilated, so as to bring fresh air into
it, and to keep foul air and poisonous gases out of it, the ven-
tilation of individual dwellings will be of little avail.

The foul air of the streets will not only envelop those who
pass through them, but will penetrate the houses that line them,
visiting alike the sick and the well, increasing the danger of
disease to the former, and diminishing the health and sirenpel
of the latter. In proportion as a city increases in size, large
open spaces should be reserved. Parks are the lungs of the
city. They are more than this: they are reservoirs of oxygen
and fresh air. They produce atmospheric currents, which sweep
through and purify the streets. Parks not only offer oxygen to
all who visit them, but distribute a large amount of this prime
necessity of life everywhere in their neighborhood. Without open
spaces appropriately placed, it is impossible, in a large city, to
have well ventilated streets, and to keep the air of the houses
sweet and clean. Let us remember, moreover, that bad venti-
lation means poisoned air, and that poisoned air is sure to be
followed by a ghastly train of diseases, with an occasional pes-
tilence to remind the inhabitants what a terrible thing it is to
disregard sanitary laws.

Improved ventilation is by no means the only sanitary good

40 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

that parks yield to a city wise enough to possess them. A frac-
tion, and only a small fraction, of our population, are able to
leave the city during the hot months of the year, for the country.
When these favored ones reach Nahant, Swampscott, or New-
port, or some modest farmhouse, or comfortable dwelling by
the side of the many railroads that lead from the foulness of the
city to the purity of the country, or of the mountains, how
gladly and enthusiastically they speak of their escape from
heat, discomfort, and disease, to coolness, comfort, and health!
But the mass of the community, — the artisans and work-people,
whose necessities compel them to remain within the limits of
the city, — their families, children, sick ones and all, have at
present no such escape from close and impure air.

The carrying of little children who are pinched by cholera-
infantum, or spotted by scarlet-fever, or of those who are para-
lyzed by diphtheria, or distorted by scrofula, or emaciated by
consumption, for a few hours a day into the pure air and bright
- sunlight of an open square, has saved many a life. Many a
needless death has occurred, because the city afforded no such
opportunity for escape. A few hours’ exposure of a child on a
mother’s lap, or in a basket or carriage, to the freshness of a
park, will produce a sleep that never follows opium, chloral, or
ether, and will yield a chance for health that no drug can give.
For the last few years, Philadelphia has shown a diminished
death-rate. Dr. W1it~1AM PEPPER, who has lately investigated
the sanitary condition of that city, commenting upon the grati-
fying fact just stated, says, “* While thus showing an average
rate of mortality more favorable than that found in any other
city containing over 500,000 inhabitants, Philadelphia has
recently (1874) attained a degree of healthfulness almost un-
paralleled ; namely, with a population at that time of 775,000,
the number of deaths was but 14,966, giving a death-rate of only
19.3 per thousand. These very favorable results are largely due
to the abundant and cheap water-supply, and to the opportu-
nities given, even to the poorest citizens, for the enjoyment of
pure country air in the great Fairmount Park, which contains
2,991 acres. The extent to which this is valued by the citizens
\umay be inferred from the fact, that, during the year 1876, the

Bi ag gages

adits

:

a Ste

LETTER OF DR. EDWARD H. CLARKE. AL

park was visited by over eleven million persons.” There is no
reason why a park in Boston should not yield as good a sanitary
result as one in Philadelphia.

While looking at the sanitary aspects of this subject, let us
not forget that a park laid out in accordance with the plan of
the Park Commissioners will utilize localities that would other-
wise become plague-spots, and nurseries of disease. The low
lands along the banks of Charles River, portions of the Back
Bay, and other sections that might be mentioned, are sure to
become unhealthy localities, —stations for distributing the
germs of disease throughout their neighborhood and at a dis-
tance from them, — unless they are reserved, and left unoccupied.
The most extravagant way of disposing of such localities is for
the city to permit them to be built over, “improved” is the phrase,
I believe, and then suffer the consequences, in the way of increase
of disease and taxes, which follow such sort of improvements.

Let us now pass from the sanitary to the educational aspect
of our subject. The educational value of a park to the com-
munity of a large city is second only to its sanitary value. We
are too apt to think that education is the exclusive function of
the school, and that books and school-teachers are the only
educators. This is a grievous mistake. The education of the
home and street, of the workshop and store, of the church and
theatre, of the base-bali club and the evening party, of the rum-
shop and dance-hall, and of the numerous other influences of a
great city, is more potent than that of the school. The evil of
all evil agencies is intensified, and the good of the good ones
diminished, by uncleanness and impure air. Clean hands and
a pure heart go together. Foul air prompts to vice, and oxygen
to virtue, as surely as sunlight paints the flowers, and ripens the
fruits, of our gardens. The tired workman, who, after a day’s
labor, needs the repose and relaxation of home, is apt to be
driven from it by the close atmosphere of the street and house
in which he lives. He would, if he could, get into the fresh
air of the country ; but, as he cannot do this, he seeks the relief
which drink or other excitement yields. If there were a park
accessible to him, he with his family would seek it as instinc-
tively as a plant stretches towards the light. The varied op- ,

es

42 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

portunities of a park would educate him and his family into the
enjoyment of innocent amusements and open-air pleasures.
Deprived of these, he and his are educated into the ways of
disease and vice by the character of their surroundings. Who
that has watched the groups of families, neighbors, and friends,
that bivouac by hundreds and thousands on the parks which
cluster around, adorn, and invigorate the great cities of
Europe, can have failed to notice the innocent amusements and
enjoyment of these crowds of young and old, or to be impressed
with the fact that the influence of the natural scenes around
them, of the trees and plants and flowers, of the pure air and
bright skies, is a humanizing and elevating one? It is difficult
to compute the value of such an influence in dollars and cents,
or to measure it by any scale that the market acknowledges;
but it is, nevertheless, a real, substantial, and potent one. If
our large cities are the pride and boast of the republic, they
also contain the greatest elements of danger to the state and
the nation. Ignorance and vice, disease and crime, crowd them-
selves into cities. There they find their best hiding-places,
their surest protection, and their most defenceless victims. It
makes one tremble to think ‘of the thousands of youth in our
cities whom the school and the church do not reach, and who
are moulded by these influences into the worst and lowest forms
of humanity. They can not and will not go out into the country
themselves, except upon some errand of violence and crime.
The city should therefore bring the country to them, and give
them a chance, at least, to experience its humanizing and blessed
influence.

A park, ‘or a series of parks, with its trees and running
waters, its grass and plants and flowers, its variegated surface
and changing views, and all the beauty with which such scenes
are flooded, supplements the labor of the church and school in
educating, refining, and elevating.the community. There will
be less gambling, drinking, and quarrelling in Boston, when the
mass of its inhabitants shall be allowed to partake of the bless-
ing and beauty of a public park.

These considerations naturally bring us to the third point

which has been mentioned, viz., the economic aspect of the

—

we

LETTER OF DR. EDWARD H. CLARKE. 43

matter. Few will deny the truth of the above statements; but
the admission of their truth is apt to be coupled with the reply,
“The park will cost so much, we cannot afford it.” It is true
that it will cost a good deal, but not so much to each household
as the inevitable cost of the sickness, vice, and death, which the
opportunities that a park provides would prevent. Are human
life and health and virtue so cheap, that we can afford to count
the cost of procuring and maintaining them? Are vice, crime,
and disease so unimportant, that we can afford to let them
thrive, and propagate themselves indefinitely? We cannot
repeat too often, or ponder too seriously, the statement made in
the first report of the Park Commissioners: ‘* Nothing is so
costly as sickness and disease: nothing so cheap as health.
Whatever promotes the former is the worst sort of extrava-
gance: whatever fosters the latter is the truest economy.”
The truth is, it will cost the city of Boston more to get on with-
out a park than to incur the expense of buying and taking care
of one. We pay at present an enormous sum yearly tor the
maintenance of hospitals, prisons, jails, and workhouses. It is
not asserted that the establishment of a park will depopulate
these institutions, or render them unnecessary ; but no sanitarian
will deny that one result, and a most important one, of the
establishment of a park, would be to diminish the number of
those who are compelled to resort to these institutions. A
greater economy than all this would be found to accrue to each
household in the increased comfort, diminished sickness, more
vigorous health, and ample enjoyment, that would be added to
all its members.

Boston has been long and justly celebrated for its health,
beauty, and wealth. If it loses the two first of these dis-
tinctions, how long will it retain the last? Business and popu-
lation will turn away from an unhealthy and unattractive town.
Defective sewerage and imperfect drainage are sapping the
health; and the occupation of the suburbs by houses, manu-
factories, workshops, and stores, is destroying the beauty of
the city. Will the merchants of Boston, whose reputation for
intelligence, sagacity, and enterprise has gone out to the ends
of the world, permit a false economy to blind them to the im- ,
portance of this whole matter ? Fs

Nes

44 PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Of the details of the financial question, I am not qualified to
speak; but I will venture a single remark. It seems only a
piece of common sense to one unfamiliar with the intricate prob-
lems of finance to say, that, if the present time is one of great
depression of values, it is precisely the time when a wealthy
corporation like the city of Boston can purchase the land for a
park at the lowest price, and therefore should do it.

Permit me to add a single word with regard to the plan pro-
posed by the Commissioners. It offers more advantages, and
fewer disadvantages, than any other that has been proposed.
This might be expected, when we reflect that it was prepared in
accordance with the advice of Mr. OLMSTEAD, than whom no
one is better qualified to advise in such matters. It may be
safely asserted, that if Boston should accept this plan, and au-
thorize it to be carried out, the city would possess a park unique
in its character, of unrivalled beauty,‘ and one which all our
citizens, young and old, rich and poor, would greatly enjoy, and
of which, if they once. obtained it, they would never be bribed
to dispossess themselves.

The Rev. Dr. Exuts, in his recent eloquent address at the cen-
tennial anniversary of the evacuation of Boston, used the fol-
lowing language, ‘‘ As I read the history of our fathers in all
their generations, their toil and virtue seem to me to have been
the noblest, in their steady regard for the welfare and happiness
of their posterity. And as I firmly believe that no single indi-
vidual can follow the highest pattern of an earthly life, unless
his hope and faith link on to a future, so I find it proved in all
biographies and annals, that all unselfish, noble, and heroic lives
are those which parents lead for their children and their chil-
dren’s children. We have such lives among us in city, state,
and nation, private and public, high and humble.” May we be
true to the reputation and tradition of our fathers, and provide
as intelligently for the well-being of ourselves and our posterity
as they provided for themselves and for us!

I am, with great respect, very truly yours,
Epw. H. CLARKE.

ARLINGTON STREET, Boston, June 6, 1876.

COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED. 45

The President, in calling for a vote on the resolutions, ae EN
merely wish to say that old Faneuil Hall can stand a great deal
of noise; but still I would recommend, for the benefit of future
audiences, that you should not take off the roof, nor burst the
windows, nor put out the gas. [Laughter. ]

The resolutions were unanimously agreed’to; and the fol-
lowing committee of a hundred, to present the result of the
meeting to the city government, was appointed ; the assembly
dispersing shortly after ten o’clock.

COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED.

Joseph S. Ropes William P. Hunt

Marshall P. Wilder Hamilton A. Hill

Oliver W. Holmes, M.D. Joseph F. Paul

Richard Frothingham Charles W. Wilder

Samuel Cabot, M D. M. F. Dickinson, jun.

J. Baxter Upham, M.D. P. A. Collins

Thomas J. Gargan Albert Bowker

George C. Richardson ' John C, Pratt

John P. Reynolds, M.D. Jerome Jones

John W. Candler H. H. A. Beach, M.D.

George B. Chase 8. J. Langmaid, M.D.

Wiliam E. Coffin Joseph H. Chadwick ;
Frarcis A. Osborn Benjamin Deane

Ralph Crooker J. J. McNutt

Robert Seaver Nath. Adams

J. Mitchell Galvin B. F. Nourse

W. W. Morland, M.D. Martin Griffin

Richard Olney John J. May

Joseph W. Balch M. Doherty

C. Allen Richards Thomas B. Curtis, M.D.

Charles L. Thayer Thomas Gogin

William E. Perkins Royal E. Robbins

James Edwards William W. Clapp :
J. Tisdale Bradlee E. B. Haskell ‘
Jonas Fitch C. F. Donnelly \
James Sturgis T. Quincy Browne *

J. N. Borland, M.D. F. E. Goodrich \
Charles W. Slack Charles W. Morris ‘
Clement H. Hill D. N. Skillings \
William V. Hutchings Hales W. Suter

William T. Hart Henry Smith

46

PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Robert: Johnson

Asa P. Potter
William J. R. Evans
Charles Nowell
Jacob Pfaff

Eben D. Jordan
George Woods Rice
Thomas Mack
Lewis Coleman
Charles F. Choate
Roland Worthington

M. B. Leonard, M.D.

A. H. Lewis
George G. Crocker
Charles L. Haley
Waldo Adams
John F. Payson
Hollis Hunnewell
Martin Hayes

William Atherton
Charles J. Bishop
Aaron D. Williams
Henry C. Morse

S. Parkman Dexter
George P. King
Albert Thompson
Joseph Dix

H. M. Bearce
Wiliam B. Bacon
George O. Carpenter
Henry J. Nazro

J. Kent Crowley
James N. Spillane
W. H. Forbes

J. B. Dacey

James F. Gray
John Bigelow

A. Claxton Cary

ia a

: s a
fale
ad EDINGS

LY

PUBLIC MEETING

On THE: PEOPLE.

HELD AT

ee eA LL:

JUNE 7, 1876.

BOSTON:
FRANKLIN PRESS: RAND, AVERY, & CO.
1876.

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