USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1883 > Part 9
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go." In Elm Park, they are an unmitigated nuisance. They scurry through the flower beds ; they plunge into the shallow Pools, roiling the water, chasing the Water-Fowl, [almost kill- ing the oldest heron last Summer], and when they emerge, they spoil all the holiday clothes in the neighborhood as they shake the drops from their flea-bitten, mangy coats. The seasons impose no check upon those exuberant, gushing natures ; the canine range being as accurate and far-reaching in mid-winter as when Sirius rageth. If those sharp-shooters once " get on " a target,- be it Rose, Azalea, or Rhododendron,-it matters not how rare or priceless ! their continual, if intermittent, fire by file is surely lethal. The patience of the COMMISSION, like a stone, is worn out by constant dripping. The mitraille will be indispensable if floriage and fragrance are to be perpetuated in Elm Park. Their apologists say, " Good doggie ! he never had a friend like you !" But what man or woman of them all is willing to control them properly or to tend their illicit vent when at loose in the Public Grounds ? The string by which each fond mistress affects to guide the reckless steps of her adored tip-tilted skye becomes far more effectual to destroy some precious plant that the little beast would tangle in a worse snarl than it utters. And, at best, it only fetters errant feet : peccant humors are not of such easy restraint. As Shakespeare might have said-
The evil that dogs do smells after them. The scent is ne'er interred with their bones.
A. D. 1854, in a Valedictory Address to the Board of Alder- men, the late JOHN S. C. KNOWLTON thus referred to the acquisi- tion, by the City, of what is now known as ELM PARK, which had been accomplished during his mayoralty :
" During the year, and under your direction, a large tract of land has been purchased for an additional Public Common. In purchasing this, you have consulted the health, the comfort, and the convenience of a large body of our citizens. In busy communities, it is natural for people to congregate upon territories of small extent. It is wise, therefore, to induce them to expand their settlements over a greater extent of land. It not only conduces to the public health and comfort, but it enhances the value of property in their localities and thus promotes the general welfare."
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At that time, the population of the City was 21,237; and its valuation $17,077,800. A generation has passed away, and now A. D. 1884, Worcester is reasonably credited with 70,000 inhab- itants ; the valuation, in round numbers, being $48,570,000. It will be noticed that souls have increased in greater proportion than dollars : although could corporations sole be constrained to disclose their secrets, as freely and fully as corporations aggregate, the assessors might perhaps acquire that " transparent eyeball" of the transcendentalist, whereby reversion getteth to itself great gains, and introversion findeth fresh fields and pastures new. Yet that official proposition of Mayor Knowlton, one of the most discreet, yet when occasion needed, audacious servants whereof this City has been privileged to boast ; that the diffusion of settlement should be a prime object with a wise municipality, is sustained to a remarkable degree by that latest civic return. If it was desirable, in the interest of the whole body politic, to disperse or scatter wide a population of twenty-one thousand ; how much more vociferous and imperative should be the clamor and necessity for diffusion and space when seventy thousand must find suitable and adequate provision ! The ancient charm of Worcester, as of so many other New England villages, was to be discerned in the happy combination of pleasant homesteads, ample roadways, and over-arching Elms or massive Maples. The City succeeds, or rather supplants, the village ; but of what na- ture is the substitute ? Its individual citizen encroaches upon an immemorial Main street; stealing from the community, that meanest of all thefts whereof the civilized man, can be guilty ; he foregoes to temptation or surrenders to necessity that front- yard wherein the early settler planted and enjoyed his lilac- bush or syringa ; he builds to the skies, climbing by flats and flattening as he ascends, neither reserving as owner, nor having assignment of space as tenant, to hang out a weekly wash ; he enlargeth his school-house by robbing his children of their play- ground, not scrupling to instruct the young in edifices whose architecture ! the godless heathen would reject for their graven images ; he procureth a teacher who catechiseth his twelve-year old girl upon the music of Athens in the age of Pericles ! he ad-
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vocateth protection to home industry-meaning thereby his own home ; and at last having fructified an uneasy but money-getting existence, he passes a sleek hand over a smooth paunch, saying to himself :
" What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits ?
" And he said, This will I do : I will pull down my barns and build greater ; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
"And I will say to my soul, soul ! thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry !
" But God said unto him, Thou fool! this night thy soul shall he required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided ?"
" Facilis descensus Averni ! " but this COMMISSION prefer the other road, if the gate is strait and the way narrow. In the current election between God and mammon their choice has never wavered. Of that ultimate, already now imminent, neces- sity, a necessity alike for municipal development as for popular enjoyment ; this COMMISSION were never forgetful. In their very first Report, as now constituted, A. D. 1870, they write, as fol- lows :
" The farm takes precedence of the shop; and yet, while no sum can be too great to lavish upon the intricate network of alleys, courts and streets which separate the centre and heart of the Municipality into infinitesimal subdivisions, every dollar is grudged that is required to promote the convenience of those with- out whose toil man could not live. The farm and its produce are indispensable ; the middleman and his store are not absolute necessities. Whatever, then, has a tendency to open up the sur- rounding country ; to develop its natural charms; and to encourage settlement and cultivation where now the bramble and the woodchuck hold undisputed possession ; substituting smooth lawns, neat gardens, and improved stock; inducing the street loafer to become the independent yeoman, and attracting, by the simple aspect of rural loveliness the permanent sojourn of the chance wayfarer ; surely here, and in all this, is an object worth striving for, worth far more, in fact, than even current ex- travagance could possibly make it cost in realization."
Again, in their Report, A. D. 1873, the veriest clod-head reap- ing where he had not sown, in a field theretofore suffered to lie fallow and in which thistles and sheaves were in inverse ratio to
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their actual worth; the wisdom of inducing settlement whither there had been only cow-pastures ; of planting men and women in place of the chipmunk and cony ; of clothing the hill-sides with human dwellings instead of abandoning them to the birch, kalmia, or even huckleberry ; was presented in a light that could have been inspired only by the most earnest conviction, and to which the COMMISSION can hope to add nothing by mere repeti- tion.
Shade will be requisite and rest : the trees not less than the seats beneath them, will require room. But, although, in detail, every cavil might be answered, it is only necessary in a case so explicit, to repeat that the plan of this COMMISSION, be that of others what it may, contemplates an AVENUE which shall open up, for culture and domicile, a large and ever-increasing territory. Which shall make land accessible to the artisan or day laborer, so that by reasonable thrift he may acquire a homestead at a tolerable price. And yet which shall rank among the finest of our thoroughfares, to be sought out, occupied, and improved by the tasteful from abroad, who have eyes to see and the means to gratify their inclination. Is it not but too painfully clear that our population is closely crowded ? Huddled together in a nar- row valley, between two abrupt ridges ? Will it be denied that all concerned, the community and the individual, parents and children, the public health and private comfort, would be vastly benefited by an immediate and wider dispersion ? And, if such gregariousness is of evil tendency, does not that municipality act wisely taking measures, at one and the same time, to augment the sum of individual happiness and promote the general welfare ?
Yet as the COMMISSION behold the rapid expansion of the City; as they see the occupation on every side of tracts of land, heretofore depastured or left to lie waste; as they note the natural, scarce-repressed impatience of a tired, thronging multi- tude, alike too numerous and too poor to worship God in cushioned seats, albeit the roof and the floor pay nothing to Cæsar ; but who would yet reluct at an arrest for trespass on the First day of the week, because they followed the example of their Saviour by betaking themselves to the open fields-not their own-possibly ; they feel as though their duty would be but partially discharged were they not, in and out of season, to
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impress upon their fellow-citizens,-well blessed with superfluous substance, and upon the City Council, that alone can take the initiative, the impolicy, almost danger, of postponing every thought for the acquisition of Public Grounds for the Worcester of the future. That Worcester will be powerless to procure them ; they will have been taken up, long since, for the various purposes of our diversified industries. But it is not an altogether pleasant reflection that our children and grandchildren, as they exhume the talent and napkin from the ground wherein we buried it, shall curse our memory as of a selfish, improvident generation ; a people that looked only to its own immediate, pressing needs or gratification : which put nothing at interest in that grandest of Savings Institutions whereby provision is made for the wants, comforts, luxuries-if such you please to esteem pure air, and green fields, and bright flowers ;- for calm repose, upon one day in seven, after the dust and grime of a toilsome week ;- a repose among those scenes all the better that they have not been marred by the sciolist of landscape gardening, who rushes in to pervert or spoil that earth whereon its Creator looked, when He had made it, and " saw that it was good."
Treating of " Open Spaces In Towns," and in that connection describing a meeting in the Town Hall of Manchester, England, at which the munificent sum of £35,000 was subscribed on the spot for the procurement of additional public grounds ; The Gardeners' Chronicle (London) says aptly :
" It was distinctly understood that, in providing these parks, they were to be no mere walks or places for fashionable promenade, but healthful and enjoyable spaces for legitimate and· intelligent recreation, open alike to rich and poor, to young and old, free all the year round, the sole condition of entrance being good behavior. To a town, with a population consisting in proportion so immense of the laboring classes, factory hands, men employed all day in foundries, dyeworks, and scores of other scenes of mechanical industry, more than the half of it implying an atmosphere charged with steam, smoke, or chemical vapors, and the most monotonous and unpoetical of scenery, engines, looms, and so forth, and in which at the most moderate computation, 10,000 of the inhabitants live in cellars, the proffered boon was at once seen to be of value and importance absolutely inexpressible. That beyond the suburbs there were green fields and country lanes was altogether beside the argument."
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Which all, with more to the same effect, would apply, mutatis mutandis, to this our Worcester.
The COMMISSION have ever kept steadily in view a consistent and practicable plan of public improvement. They would enlarge ELM PARK in a way that would at once add greatly to its area and contribute a feature to its landscape which might be almost unique among Public Grounds. Newton Hill,-now enjoyed by trespass,-should be thrown open to a community that is continually climbing its easy acclivities. When,-as must very shortly be the case,-Tatnuck Brook shall be utilized for all that it can be made to be worth, a Distributing Reservoir will be located upon the summit of that eminence ;- equivalent as it is in height and equi-distant as it were from both Hunt's Reser- voir and Bell Pond. The two birds would thus be killed by one stone :- the people getting the pleasure-ground, and the Fire Department that cheapest and best of Engines-the incessant, irresistable flow and force of gravitation. The Hill would need no development, save a clump of trees, here and there, to interrupt a monotony of symmetrical formation ; occasionally, for ornament. At a fair price there could be no acquisition that would, in connection with the Public Garden at its base, so thoroughly and wisely complete and supplement the work hitherto outlined or achieved by this COMMISSION. An unfair or exorbitant price ought not to be paid even for the Garden of Eden. But it is scarcely supposable that men whose fortunes have been made, and are rapidly augmenting, because of the attractiveness and proximity of the PARK, should desire to grasp all,-conceding nothing. An expansion of the periphery of ELM PARK, causing it to abut upon a hundred acres, where it now comes in bare contact with one or a dozen, in itself brings back upon a returning tide that bread which far-sighted and prudent proprietors should voluntarily cast upon civic waters. The
Assessors will doubtless ascertain when propinquity has lent value, hitherto : but there are men and women in this City who ought not to require a civic battery to startle their pocket nerve ; and who, of all else, should be swiftest to perceive that their own good fortune, with the prosperity that has fallen into their lap,
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cannot be dis-associated from the policy of the City, originated by this COMMISSION, that has so far fostered and developed their unearned increment.
The City of Worcester has formally assumed guardianship of the immemorial right of its inhabitants to the free and unrestricted use of a stone quarry ;- because it is a common privilege and for the general benefit. The City of Worcester bounds-Eastwardly-hard upon four miles,-by or within one of the Great Ponds of the State-widely and favorably renowned as Lake Quinsigamond .* The earliest settler, searching along its charming shores and slopes for a suitable site whereon to found
" A Church without a bishop, A State without a king,"
fell unwittingly upon an imposition of hands that well nigh raised his hair after a most uncanonical fashion. The recent emigrant from military duress in Alsace-Lorraine, or from Victoria's maternal caress in Ireland, haunts its shady nooks and finds welcome repose beside its pellucid waters. The newest arrival from Mammonia, canny and thrifty as becomes his nativity, dares that from which even William Hovey shrank ; exca- vating the source of the Nipnapp-natural outlet of the Lake,- and reducing the volume of the entire sheet of water so that not even the frail shells of our local Boat Club can enjoy their law- fully acquired, if wrongful, easement or fee. The encroachment goes unrebuked, unchecked-is not even challenged ! Shrews- bury, nor Worcester, have no interest in that lovely sheet of water. They are Issachar ! and may pack their burdens,-the proper occupation for municipalities. They may dig sewers, if they do not drain ; create veneers of health ; condemn streets and assess betterments-the manna and quails of our modern pilgrimage. They are graciously allowed to locate Tele-graph ! phone ! any other ? poles, at the dictation of the owners of a mercenary franchise, and to the detriment of the people who get no remuneration for the loss of their individual or corporate property. But the shore of the Lake must be terra incognita ! its waters mare clausum !
* See Appendices " A " and "B."
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The Lunatics of the State debar us from the Lake shore whereto we were cordially welcomed by plain Farmer Bowen; and a firm of mill-owners-aliens in fact if not at heart-plant them- selves at the outlet of the Lake, determining what size of stream they can squeeze out for the Nipnapp; what volume of water shall be suffered to remain in a Lake that might merit mention with Katrine in any point of view,-were it only in the " wee sma' hours."
Were that WATER PARK established, recommended by this COMMISSION for more years than they care to recall, and through- out the whole time strenuously advocated; in the legal creation of which the co-operation of the intelligent and progressive Town of Shrewsbury might safely be assumed, as for every measure enuring to public advantage; there could be no difficulty in retaining a standard level for the Lake. But I Do Not blacks the shoes of I Care Not! and even if of angels the feet once divested of their coverings nowadays trouble no pool where- from healing can be derived.
Lake Avenue was decreed from the start, for and throughout its whole length. The consent of the Commonwealth, through its constituted authorities, had been previously accorded, and by every form of Law, under the decisions of the Supreme Court, the entire location, so much of which was originally constructed, is defined and determined as a Public Highway. But between that Avenue, protracted north from Belmont street according to the Decree, and the shore of the Lake, is a tract of land of unde- defined area, but of obvious advantage and convenience, for which the Commonwealth need have no uses to the exclusion of Wor- cester, and for which, if it would part with its ownership, it ought to accept a fair and moderate price. At present, Massachusetts owns here in Worcester a principality when, like her maniacs, she were better possessed of a devil so that only it could be cast ont ! Were it a private citizen, taxed for and obliged to improve or cultivate such an extensive territory, his despairing cry might well be, as he marshalled the procession, Assessors to the front ! Next,-Overseers of the Poor ! Worcester does somewhat in the way of out-door relief, even now ; but whatsoever load she can
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take from shoulders that are already bent beneath the weight of Hoosac Mountain shall be accounted to her credit in that school of the prophets which ever relucted at burdens grievous to be horne.
Thoroughly persuaded as was this Commission from the first, that the best interests of Worcester demand the acquirement, by the City, for the purposes of a Common or Park, of so much of the land lying between Lake Avenue and the Westerly shore of Quinsigamond Lake as the State will release; they have taken the pains to procure from the Registry of Deeds a statement in detail of territory and dollars, so far as they appear upon rec- ord, whereby title passed to and is now vested in the Common- wealth. Register Wilder will accept the thanks of the COMMIS- SION for the trouble to which he put himself,-a habit alike indi- vidual and hereditary.
[COPY.]
" COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. County of Worcester.
Registry of Deeds,
HARVEY B. WILDER, Register. Worcester, Jan. 9, 1884.
EDWARD W. LINCOLN, Esq.,
DEAR SIR :-
I find a deed from John Bartlett to Trustees-Worcester Lunatic Hos- pital, of about ¿ acre of land, dated Oct. 14, 1870; consideration named $700.
Also a deed from Chas. Bowen to Trustees-Worcester Lunatic Hospital, of about 136 acres, dated Sept. 17, 1870, consideration named $40,000.
Also a deed from Robert Taft, of Uxbridge, to Trustees-Worcester Lunatic Hospital, amount of land not given*, dated Aug. 30, 1870; consideration named $36,250.
Also a deed from Henry Prentice to Trustees-Worcester Lunatic Hospital, of about 324 acres, dated Sept. 14, 1870; consideration named $20,500.
Also another deed from Henry Prentice to Trustees-Worcester Lunatic Hospital, of about 12 acres, 13 rods, dated Sept. 14, 1870; consideration named $2,500.
Also a deed from Lucy A. Watson, Executrix of Will of Sam1 B. Watson, to Trustees-Worcester Lunatic Hospital, of about 18 acres, 115 rods, dated Aug. 26, 1870; consideration named $11,000.
Also a deed from John Bartlett and Silas Phillips and wife to Trustees- Worcester Lunatic Hospital, amount of land not named, dated April 24, 1871; consideration named $2,500.
Yours truly,
HARVEY B. WILDER."
* The books of the Assessors disclose that the amount of land in question was estimated at Sixty-Two (62) acres : being valued for taxation at Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.) E. W. L.
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The Commonwealth, it would thus appear, became and doubt- less remains owner of something like 260 acres of land for which it paid the sum of $113,450. The cost per acre varied widely ; but the tract upon which this Commission keep a covet- ous eye was purchased most cheaply of all.
Now why cannot this City at least get from the General Court, now in session, the terms upon which the Commonwealth will convey the tract in question, between Lake Avenue,-Northerly, -and the Lake itself, for the purposes of a Common or Park ? The effort would cost nothing, being a courteous and simple in- quiry which might prove futile. But it is not probable that the State would decline to accede to our request to let us have, upon reasonable terms, a territory whereof our people formerly had the enjoyment, and of which they are now in actual need for holiday recreation and constant daily resort. As heretofore sug- gested in these Reports, ownership and police-supervision vested in this City need not impair a single existing right; nor divest even the lunatic wards of the Commonwealth of a solitary liberty or privilege wherewith, so far as affects that land, they are now intrusted. It would merely enable Worcester to have a suitable Common or Public Ground.
The Alderman from Ward Two is the sole survivor, in official life, of that City Government which, thirty years ago, acquired ELM PARK. Not one of his associates of that day remains in the municipal service, by far the greater portion being employed upon Public Works in the Celestial City. What more fitting close to a long and useful career, in behalf of his fellow-citizens, could he desire, than to initiate the steps that will have to be taken preliminary to the acquisition from the Commonwealth of that land by the Lake Shore ? A careful guard over the public ex- penditure can never come amiss. But there are rare periods when a judicious exercise of the public credit shall earn a just meed of gratitude from the community that is, if lightly bur- dened, permanently blessed thereby. And, if there be, in fact,
" a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,"
he who, in civic counsels, shall evince the quickest perception of
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the opportunity, following up such appreciation by prompt action, will realize most thoroughly the ideal of a consummate public servant :- one who recognizes and fears not to fulfil an absolute, imperative duty.
All which is respectfully submitted,
(by)
EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN,
Chairman.
Worcester, Massachusetts, January 28th, A. D., 1884.
APPENDIX A.
As everything which concerns Lake Quinsigamond must be of great, and continue of increasing, interest to the population of this City, the subjoined description of that body of water, as it appeared to the careful observer, Fifty years since, is reproduced, from WILLIAM LINCOLN's History of Worcester :-
" Along the eastern boundary of Worcester, and partly within its territory, lies Quinsigamond Pond, sometimes called Long Pond, a beautiful sheet of water, which, in any other country, would be dignified with the name of lake. It extends from North to South, in crescent form, about four miles in length, presenting by reason of disproportionate breadth, the appearance of a noble river, with bold banks covered with wood, or swelling into green hills. There are twelve islands, varying in extent from a few square rods of surface to many acres. Some of them, of singular beauty, are still clothed with their original forests. At the South end, the waters, with those of Half-Moon, Round, and Flint's Ponds, which are connected with Quinsigamond, flow out in a South-Easterly direc- tion into the town of Grafton, forming the stream anciently called ' Nipnapp River,' now the little Blackstone, a principal tributary to the main stream. When the Blackstone Canal was constructed, the Ponds were raised by a dam, and made a reservoir for that work .*
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