USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1884 > Part 12
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Of the SHADE-TREES of the City,-What shall be said by the COMMISSION ? if they
" nothing extenuate, " Nor set down aught in malice."
They have been planted, by the hundred, in what seemed to be the fittest places ; and the later and newest, so far as Nature is concerned, invariably did well. The vernal season was unusu- ally favorable, soaking rains falling shortly after the roots were in the ground. Nursery-grown, young, and thrifty, there is no
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valid reason why trees along our Streets should not survive and flourish, if only man will leave them alone, and the elements are not downright unpropitious. But man will not leave them alone. An example of wanton injury, rarely excelled even by the most expert in malicious mischief, may be seen along Sum- mer street near its intersection with Thomas. The jack-knife squad in that instance hacked effectually and more industriously than usual. It is not often that they destroy ten or a dozen trees at once. Of course, the offenders have not been caught. The sufferers-the trees-were born dumb and could make no complaint, nor hold out a reward for detection. Others,-whose duty it might appear, to trace and find the authors of such offences against the public, were born blind ; or have become saturated in the delusion that
" Optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to be seen."
But the worst foe with which the Shade-Trees of the City have to contend, in their arduous struggle for existence, is
" Man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority ; "
who, having obtained a license to move his ten-cent back-house over a public way ; so perverts his liberty as to virtually monopo- lize the way itself, incommode the people, put in abeyance the rights of every abutter along the route ; and,-his particular delight,-mutilate and disfigure each and all the Shade-Trees that his worthless old wreck can be constrained to hit. He cares not for the damage that is done ; he takes no pains to pre- vent its happening ; he never even attempts to remove the unsightly traces of his destructive passage. Would any one see for himself, what this new Pilgrim's Progress was able to accom- plish for Lincoln Street? The Poet has declared that
"this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."
It would seem, therefore, that the lofty Elms and mighty ledges of Lincoln Street were an ample storehouse of doctrine ; scarcely
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needing to be supplemented by the locomotive theology of an old ramshackle chapel. If the House of God ! shall be thus migratory ; flitting betwixt two opposite sects, nor halting long enough to settle their conflicting schisms ; how shall it be truth- fully termed His abiding-place ? The Ark of the Covenant was a long while in motion, it is true. But then what better could be expected from a Wandering Jew? One, too, who was on the militant " make." For when that Ark did finally come to a halt, it stayed where it was put. No " little tin gods on wheels " clattered through the Holy City, or got a license from the Aldermen of Zion to block the way to the Mount of Olives.
Has not the time arrived, at last, when there should be one and the same law for Phelim O'Toole and Antique Drool? Both are citizens of distinction in their several ways; it being but a difference in degree which is the more eminent,-him who rams home the cartridge or him who tends vent ! Each pays taxes, and between them the Law itself recognizes no disparity. Under what rule of equity, or ethics, do the Honorable MAYOR AND ALDERMEN allow Dives to perpetrate a nuisance in our public streets which they are inexorable in forbidding to Lazarus ?
ELM PARK became a resort of ever-increasing popularity throughout the season. The first warm, sunny day attracted its swarm of nurse-maids, with their infant charges ; few of whom failed to find amusement in the graceful movements of the water- fowl, or the simple sheen and sparkle of the rippling waves. The Pools continued unusually full throughout the year ; at this time of writing being needlessly and almost injuriously flooded. The work of surmounting their walls with a flat, if rough, coping ; essential as it is to the comfort of all grown people, who love to sit and watch the water; and absolutely indispensable to the safety of children, who are constantly launching their tiny boats in it ; has been vigorously prosecuted. It is a labor that can be taken up, or intermitted, according as the weather, and the imperative needs of planting or weeding, allow. The repres- sion of weeds, by the way, was no sinecure, A. D., 1884.
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Purslane, in especial, had to be hauled off by the cart-load ; and chick-weed luxuriated in the frequent, vivifying showers. Yet, all the while, there was a steady progression in the construction of that coping, which now lacks comparatively little of comple- tion. It is likely that another, thin, layer of stone may be required upon the two westerly angles of the wall to the Diamond Pool, which has subsided somewhat in the peaty ooze wherein it was imbedded. That will be the better and cheaper method of re-gaining the requisite elevation above the average water level ; as it is wholly unlikely that the subsidence of that wall, hitherto regular and uniform, will ever result in serious trouble. Peat is curious in this,-that whatsoever it once takes to its embrace, it continues to hold in a grip as unrelaxing as that of the Octopus.
The Drainage of ELM PARK is what it could, not what it should, be. The only outlet for surplus water, as things were, had to be found in the sewer through Highland, and Sever, Streets. It is virtually climbing up hill; a task always hard for water and one to which compulsion does not reconcile it. A legacy from the late Gov. Lincoln was expended in constructing that outlet ; so that the City will have the opportunity of sup- plying its first drain for ELM PARK, whenever the Crystal Street sewer shall reach within a practicable distance. The COMMIS- SION have no desire to underrun the Park with a system of drains, like that whose false gospel has deluded so many preach- ers upon the Terracultural circuit. The subsoil, whether of Peat or Sand, is just moist enough now for all floricultural pur- poses. It does not become droughty, nor yet waterlogged. Where the Pæony and Tigridia flourish, side by side, what bet- ter need be asked? If the Iris and Lilium are at home, in another part of the ground, why not leave well enough alone ?
"De te fabula narratur."
He was well ; would be better; took physic, and died !
But,-there is under-drainage, the hobby of tile manufac- turers ; and-drainage. Of the latter, ELM PARK will have ultimate need. For at least eighteen (18) inches of water remain in the Pools, after every drop has been drawn off that
14
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can be, through the sewer in Highland Street. The natural and original outlet, for all the brooks that coursed through what is now ELM PARK, was around the base of Newton Hill. There was a ford in Pleasant Street, before Beaver Brook was reached, through which, the writer has often ridden, in boyhood ; and, stopping in which, the passing farmer was wont to water his team of,-in that day,-oxen. The extension of Elm Street, and the construction of the road through the Park, intercepted those water-courses ; stagnating them, and converting a meadow into a swamp ; precisely as the Dam-Builders have done, below us, along the Blackstone. Now and then, some one, " wise in his own conceit," refers to Lincoln Brook as taking its rise at the S. E. corner of Elm and Russell Streets. A copious spring always existed at that spot; but the Winter was a disappoint- ment to the boys in the English, and Latin, schools, when they could not skate over the frozen surface to the very head-waters, cutting their hocky-sticks from the pollard Willows in the land of Dr. John Green. An affluent poured a strong volume of water through what is now mowing land of Mr. Merrifield. This latter runlet is at present diverted into the Highland Street Sewer, west of Sever Street. And still another stream, lively enough in a rainy season, came down the slope near where Dix Street now is ; finding its way into Lincoln Brook at the point where John, is extended from West, Street.
Sooner or later it will become imperatively necessary to draw off the water, in order to clean out the Pools, or make repairs to their walls. A vast quantity of silt and leaves is finding its way to the bottom, all the time ; as much on Saints-days as when the " heathen rage."
The very Pools were constructed under difficulties. In numerous spots a boat drawing but eighteen (18) inches of water will touch upon the ridge of some coffer dam that was unavoidably left, when the flood burst in and interrupted work. But argument is not needed to prove that there should be com- plete control over the entire contents of these Pools,-fluid, or solid. How to obtain it, was the question for the COMMISSION to solve. They could not excavate towards PARK AVENUE.
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The mound of Azaleas and Rhododendrons, built with hundreds of yards of Peat and Sand ; but to be built over again after each successive subsidence, as the bottom of the adjoining Pool was uplifted ; of itself opposed a sufficient barrier. Nor would any- thing be saved by approaching PARK AVENUE in that direction : since, although the civic authorities might be overpersuaded to continue the main Sewer far enough, it was equally clear that they ought not. By excavating towards Elm Street, an addi- tional Pool would be gained ; of a clean, gravelly bottom, with firm banks and practicable approaches. A gate or flume might be put in there, without peril from leakage, which could not be predicated confidently of any other spot; and which is not now the case with the present outlet into Highland Street. The new Pool would penetrate deeply into the heart of the grove that has been developed to the South-West of the Park; and ought to furnish a charming retreat when planted out, as it will be the coming Spring, with dense copses of flowering and fra- grant shrubs.
Throughout their operations, the raucous voice of the Park- Ass* has been audible, as he brayed into every ear, shorter and less pendulous than his own, that there would soon be no dry land left ! The Architect of the Universe, after covering three- fifths of the surface of the globe with water, looked upon His work and pronounced it good. The COMMISSION,
" Si licet parva componere magnis,"
have submerged but one-sixtht of ELM PARK and doubt that they have perpetrated the unpardonable sin. If worst comes to worst, -they will take an appeal from the Park-Ass to a hap- hazard jury of boys and girls who love to skate or pull an oar. After a life-long acquaintance with that locality, whereby to guide their steps ; the COMMISSION can afford to let anonymous vacuity tumble into the pit that it has digged for itself.
* Asinus Vulgaris : A species wholly distinct from the variety-Consum- matus, that went astray in the " Grass " on the Common, ten years ago, or more.
E. W. L.
tSince the statement in the text, an exact computation by Engineer McClure determines the entire water area to be but 3.41 acres !- E. W. L.
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 89.
The Wind, at times, sweeps with great violence across ELM PARK,-in about equal strength from the North-West or South- West. In resistance,-to prevent snow-drifts ; and, as well, to check the blighting influence of hurricanes that are nearer of kin to the blizzard or sirocco, as they chance to blow from the pole or equator ; rows of evergreen trees were long since planted. Some of them have attained a conspicuous and stately growth, fulfilling their purpose effectively and surely. Indeed, it has been objected that they offer so dense an obstruction that they intercept too much the picturesque outlook over the Park itself. If such fault is real, it bids fair to be corrected after a lawless and ugly fashion. The City is poor enough to possess a sneak-thief, whose appetite for larceny takes the form of a craving for evergreen-trees ; and whom cultivated greed has taught, after the lore of the schools, to " get the best." Muti- lated stumps are all that remain to show, where for years past, his stealthy depredations have extended. The Scotch Pine,- the Blue Spruce,-our own native Weymouth Pine,-have each in turn supplied this devout thief with his Christmas-tree whereon to hang mementoes of the Christ-Child. So much a matter of course has this depredation become, that the Police were specially requested to keep a sharp look-out prior to Christmas, 1884. Doubtless, the night-cap was there : the tree thief certainly put in his appearance, with his horse and cart ! Might it not be possible, with a police-force of eighty men (no women ?) to interfere with this particular form of celebrating the Nativity ? There are other crimes against nature than peddling unlicensed beer, or turning water into wine ! strange as the enunciation of such an heretical gospel may sound in official ears.
The COMMISSION desire to make an appeal, in all kindness, but with equal earnestness, to the boys and young men who are fond and desirous of skating on the Pools of ELM PARK. Cannot they confine themselves to the surface of the Pools which are now extensive enough, and, shortly, will be greatly increased ? The glairy crust upon the shores may be tempting; but, in
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extreme cold weather, the branches and stems of shrubs are brittle as glass and break at as slight contact. It is discouraging to find the frozen ground strewn with broken twigs of the Ghent Azalea, covered all over with plump buds,-the sure promise of beauty and fragrance now, alas, recklessly spoiled. Broken limbs of rare Evergreens,-scarcely to be found outside of the Arnold Arboretum, betray the mischief of some who were better at home-by the fireside of one who is said to find work for idle hands. If skating cannot be enjoyed without careless or wanton injury to the property of the City, it may become a serious ques- tion for the COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS to decide, whether their duty to the trust confided in them does not require them to draw off the water and render skating impracticable ! It is sincerely hoped that this word of simple caution may prove sufficient. The hearty co-operation of all well-meaning lads might make it certain.
The COMMISSION are often favored with written advice,-some of it anonymous and therefore useful only in the water-closet -; some of it pertinent, and part the other kind ; but all suggesting the doing of this, that, and the other, with but slight regard to the fitness of things, and with none at all for the amount of their appropriation. They pay what heed they can, and according to merit as it presents itself to them. For, after all, they must be the final judges whether it is not easier for a person to trans- fer his seat to a more shady place, than for the COMMISSION to keep moving the settees whenever the sun becomes oppressive ! They think it better for a Band of Musicians to arise and stand while playing; not alone because it obviates any occasion for that chronic nuisance, a Band-Stand ! but because it manifests a decent respect for the. People,-their employers-who perforce must keep their feet throughout the whole performance. In all practicable ways would the COMMISSION promote the public enjoyment. They seek to introduce such plants and shrubs as may afford delight from beauty or fragrance ; they have been enabled to furnish instrumental music through the kind co-opera- tion of the Military Committee of the City Council; and they
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have endeavored, with imperfect success, to encourage boating upon the Pools, without subjecting the City to the expense of building up a navy of its own. The grandeur of Boston and the artificial beauties of its Public Garden are often held up to the COMMISSION by lovers of the far-fetched and dear-bought. Here, in the country, are no hundreds of political laborers, tumbling over each other's wheelbarrows and jostling each other in the lazy crowd : nor tens of thousands of dollars wherewith to heat glass by the acre ; or copy, at a melancholy distance, the delusion and frenzy of the Tulipomania. But the eyes of the COMMISSION are open and they do not overlook aught that may be of possible achievement here, even should the credit of its initiation have to be awarded to the City by the Charles. One " Notion," fully set forth in the note at the foot of this page,* has at least the merit of fecundity to recommend it; something to be considered in these days of degeneracy when the Yankee is reproached with not doing his part. Should the experiment in the metropolis prove a trump, the Heart of the Common- wealth will not be slow to follow suit.
* " THE PUBLIC GARDEN AND CIVIC ECONOMY.
REMARKABLE SPEECH BY A MEMBER OF THE BOSTON COMMON COUNCIL.
During one of the meetings of the Boston common council under the Palmer administration the representative of a portion of one of the North end wards arose and was recognized by the president as Mr. O'Day. ' Mr. Prisident,' began Mr. O'Day, ' I have lately been thravelling in Europe, and during my peregrinations I visited the noble city of Vaanice, the queen, sir, av the Adriatic, the scene, Mr. Prisident, of Shakespeare's noble production, " The Marchant of Vaanice," the remarkable city av dungeons and paalices. Sir, I was particularly shtruck wid some of the features of Vaanation life. I niver in me loife beheld anything like the gondolas av Vaanice. They are beautiful. Well, I thought, being a pathriotic Amerikin citizen, that I would give the binefits av me observations abroad to me native city on me rethurn, and I made a study of the gondolas for that purpose. Sir, after much con- sideration, I have come to the conclusion that the gondolas wud be a plisant feature in the Boston Public Gardens. The children wud be delighted wid 'em, and they are not dangerous at all, therefore, sir, I move you that twinty- five gondolas be imported to beautify and adorn our noble plisure resort.' Mr. O'Day sat down, upon which another member of the council arose. He was recognized by the president as Mr. O'Shay. ' Mr. Prisident,' began Mr. O'Shay, 'I have listened wid great attintion to the very instructive and
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The efforts of the COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS, to secure a foot-hold, if no more, by Lake Quinsigamond, were never relaxed. The desire for some such open space prompted their instigation of the City Council to apply for a concession of Regatta Point, -as of a land-mark and area widely known throughout the Commonwealth for its fitness of application to those saner and sanitary uses from which it had been perverted. The very reasonable Petition of the City encountered a storm of opposition. Obsolete or fossil functionaries were drummed together, from all parts of the Commonwealth, to testify by how much per cent. the chances of ministering to a mind diseased would be reduced ! were a road through the land of the State a mile distant, instead of a stone's throw,-as was always the case with Plantation Street. One learned Medi-cus, mindful of the story how potent the other Doctor was " on fits !" wrote out an elaborate thesis on the Gravel ! whereto he opined there was a strong tendency in Worcester. The gravel was evidently his specialty ; and perhaps such an unstable basis is adequate for a crazy trust.
However, the House Committee were not thoroughly " pos- sessed," nor was their " reason taken captive." The prayer of the Petition became Law,-substantially as asked. Circum- stances that have since occurred render the necessity for that territory less imperative (although it can never cease to be desirable) ; and which, as the grip upon the land is tenacious, will make it safe for the City to await a later and more propi- tious time, in the assurance that it will always have to deal with the Commonwealth.
It cannot be necessary, in this connection, to recite the corres-
illigant remarks of me friend from the North end ward, and have been very much imprissed wid them. But, sir, while I am in favor of the gondolas, I cannot forgit that we are sint to this honorable chamber to look afther the interests av the citizens av this modern Athens, and to administer public affairs equinomically. I was sint here on an equinomical platform, and I have always been an advocate av retrinchment. Therefore, sir, to be con- sistent wid me past reputation, I move an amindmint to me friend's motion, namely, as follows, videlicet : That insthead av 25 gondolas we import for the public garden only two gondolas, a male and a female, and let nature take its course.' "
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pondence and business interviews that preceded, and culminated in, that most liberal and unsolicited gift to the City, by Mr. Horace H. Bigelow, of a tract of land along and running far back from the Westerly shore of Lake Quinsigamond. The opinion of the writer, formed after an actual and close inspection of the tract in question, was declared at the time in the public press : and nothing remains to be added or qualified. The formal action of the City Government is upon record,-to stand as an inefface- able memorial of an act of munificence than which none could have responded more closely to an existing popular demand.
In the Inaugural Address of His Honor Isaac Davis, A. D., 1861, may be found the subjoined passage,-alike comprehen- sive and pertinent to this whole subject-matter :
" Lake Quinsigamond is becoming a place of great resort for the inhabit- ants of our city for boating and bathing in summer and skating in winter. Individuals who resort to this beautiful lake for recreation and amusement are far more numerous than all who visit the new Common, which was pur- chased and improved at an expense of about $13,500 .* Nowhere upon the shores of the lake is there any land belonging to the City, where the people can resort without being trespassers. I propose, as soon as I can procure the necessary surveys, to present to the city a tract of land bordering upon the lake, and also upon the railroad, for the purpose of a public Park, where our public schools and Sunday-schools may hold their picnics, where indi- viduals or clubs can have their boat-houses, where skating parties can assem- ble, and where all the citizens can visit the lake and see and enjoy its beau- tiful scenery without being trespassers. Whenever this gift is made, I hope you will not have the least delicacy about rejecting it, if you are not fully satisfied that it will be beneficial to the city. One mode of adding to the wealth and prosperity of the city is to make it beautiful and attractive, so that men of science, wealth, genius and learning may select it as a place of residence."
It needs not, did time and space allow, to explain why that generous proposition was never consummated. It is more than probable that the expenses of the War of Secession, then just beginning to be felt, operated as a check to every enterprise which lacked a martial aim and bearing. The maintenance of a Park by the Lake might well appall a frugal community whose
*Including the cost of a massive Fence which has now, A. D. 1885, disap- peared from natural causes ; and of the Street, whose location preceded and to some extent, determined that of PARK AVENUE. E. W. L.
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wants had been few, who had not then acquired an appetite for sewers, and who appeared to grudge themselves any pleasurable indulgence in this life. Hereafter,-in another world,-shall they regain their paradise ! " a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." For the present, let the tax-gatherer suffice, super-added to whom shall be a Col- lector of Internal Revenue ! whose mercy endureth forever. Clearly,-it was then no time for Parks ; but rather for impre- cations on our enemies and -? passing the contribution-box.
But there came a good time for Parks when it occurred to Hon. Edward L. Davis, A. D. 1884, that the stone which the builders rejected became thereafter the head of the corner. It did not follow that men now would look a gift-horse in the mouth because their fathers were perhaps needlessly inquisitive. Taking counsel only from his own liberal impulses he presented himself still upright beneath the heavy burden of his generosity to his native city. Shall it be said again ?
" Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."
Perish the false idea ! and may their disinterested tribe multiply, as do the mill-owners diminish the waters of the Lake ! Faster, -they cannot.
The gift of Mr. Davis supplies what, without it, would have been grievously missed ;- a fitting proportion and symmetry to the new LAKE PARK. The separate tracts of land comprised in the estate of his kinsfolk, and included in his supplemental Deed of Gift, would have been found absolutely indispensable to the enjoyment or improvement of the territory. The South-West- erly portion of the Park, where it is rounded off by the tracks of the Boston & Albany Railway, is richly furnished with a strong growth of clean, healthy trees, and curiously adorned by immense bowlders compared to which that upon ELM PARK is but a child's marble. The whole extensive area is rough and, to the inexperienced eye must present very discouraging, if not even repulsive, features. But natural beauty is there, if latent ; and the promise is that those who seek shall find. But still much is plainly obvious ;- a palpable loveliness of landscape
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