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 to a band. He came from the fatherland; 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 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 cried, "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 I took the
Report of those able Commissioners, this pamphlet that is spoken of; and
I read it myself carefully 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 community; 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 carried out with greater
ease than it has been in other cities; and we know in other cities they
have reaped great pecuniary benefit 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 sanitary 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 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. [Applause.]
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 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, immediately 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 tenement-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
was a mother's voice above the noise; and she cried, "Save my child!
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's arms.
[Tremendous applause.] So you see the power of a word of encouragement
and cheer when any one has arduous 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 introducing to the
audience Col. CHARLES W. WILDER. [Applause.]