ge part of the time. [Laughter.]

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
convenient 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 over the top of Mount Monadnock
in New Hampshire.

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 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