f the
managers, and second, the prospect of the pecuniary success of the
enterprise. The first is a matter of acquaintance and reputation: the
second can be demonstrated in favor of the society, if honestly and
efficiently managed, with almost mathematical accuracy.

The main entrance to our Gardens will be directly opposite the Lansdowne
drive, at the west end of Girard Avenue Bridge. The Park Commissioners'
Report for 1872 gives the recorded number of pleasure carriages and
sleighs entering the Park at this point and at the Green street gate,
during the year, as 363,138, of equestrians 26,255, and of pedestrians
385,832. These, in the words of the report (p. 60), "allowing three
persons for each vehicle, will make a total of one million five hundred
and one thousand four hundred and ten visitors passing these two
entrances; and supposing the number of persons coming by the other ten
entrances to be not more than those recorded at these two, we shall have
three millions as the approximate number of visitors."

It will hardly be asserted that there is any prospect of this number
diminishing, nor will it be denied that it is most probable it will
steadily increase, and during the year of the Centennial be more than
quadrupled. It is reasonable to believe that few would resist the
pleasure of driving, riding or walking through the Zoological Gardens,
so invitingly at hand. Saturdays should be cheap days, say at half
price, and the money that would be received at the admission-gates upon
that one day alone would dissolve any fears of their six per cent, in
the minds of stockholders.

Relieved of the expense of securing the ground, a sum of three or four
hundred thousand dollars would enable the society to secure a solid
basis, and to open the Gardens upon a scale that would make them the
great feature of Philadelphia. In a very few years it could buy up all
its certificates of stock and own its collections free. The handsome
surplus, before alluded to, accruing annually to the London society
shows that this is not chimerical. The city railways are interested in
this movement, and should subscribe liberally. It is proposed in the
Legislature to charter a railroad running north and south in West
Philadelphia, and if this be done it will render the Garden still more
accessible.

The Commissioners of the Park warmly advocate its establishment, and do
not hesitate to say it will be a most magnificent addition and the most