r the few brief months of
summer, in the northern capitals of Stockholm and St. Petersburg? And
echo answers, "Where?" [Laughter and applause.]

"Gone like a vision!"

My friends, I need not tell you that this matter has excited the
interest of our philanthropic and public-spirited citizens, and
especially of the medical faculty, to whom it is, in its sanitary
aspect, a matter of most important practical interest. And, through
their representations to the city government and to the state
legislature, a bill was brought before the legislature, which I had the
honor myself to report in the House of Representatives a little more
than a year ago, and which was passed by large majorities in both
houses, authorizing the city of Boston to purchase and to take lands
within its own limits for laying out public parks, and to co-operate
with adjacent towns in laying out conterminous parks for the common
benefit and advantage of citizens on both sides of the line.

This measure was opposed (as all such measures are opposed) on the
ground that "it would lead to jobbery and extravagance." And the answer
was ready at hand, that all public enterprises are liable "to lead to
jobbery and extravagance," but that the abuse of a good thing is no
argument against its valid use [applause]; that it is for the citizens
themselves, and for the government of the city of Boston, to see that
their trust is rightly and honestly carried out.

Again: it was argued that the people of Boston possess already, in their
beautiful suburbs, all that is required in pure air and beautiful
scenery. And this, again, is most true as regards those who live in
those suburbs, and those whose wealth enables them to pass to and fro in
their carriages, and regale their senses with the luxury of what they
there find. But what application has this, my friends, to the
working-man, to the masses of our population, whose sole idea of the
suburbs consists of an hour's rattling drive in a crowded street-car,
and an hour's seat by the side of a dusty thoroughfare?

Again: it was argued that the city of Boston could not afford this
expensive luxury of parks. And to this again it was easy to reply, that
so long as the city of Boston could afford prisons and jails, and any
number of millions spent for liquor and for hurtful indulgences, and for
the repression of vice and crime, it could afford to spend money for
this peaceful and healthful and eleva