A respectable looking, middle-aged gentleman called upon me not long
since and told me he was a resident of an interior city of some eight or
ten thousand inhabitants, and at a recent public meeting had been
appointed chairman of a committee on the improvement of a small park,
which it was thought might be made an attractive ornamental feature of
the town.

On further inquiry I learned that the proposed park was simply a public
square with a street on each of its four sides, on which fronted the
principal public buildings, stores, etc. It was a dead level, with no
natural features of any kind to suggest the manner of its arrangement,
but they thought it might be made to add to the beauty of the town, and
he had called to ask my advice in regard to it.

As the arrangement of such areas had occupied my thoughts a good deal in
a general way, it occurred to me that this was a good opportunity to
ventilate some opinions I had formed in regard to prevalent errors in
their management, and accordingly I addressed him substantially as
follows:

"It is very rare that the people of any town show a just appreciation of
the value of such an area for ornamental use. Such a piece of ground as
you describe in the very business center of a town must of course
possess great pecuniary value, and the fact that it has been voluntarily
given up and devoted for all time to purposes of recreation and ornament
would lead us to expect that they would at least exercise the same
shrewdness in securing their money's worth, that they do in their
private transactions. They have given this valuable tract for the object