. The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six . 3, Rev. John OBrien, GeorgeHowland Cox, and Henry D. Yerxa were appointed park com-missioners, and since that time they have labored diligently tomake Cambridge what all wish the city to be. Of course, thecommission has been obliged to struggle with the difficulties ofa city well on the road to a permanent form, not with the easierproblem of laying out grounds with freedom of choice, as hadbeen, of late, possible in some of our Western towns, organizedby men from older cities, — men wise enough to see what thefuture bore in her hands. Yet, n
. The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six . 3, Rev. John OBrien, GeorgeHowland Cox, and Henry D. Yerxa were appointed park com-missioners, and since that time they have labored diligently tomake Cambridge what all wish the city to be. Of course, thecommission has been obliged to struggle with the difficulties ofa city well on the road to a permanent form, not with the easierproblem of laying out grounds with freedom of choice, as hadbeen, of late, possible in some of our Western towns, organizedby men from older cities, — men wise enough to see what thefuture bore in her hands. Yet, notwithstanding the difficulty,all have been ready to employ their wisest thought in buildingthe earthworks of Cambridge. They have realized the perma-nency of the result of such endeavors ; that parks will not wearout, that though bridges, public buildings, water-works, sewers,and pavements must be replaced, earth work, as PresidentEliot has well said, is the most permanent of all the works ofmen. They have known what breathing-space means to the. A SPECIMEN. 121 people, to hard-working men, to weary mothers, to little chil-dren. They have not forgotten what Rev. D. N. Beach, whoseloss as a citizen of Cambridge we so deeply regret, would callthe transcendental aspects of the park system. Neither havethey lost sight of the fact that parks are a good municipalinvestment for Cambridge. They have remembered that Balti-more, that Buffalo, that Boston, have all been able to show thattheir great parks, through the increased valuation of the sur-rounding territory, have already begun to pay for the sum to be expended by Cambridge during the nextfifteen years will probably be about 12,000,000, they feel surethat, in time, through financial returns alone, the city will bethe gainer from this improvement. From the report of 1892 it was easy to see where work wasmost urgently needed. That our present public grounds,planned in days when few in this country realized as ma
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