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WE illustrate two styles for Home toilet, the elegance and simplicity of which will commend them to

favor. The fullness of detail in the illustrations precludes the necessity of verbal description.

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. CXXXV.-AUGUST, 1861.-VOL. XXIII

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

VOL. XXIII.-No. 135.-T

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to the Board of Aldermen, urging the utility and necessity of more liberal provision for the rural recreation and pleasure of the great and ever growing population; and that, too, before the opportunity should be lost, in the threatened absorption of the whole island and suburbs by pentup lanes and streets.

The aldermen returned a prompt and hearty concurrence with the views and wishes of the Mayor, and the people every where said "Amen!"

So much in earnest were all concerned that before three months had followed the initiation of the project the State charter required for its execution was duly provided. This act was dated July 11, 1851, and was called the "Jones's Woods Park Bill," the original thought having been the occupation of the grounds thus named.

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At this period Jones's Woods was not circumscribed within its present narrow bounds, but extended over the whole wide area lying between the Third Avenue and the East River, and between Sixty-sixth and Seventy-fifth streets, and with the addition of certain adjoining property, which it was proposed to annex, presented a surface of one hundred and sixty acres. locality possessed many attractions, chief among which was the dense covering of forest trees, which rendered the adaptation of the place to park uses simple, speedy, and comparatively inexpensive. The minor objections were its aside position and its want of topographical variety, but the grand and insuperable obstacle was its limited extent. The people demanded ampler scope and more varied beauties for their muchdesired park, as they reflected more seriously upon its high destiny-just as years before they rose from the humble idea of supplying the city with water from the little currents of the adjoining Bronx to the grander conception of leading in the floods of the far-off Croton, through the present magnificent aqueduct. "One hundred and sixty acres of park," said they, "for a city that will soon contain millions of inhabitants! It is only a child's play-ground! Five hundred acres it should be, or, better yet, a thousand!" And so from five hundred to a thousand acres they easily secured, the authorities, both city and State, graciously assenting as before.

The act authorizing the purchase of the present site passed the Legislature on the 23d of July, 1853, and at the same time another bill for the occupation of Jones's Woods, the first having, on account of material errors, been objected to in the Supreme Court. Thus it seemed for a while that the city would have two parks instead of one; but the lesser scheme was subsequently abandoned and its charter was repealed.

On the 17th of November, 1853, five Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment were appointed by the Court to take the land under the new Central Park charter. This commission completed its labors on the 2d of July, 1855, and its report was confirmed on the 5th of February, 1856. On the 19th of May the Common Council adopted-in the absence of the necessary legislation-an ordinance creating the Mayor,

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of prominent citizens, among whom were the late Washington Irving, the Hon. George Bancroft, James E. Cooley, Charles F. Briggs, James Phalen, C. A. Dana, and Stewart Brown, Esquires. These accomplished gentlemen attended the meetings of the Commissioners in the capacity of a consulting Board. They met on the 29th of May, 1856, organized by electing Mr. Irving as their President, and then arranged the preliminaries for carrying forward the work intrusted to their care. At subsequent meetings they considered the various views and the many plans which were laid before them, and in due time they unanimously agreed upon the general features of the design for the construction of the new Park, which has been since, with modifications, so admirably and satisfactorily followed.

With the way thus opened, an efficient corps of engineers began the necessary surveys of the grounds, under the direction of Egbert L. Viele, Esq., at that time the chief executive officer. The entire area was divided laterally into four sections, each of which was assigned to a separate squad, consisting of a surveyor-in-chief, a first and second assistant, and an axe-man. These gentlemen began their labors early in June, 1856, and sent in their reports, at the opening of the following year, after six months' earnest and arduous field-work. The history of their adventures among the rocks, and jungles, and bogs of the then rude and desolate tract would be pleasant and surprising reading now in the dainty arbors, on the flowered walks, or by the marge of the pretty lakes, into which the jungles and bogs have since been so wondrously transformed.

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After the six years of suggestion, discussion, legislation, and other preparation which we have now cursorily reviewed, every thing was prepared for an earnest commencement of the proposed enterprise; and it was accordingly begun in the spring of 1857, and has been ever since unremittingly prosecuted with the magical results indicated in our present pictures and story.

Our Park occupies the generous area of eight hundred and forty-three acres. In form, it is an elongated parallelogram, lying longitudinally in the centre of the city or island, two miles and a half long from Fifty-ninth Street on the south to One Hundred and Tenth Street on the north, and half a mile broad from the Fifth Avenue on the east to the Eighth Avenue on the west. At its lower extremity it is five miles from the Battery, at the southern point of the island, and at its upper end it is about seven miles from King's Bridge at the northern extremity of the city. The East River is a mile distant on the one hand, and the Hudson is three-quarters of a mile off upon the opposite side. Our city readers may perhaps more clearly comprehend the extent of the ground, if we add that it is seven times larger than the united area of all the other squares and public places upon the island, and that it stretches over a longer space than that lying between the Battery and Union Square. Its dimensions far exceed those of any other pleasure resort yet constructed in the New World, and it compares in this regard most favorably with the principal works of the kind in old Europe, being more than twice the size of either Regent's Park or Hyde Park in London, and being exceeded only by the

Great Park at Windsor, the grounds at Richmond, the Phoenix of Dublin, the Gardens at Versailles, the Bois de Boulogne, and the Prater at Vienna, which range in extent from fifteen hundred to thirty-five hundred acres each: all venerable achievements, royal in conception and in execution.

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The total cost of the lands taken tral Park up to January, 1860, was about five and a half millions of dollars, from which sum there is to be deducted more than one and a half millions assessed upon contiguous lots; and to which must be added the value of that portion of the grounds lying between One Hundred and Sixth and One Hundred and Tenth streets, which was not comprised within the original charter, and is not yet fully and in due legal form in the possession of the Park commission.

The moneys thus far expended in the construction and maintenance of the Park amounted during the first season (1857), to nearly seventyeight thousand dollars. In the year 1858 the expenditure was a little over five hundred thousand, and in 1860 nearly twelve hundred thousand dollars. With a proportionate outlay since, the entire disbursements for the lands and the improvements during the four years since the opening of the work have reached the liberal figure of some six millions of dollars-a large sum indeed, but generously and wisely considered by the people of New York as nothing when compared with the benefits of the enterprise to the public health, pleasure, pride, taste, and morals, for all future time. It must be remembered too, that the Empire City, while thus

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