Eight millions had been thrown away when they finally came to ask
a million and a half to pay for the Mulberry Bend park, and then
they had to get a special law and a special appropriation because
the amount was more than "a million in one year." This in spite
of the fact that we were then in the Christmas holidays with one
year just closing and the other opening, each with its unclaimed
appropriation. I suggested that to the powers that were, but they
threw up their hands: that would have been irregular and quite
without precedent. Oh, for irregularity enough to throttle precedent
finally and for good! It has made more mischief in the world,
I verily believe, than all the other lawbreakers together. At the
very outset it had wrecked my hopes of getting the first school
playground in New York planted in the Bend by simply joining park
and school together. There was a public school in the block that
went with the rest. The Small Parks Law expressly provided for
the construction of "such and so many" buildings for the comfort,
health, and "instruction" of the people, as might be necessary.
Pages:
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316