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 XIX

kink of humanity which cannot find any valuation in spots of natural glory. But such kinks do run riot in Man’s mind, occasionally, and Branton Hills ran up against such, on a Council night; for a bill was brought up by Old Bill Simpkins for disposal of City Park to a land company, for building lots! At first word of such a thought, Gadsby was totally dumb, from an actual impossibility of thinking that any man, bringing up such a bill, wasn’t plumb crazy!

“What! Our main Park; including our Zoo?”

“Just that,” said Simpkins. “Just a big patch of land, and a foolish batch of animals that do nobody any good. You can’t hitch a lion up to a city-dump cart, you know; nor a hippopotamus to a patrol wagon. What good is that bunch of hair and horns, anyway? And that park! Bah!! Just grass, grass, grass! Branton Hills pays for planting that grass, pays for sprinkling it, pays for cutting it—and throws it away! So I say, put it into building lots, and draw good, solid cash from it.”

An Italian Councilman, Tony Bandamita, [ 156 ]