Central Park Cornet Band Concert

“The Central Park Commissioners have determined to add another to the popular features of their management.  They have directed that besides the Saturday afternoon concerts, there shall be music on the lake for the present on Wednesday afternoons by the Park Cornet Band. . . .

            It is understood that these concerts will be permanent, if the public interest in them shall justify it.  The attendance on Saturdays is great; and the music is considered one of the important attractions of the Park for the better classes of our population, who usually choose Saturday for their visits thither.  The common impression that the railroad companies pay for the Central Park music is erroneous to this extent, that they only give a small portion of the money.  The companies that participate in the contributions this year are the Third, Sixth and Seventh avenue and the ‘Belt.’  The large profits the various companies make by the increased travel would doubtless enable them to assume the entire cost of the concerts, and yet be the gainers.  The Park Commissioners gave nearly four-fifths of the sum required last year.

            The more the facilities for the enjoyment of the Park are extended, the larger will be the number of car citizens who will take advantage of them.”

 “Today will inaugurate a series of Wednesday afternoon concerts, which, if successful, will be continued through the heated term.”

“The first of this summer’s Wednesday afternoon concerts on the lake in the Park took place yesterday, and was attended by thousands of persons of every class, all of whom seemed to fully enjoy the delicious music, the beauties of the grounds and the delightful weather.”

“According to announcement duly made in all the city papers, there was music on the water at the Park yesterday afternoon, and thousands were attracted to that large breathing place for recreation and mental enjoyment among the trees, flowers, and fountains who would not otherwise have gone outside of their houses or away from their places of business.  And none who went there and tried to pass the time reasonably will to-day have occasion to blame themselves for having devoted a few hours to a new sensation at the Park.

          THE PEOPLE

Commenced gathering as early in the afternoon as two o’clock. There were the upper tens and the lower tens—the latter class, perhaps, predominating—and each division of the population of the city bringing out its children; and if the ‘children of a large growth’ failed to appreciate the occasion the children of the lesser growth did not. They romped and played in the bushe [sic], where they could unseen by a p9oliceman, and ate creams, and ices and cakes, until their jaws and little limbs ached, if their stomachs did not suffer. One procession of charity girls, all dressed in neat gingham, and led by their superintendent, attracted considerable attention. They could certainly appreciate the glories of the flowers, the birds, the trees and the music and the water, if there were those who could not. There was a wealth in the locality that they could enjoy as keenly as the millionaire and his family who rolled voluptuously along in a carriage. There were interminable lines, squares and platoons of ladies. They came with their beaux, without their beaux, with their papas and mammas and without their papas and mammas. It seemed that the majority started out alone. But they found society, in some manner, before they departed. The ladies wore waterfalls in splendid superfluity of proportion. And they were consistent; for had they not set out to see water views and hear music upon the water? Truly had they. Some of the waterfalls were magnificent in their greatness; others reminded those addicted to natural history of sections of the boa constrictor protruding from the posterior bump of the female cerebream [sic]. This was caused by the glass beads which covered the silken hair nets—not by the inverted tumblers through which some of the guests of the Casino viewed the aforesaid waterfalls. But not withstanding the waterfalls, the ladies were fair, and showed that they knew it by the conscious manner in which they threaded the gravel walks.  

          THE BEAUX

Were there also, and some of them might have been dressed in better taste. One sturdy fellow, who paraded the terrace with a lighted cigar in his mouth, a black felt hat on his head and a red flannel—envelope—upon his back, attracted quite as much attention as the bewhiskered, bejeweled, broadcloth bedecked exquisite who sat in the Casino, twirling his mustache languidly and as languidly expleting a little ‘demme’ and ‘aw-ya-as,’ as he sipped his Catawba and ice. Both were unique. Both were sui generis.

          THE MUSIC

Commenced promptly at half-past three, nine or ten of the Park Band, under the leadership of Dodworth and accompanied by one of the Park Commissioners having at that hour embarked upon the lake in a small boat about the size and shape of a captain’s gig and considerably more classic in outline than a Mississippi ‘dugout’ for the purpose.  Of course there was a rush for the Terrace and high grounds about the miniature Lake on Como.  Of course the music was good, although it was played after no particular programme and was very miscellaneous in its selection.  So were the tastes of those who listened to it.  Of course everybody enjoyed it.  One young man, who had incidentally quoted the words of Thomas Haynes Baily [sic], from the farce of ‘Perfection’ to another Kate O’Brien, as the gondola glided over the placid lake, discoursing the silver-sweet sounds from the big brass band, ‘Music is my passion.  Music in the morning; music in the evening; music at the silent hour of night; music on the water; music under the water; music in any place and at any time.’  And, as he looked in the eye of the impromptu Kate, he certainly thought her perfection, and the music perfection also.  The strains were kept up, the boat being propelled from one end of the lake to the other, until half-past six last evening, when the crowd of spectators began to disperse and the band landed, put their musical instruments in their green cloth cases and went home to their dinners.  It was a treat to the people.  It should be repeated.  It will pay the Commissioners to have it repeated. 

            Music on the water is an institution.”