He has also noticed that the Philadelphians are having a lively and
brotherly dispute over their new public buildings; they don't know where
to put them. Most of the citizens are very much opposed to doing any
thing on the square; that is to say, Independence Square, where the
citizens assert their freedom by treading down all the grass, and making
a mud-flat of what was intended to be a turfy lawn. Some folks want the
buildings on PENN Square--so called because it is split in the middle,
and answers its intended purposes only on paper. But the good Quakers
hate to interfere with the rights of the blacks, whether they be men or
women, and so many of the latter make this square their abiding place
every summer, that it would seem like a violation of the spirit of the
Fifteenth Amendment to disturb them. But there is no doubt that the good
Philadelphians will have their new buildings some day, for they are
very enterprising. Witness the disposition of one of their leading men,
"Slushy" SMITH by name, who wants fifty thousand dollars with which to
open an avenue from the Delaware to Sixth street, basing his claims
upon the fact that such avenue will lead to Fairmount Park! Now, as the
nearest point of the park is two miles and a half from Sixth street, the
vigor of the scheme and the foreseeing character of the projectors are
worthy of a metropolis.
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