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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



likened to the rising sun at the Exposition. There are 

 two companion pieces in one of the courts. A young 

 man standing on tip-toe with his head elevated, aspir- 

 ation all over his form and the young lady opposite, 

 representing the setting sun. It sems to me this recrea- 

 tion movement is represented by this beautiful statuary. 

 Whether we will ever do anything very serious about 

 it remains to be seen, but nevertheless since it has so 

 much back of it, of public sentiment, we must meet it, 

 and we can treat as the old Methodist preacher was in- 

 clined to treat a certain situation : The people had 

 come into his church to discuss a neighborhood prob- 

 lem and they discussed it pro and con, and the old 

 preacher stood up and said: 'T.adies and gentlemen, 

 these are serious problems. \\'e must meet them. 

 Having met them, let us pass on." 



We cannot meet these recreation problems in this 

 manner. We must supply playgrounds or stand out 

 boldly against them. 



How have we treated this idea? This public recrea- 

 tion movement? We have supplied large areas, usually 

 quite adequate areas for play, they have been pretty 

 well kept, as a rule ; the surfacing has been pleasing 

 and altogether it has lent itself to play. Then the 

 parks have supplied a great quantity of apparatus, 

 much more than the playgrounds under other groups; 

 perhaps, altogether, too much apparatus. Neverthe- 

 less, there has been this adequate supply of apparatus 

 of all descriptions. Then we have worked the play- 

 ground movement out in the jiarks in a very inclusive 

 manner. 



It has served the little children as well as the very 

 mature people. The idea of a park man seems to be 

 to supply every facility needed by everyone. There- 

 fore, we have in the parks a more or less ideal equip- 

 ment of, satisfactory equipment, to the community. 



What more do we need in the parks? \\'hat more 

 has been demanded which they have not supplied? It 

 is this bugbear of supervision. It is claimed that park 

 supervision is not adequate. In the parks there has 

 been either police or attendant supervision, and so 

 forth, and almost never the trained supervisor; so it 

 seems to me there is one place where the park man is 

 having trouble, and will continue to have it until the 

 supervision is met. 



What is meant by that? Let me say I believe it is 

 not a myth ; that there is something real about it ; that 

 it means, in its essence, that the parents who send their 

 children to the playground, want these children to come 

 into contact with a superior person, whose manners 

 and language are right ; with a person who can shape 

 the ideals and aspirations of these children ; not some 

 one who is to patronize and knock them about roughly. 

 They want some one akin to the teachers of the class 

 room. All education is not found in the class-room, 

 but some in leisure time, and the humblest parents 

 want their children to come in contact with a superior 

 person in a playground as a leader than in the class- 

 room, because in the class-room you are engaged in 

 your studies, but in the playgrounds they are engaged 

 in activity, and children live in activity, and conse- 

 quently the play should shape the ideals, manners and 

 morals of the children and this found in the playground 

 and not in the class-room, always. Consequently 

 there is something quite fundamental in this demand 

 for supervision, and the people who have made serious 

 study of it, say this: That the parks have for many 

 years furnished these splendid facilities Avhich ha^•e 

 given us splendid satisfaction, but in this intensive 

 work, thev have not given this supervision. "More 

 than this," they say, "gambling goes on in the parks." 



The laws prohibit gambling, yet it goes on quite openly 

 in the handball courts, and things of that sort, in many 

 of the parks, and most everything is plaved for a jack- 

 pot or a stake, and it is a question whether our great 

 national game is building up character or building up 

 a bunch of gamblers. Then again the parks of many 

 large cities show an undue amount of immorality. 

 People go there for recreation. Well, of course hold- 

 ing hands is recreation, but beyond that, is immoral- 

 ity, and the public parks have become the stamping 

 ground for immorality, and people have said that the 

 parks have not taken hold of the matter as they 

 should. 



Then, when the park board people say: "We shall 

 attempt to supervise these playgrounds," they are at a 

 loss to find these superior people to place in these parks. 

 They cannot seem to find them. The salaries are quite 

 low ; there have been no training schools until quite 

 recently, and those have been- quite inadequate ; con- 

 sequently it is very difficult to find trained supervisors, 

 and so the park man is in the position of the little boy 

 who was weeding the garden. A neighbor poked his 

 head over the fence and said to him, "Little Boy, how 

 much do you get for weeding that garden ?" The 

 little fellow replied, as he straightened up and put his 

 hand on his back, "Xothing if I do, and the devil if I 

 don't." 



So the park man gets nothing if he does have this 

 supervision, and the devil if he does not. So the diffi- 

 culty is in finding these superior leaders of play. 



Aluch is to be said about supervising play. Many 

 of us say "We were not taught to play." "Look at us, 

 good strong, husky fellows with good morals. We 

 didn't have this paly supervision; we were not taught 

 to play. Why should the children of today have to 

 have it?" 



The conditions have changed very radically. More- 

 over, we cannot tell but what we might have been 

 governors or presidents, if we had superior play lead- 

 ership. I think I can give way to no man in the utter 

 play that I had, but I wish I had had some one at the 

 old swimming hole, at the wrestling match, at the bo.x- 

 ing match, and those affairs, which are incorporated 

 today in much of a modern recreation movement. It 

 would have been a great pleasure to me at that time 

 and it would be a great pleasure for me to look back 

 on that experience now. 



It does not mean play bossing, but simply interpre- 

 tation of play life. We very often interpret a book to 

 a boy or a girl so that they can get more pleasure out of 

 that book — get richer values. Then the educators 

 have discovered great possibilities in well directed 

 play. Many lessons can be taught in play that cannot 

 be taught in the class-room. 



What have the schools done with this problem? 

 The parks ought to be given the greatest amount of 

 credit for controlling and leading this modern move- 

 ment. Their record is fine in that respect. The record 

 of the school is not so good. They have supplied play- 

 grounds where, if the children attempt to play they 

 fall down and cut their hands and knees on the ugly 

 cinders in the school yards and the hard pavements. 

 It is no wonder the children rush out to the street to 

 play, rather than linger in the school yards. The 

 schools have fallen down in the playground. Then, 

 the equipment has been of a very poor type, not placed 

 there with any great amount of study. Then again, the 

 playgrounds of the schools have always been operated 

 on a very short period of time. For instance, when the 

 summer vacation comes, the board says, "We will 

 have si.x weeks of playground work in the school 



