1 14 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



iInteresting People: Ernst J. Lederle^ 

 Although not now a resident of Staten Island we can justly lay 

 claim to the subject of this sketch, on the score of his nativity and 

 his early days before he had achieved the enviable reputation 

 which is his today. This brief but appreciative sketch of Health 

 Commissioner Ernst J, Lederle is mostly concerned with his 

 activities as head of the New York City Department of Health, 

 and what he has succeeded in accomplis'hing in the lowering of 

 the death rate. In the words of the author " Lederle is giving 

 us one dollar's worth of public health for one dollar. When we 

 are educated to want more and pay for more, he has it ready for 

 us, all we want. He puts the issue flatly, like the real wissen- 

 schaftlich German-American logician that he is. Public health is 

 something that can be bought like soap and sugar. There is 

 plenty of it to be had, and it is simply up to us to say how much 

 we want." 



A. H. 



The Week-Ender Takes a Walk on Staten Island^ 

 This is a charmingly written description of a ramble through 

 the Moravian Cemetery and over Ocean Terrace, by one who 

 evidently thoroughly appreciated the various features, natural and 

 artificial, that he sensed on the way. His descriptions, free from 

 the usual perfunctory phrases and affectations of enthusiasm by 

 which such attempts are so often spoiled, are convincingly sincere 

 and are refreshing for that reason. He merely refers to the Van- 

 derbilt Mausoleum, for example, as "a magnificent memorial 

 erected by a famous old family," without mentioning the name; 

 and it will interest all who recall old associations of the region to 

 note that he speaks of "White's pond," with its rustic bridge, 

 which he crossed en route before emerging upon the Manor Road. 

 Evidently the name of the present owner of the property had not 

 yet impressed itself upon his informant or changed the old famil- 

 iar designation which yet lingered in his mind. The delight of 

 this stranger over the novelty of actually losing himself, in what 



5 Albert Jay Nock, Amer. Mag., August, 1912, pp. 415, 416, with portrait 

 on p. 417. 



^ Anon., New York Times, Sunday, November 24, 1912. 



