E 



CHAPTER VI 

 RECREATION PARKS 



N ROUTE from Berlin to Munich during war mobilisation, 

 chancing it on troop trains and what not, the author found 

 himself one fine morning unexpectedly and unceremoniously deposited 

 at three a.m. in a burg designated on the station building by the abrupt 

 word Hof. His frame of mind upon such enforced arrival was not 

 mollified by finding the only two hotels of the place monopolised by 

 a,rmy officers, all private domiciles tightly closed for the night, and 

 not even a " shake-down " of straw available. In considerable mental 

 stress at such reception, and exhausted in body, patience, and vocabu- 

 lary, he abandoned himself to sunrise solitude in a nearby park. Now 

 the wonder: From a sense of personal calamity, he awakened to a 

 realisation that he was enjoying an opportunity. As the morning 

 progressed, he became so interested and absorbed in exploring this 

 park to which he had gravitated that he very nearly missed the outgoing 

 train at midday. A park that could resurrect a man's enthusiasm 

 under such depressing circumstances was surely efficient and worthy 

 to be styled recreative. 



"RECREATION CENTRES" PERVERT PARKS 



The term recreation park has become of recent years a confused 

 one in this country, due to the extraordinary development of " recrea- 

 tion " facilities in the parks of some of our larger cities, notably in 

 those of Chicago. These facilities, both indoor and outdoor, have been 

 made to include gymnasiums, assembly halls, club rooms, reading- 

 rooms, shower-baths, dressing quarters, swimming pools, athletic 

 grounds, et cetera, all of which have been assembled in what 

 are known as " recreation centres." Though such facilities are un- 

 questionably of enormous value i n the regulation of a great city and 



Note — See diagram in Appendix. ^ 



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