Park Department 
■45 
ness Men's Club; Miss Belle Whitaker; President Bender of 
the Board of Public Service, and others. 
The playground was fitted up with swings and teeter- 
totters, which were immediately taken possession of by the 
children. That portion of the park used as a playground will 
be equipped by early spring of next year with swings, teeter- 
ladders, traveling rings, and other useful and practical para- 
phernalia, which will be appreciated by the hundreds of chil- 
dren that frequent this splendid rendezvous of happiness. 
Baseball, played with the regulation indoor baseball, is an 
innovation which will, no doubt, prove a great success at this 
park. This game, and basket ball, are the only games that 
can be fully enjoyed on this small playground. 
A careful study from week to week has shown the fact 
that children will take the best of care of playgrounds turned 
over to them, and it has been the experience everywhere that 
nothing has been missing after a day's play, the children 
themselves helping to care for balls and bats, that they may 
not be lost. 
Aside from the noise of the over-zealous children the first 
few weeks after opening a playground to the public, there 
are no distasteful features, and this condition is annoying only 
to the immediate neighborhood. After the newness of the 
playground has worn off and a director of play, who should 
be a person thoroughly conversant with play and games, has 
the children interested in playground games, all of the objec- 
tionable noise subsides, and the feeling of annoyance turns 
into interest and admiration. 
Mr. John R. McLean has now under construction a very 
fine bronze fountain, to cost a sum exceeding $10,000, which 
will be placed at the Fourth and Lawrence-streets corner of 
Lytle Park. This location marks the site of his father's home, 
and incidentally, the place of his birth. Mr. McLean is erect- 
ing this fountain in commemoration of his parents. He has 
also signified his willingness to furnish ice for a cooler to be 
attached to the fountain. This department has ordered a plan 
drawn whereby a coil with sufficient pipe will be inserted 
in a concrete ice box under the ground of a size sufficient to 
supply large quantities of ice water for this fountain. 
