32 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
pidity. One bit of testimony on this point, be- 
cause of its striking character, may be pardoned. 
As many may already know, the social settlement 
of the N. W. University of Chicago established in 
1896, a roomy play-ground capable of accommodat- 
ing three or four thousand children — and this is an 
extract from an interview with Lieut. Kroll of the 
police force, there: “Young boys under si.xtecn, 
who are not occupied loaf around street corners, 
they have no place to go, they get into the saloons, 
they annoy passers-by or form crowds, they resent 
the interference of the police, and finally they are 
arrested. We hate to do this, as it is the first step 
in pushing a boy downward into the criminal class. 
Since this play-ground has been opened, and they 
are permitted to come in here, they give us no 
trouble whatever, and juvenile arrests in the vicin- 
ity have decreased fully 2 i 3 }i pc*' cent.” It w^as also 
proven that youthful crime, in July and Augi st, in 
one ward, /tad been 60 per cent, greater than dur- 
ing the rest of the year. 
Now my position is this: Is it not better to give 
1,000 or 1,500 children healthful resorts, free from 
bad influences, even if the equipment be meagre, 
than to confine our efforts to one favored locality, 
thereby producing a “show” exhibit for visitors, 
rendering 3 or 400 children virtuous and happy, 
but leaving the other thousand youthful souls and 
bodies in the same old, monotonous, uncared for 
condition? I plead for several play-grounds in the 
thickly populated portions of the city, where the 
poorer children abound; these to be supplemented 
by corners in our more accessible parks to be 
thrown open for the same purpose. Loring Park 
has a small space devoted to this good cause — and 
I hope that is the entering wedge that will yield 
noble results in this direction. It availeth not, in 
the present emergency, to wait idly until we own 
grand parks, like English estates, or can com- 
pass all the appliances for which we long. A 
righteous cause, like a city, an organization, or an 
individual must simply make the best use of what 
it /las — employing thrift, judgment and enthusiasm, 
as far as may be, to supply the place of what it /tas 
not\ watching for an increase of favorable oppor- 
tunity and meantime being consoled for the too ap- 
parent lack by the reflection, that imagination can 
always convert the mean object into the mighty 
when good will is present, as a spur. 
If Richter thought “the little work-tables of 
women’s fingers are the play-grounds of women’s 
fancies, and their knitting needles are fairy-wands 
by which they transform the whole room into a 
spirit-isle of dreams,” how much more true is this 
of children, and pre-eminently of children unac- 
customed to luxury. What may seem painfully in- 
adequate to you or to me, will be welcomed with a 
brightening eye, a sigh of relief or a thankful smile, 
by the average child of the play- ground, ^ And 1 
wonder, sometimes, if they could not give us new 
definitions for play and work were they fitted to 
translate their feelings into thoughts, the thoughts 
into reasoning, and the reasoning into clear and 
logical language. As it is, they only afford us 
stray hints and leave us to theorize as best we 
may! If Spencer argues that play is merely the re- 
sult of surplus energy; if Frcebel asserted that play 
is the business, the life of a child; if prominent ed- 
ucators affirm that “the characteristic of play is 
not ease, but the feeling of power in doing things 
more or less difficult without constraint and com- 
pulsion,” none the less does the child inured to 
hardship, make play of what his otherwise more 
favored companion would esteem work. Youth, as 
a rule, in the poorer districts, regard the school- 
room as a haven of rest, study as a relaxation, and 
teachers as guardian angels. Is this idea generally 
prevalent among the offspring of the wealthy? 
And, in this direction, the influence of the former 
class upon the latter is a gain not to be lightl}’ es- 
timated. 
At any age, there Is an advantage In viewing 
human nature in different aspects- — the lesson must 
be learned sooner or later, of adapting oneself to 
human creatures whose point of view is necessarily 
different from our own. Like many other kinds of 
knowledge, perhaps this is most easily acquired— 
unconsciously assimilated— in youth And not 
only the school-rooms, but the public play-grounds 
will soon provide a place where children from lux- 
urious and humble homes will meet, on a perfect 
equality, in neutral territory. For, else, what are 
to become of the children born and bred in apart- 
ment houses? These buildings recommend them- 
selves more and more, by their evident utility and 
convenience, and, once within, the child may feel 
no lack, and the word “home” may retain its usual 
significance. But, from the moment his footsteps 
leave that building, what more does he see, knowq 
or own of nature, with all its beauty or of out-of- 
door freedom, wdth all its enchanting delight, than 
the lonely waif of the slums. The street is his only 
resource — his pathetic plight not to be ignored. 
And so we learn from those whom we fain would 
help or instruct — and I, for one, w'ould regard it as 
a distinct loss in my oivn progression and under- 
standing oflife did we fail to give these children a 
few opportunities which came so freely and natur- 
ally to mest of us, when of their age; opportunities 
which they crave and perhaps turn to far better ac- 
count than did some of us — and when we gaze at 
the youthful faces in our own family circles, and 
