Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-10
COMMUNICATIONS.
SundrY Matters of Interest-Beacon Hill.
 Parks, Libraries, Etc.

! ACSb-nS0cOn Parks, Libraries, Etc
 i To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 'Beacon Hill" Where is it? Of the | road to Morris Cove, on the heights just easi I of Townsend avenue. The way to get thare A new road near 'the Four Corners" as you \ drive to East Haven. Had you existed in l 1872. and arrived at the age of eighteen, you ! might have been cslled upon to enlist and to assist in the building of the fort which was l then and there built by New Haven volun. teer hands. Beacon Hill is one of the his ] toric places of that age. Old Fort Hale is another just upon the shore. A British man. l of-war did come into New Haven harbor, and fired one gun toward Beacon Hill, kill ing just one man, after which the ship I turned about and left. To digress, blood 1 was also spilled upon the opposite shore at 1 Milford Hill somewhere near the Burwell place during the war of 1872, and the re- mains now lie under the old State House upon the Green, back of the Center church The same Hotchkiss blood runs in numerous New Haven families at this late date
 The beautiful drives about our city cannot
 be surpassed. Beacon Hill is one From it can be seen view of Long Island Sound up down and across. Although not as high as the hills of New Hampshire, the sight is one
 of enchantment. The drive to Burwells HiM
 or, as it was in 1872, Milford Hill, is also one
 that will give to the seeker for new rides
 n
 drive is so well known that it will be useless
 to speak of its lovely views. From either of
 these eminences memorial tower, however
 rude in construction, would be seen and in
 qu1red about, and memorabilia a hundred
 times more it's object than any granite monu-
 ment possible to be erected upon any square
 now or hereafter to exist In the city.
 AS to public library building, let that
 come up on it's own merits. That public
 reading rooms or resorts for information are
 needed no one will question but whether
 the citizens of New Haven as citizens are
 most desirous that the institution should be
 under the direction and directly under the
 caves of Yale is quite question. Is it, or
 will it be desirable that such young people as
 wish to avail themselves of the privileges
 suggested should be in such, close contiguity
 as the old State House, is quite question for
 debate. Are the daughters of New Haven as
 rule to be benefited by closer intimacy with
 those whose residence is transient. If
 public library is to be 8 question let it be a
 citizens institution. The Maret fund has
 been quoted again and again. Fact; the fund when available will be subject to the approval of the Common Council. Who can predict what the. Common Council will do then? That will depend upon it's bearings when the disposition thereof takes place perhaps political, perhaps foreign votes. The writer feels an interest in the multitude, and would rejoice to see free reading rooms in various parts of the city where nothing but cleanliness and sohriety would be re. quired to gain entrance to room well sup piled with all that the public needs for read ing, and heated when necessary. Such pro- vision would tend to induce the evening walking throngs to enter and avoid the haunts of intemperance as well as other at fractions of vice. It is all well for us who have comfortable homes to wonder why those who have not will be in the streets so much evenings and on Sundays. Visit the 1 thousands who occupy the two to four rooms with families and no answer is needed See. ing is believing. Gan young men, can sew ! ing girls, remain in their rooms without | something to comfort them2 No; three | or four room tenement gives no place for | such to find rest Is it wonder the streets | are thronged? It is for the public library or reading ta- cilities are wanted if at all. Reference libra | ries are not what the public require. Law l libraries, reference books for the learned are | not to be decried but what the great public l need is good common education. I ven- | ture to assert that the Lancasterian school of | sixty years ago, conducted by the octogenari. ] an, MT. John E. Lowell, turned out as good a | set of men as any other institution. Prima- | ry schools. plenty of them, primary, or rath- er wholesome reading for the multitude, is | just what the multitude needs, peppered | with salt, or, in other words, provided in | variety and style; not so literary as to drive | away the great number, but to induce them to enter, gain information and forsake in1u- | rious associations. When the county wants | } new building is the city inquired of? No; | he commissioners rate it, and the city of | New Haven pays the greater part of the tax ss. If economy is all that there is of the | let the city and town be under one government, thereby reducing the expense account about one-third. The city taxes proper amount to about three-fourths of all. The saving would build memorial hall, monument and library. If economy is all, l hen occupy the whole lower Green with public buildings plenty of good sites there, better than the old State House site. Peo- 'le opposite the upper Green would like pen space also. If economy alone is the I 'rder of the day why not make sales of city parks and appropriate the money for other localities further out, many times larger in dimensions, to which the city in less time to ome than is the present life of the writer is ure to grow? To whom do we owe our ;reat delights in this cityp To those who hree or four generations past had an insight nto the present age. Let us make no mis- akes for the coming generation.
 TOWN BORN No. 2.