San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-04-09
FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1886.
SAN PEDRO SPRINGS.

The Directors of the Museum Of Nat
ural History, at San Pedro Springs, are
interesting themselves to make addi-
tiOns TO the collection and make it more
nearly what it was originally designed
it should pe-a depository for all natural
objects that could possibly be collected
in Southwestern Texas, with as many
foreign specimen as the directory could
secure the means of adding thereto.
The location of the museum is all that
could be desired, but nothing has been
done to give character to its surround
iRgs. The park in which it stands
needs q care that it has never received
at the hands of the city. 1t is at pres
ent merely an immense beer garden, to
which our citizens flock en- Sunday be-
cause it is the only decent public-lOsting
place in or about tue city. The Com
mon Council owe to the historical inter
est which centers around the Alamo
City a debt they have never paid they
eve to the citizens for whom they legis-
late some better provision for rural
pleasure than they have yet made they
owe to the strangers within our gates,
drawn here by the report Of the beauty
of this ancient city, at least one public
place that it would not be a misnomer to
call pleasure park. Nature has made
San Pedro Springs a beautiful place.
Nature provided for the old Alamo City
an unequalled attraction at the head Of
the San Antonio river; Il perfect bower
of beauty, a region of enchantment that
should have been kept inViOlate from
private possession aud forever devoted
to the purposes of a public park.
That natural attraction has been rem
dered useless to the city for all coming
time by shOrt-sighted policy that has
esteemed few thousand dollars of more
consequence than the acres for which the
city to be would give hundreds Of thou
sands of dollars. Their recovery is past
praying for. San Pedro springs remain.
1t is bat right they should be made as at
traGtiye and beautiful as money can
make them. They are for the people,
and all beauty, particularly natural
beauty, is potent factor in the educa-
tion of the peoples mind. Make the
place where the children find recreation
beautiful, If you would have them
love the city where they dwell
and grow up with pleasant MEN,
cries of it. The money spent in
schools and parks is always well spent.
Let the city see TO it that San Pedro
park is redeemed from the dry rot and
decay into which it is falling.
The museum directory, we are in
formed, are taking steps to improve the
collection and enlarge it. For this pur-
pose they need funds, and in order to
raise them, have decided to institute a
course of museum lectures" the pro-
ceeds to go to the museum fund.
We bespeak for this movement the
hearty cooperation Of our citizens, and
hope that such encourage ent and ma
terial support will be accorded the effort
to place the museum on better fnan-
cial footing as will ensure the desired re-
suit. San Antonio is miles behind. Her
niggardly public policy must be changed
and larger liberality characterize her
in the future, or she will be hopelessly
left In the eddies and side swirls Of the
great current ofprogress, having neither
part nor lot in its movement.
The Times claims to be the father Of
the San Antonio boom for the conven-
ton. No one disputes the claim, and no
one has seen the boom. Did it die
a-boomin'?
TEXAS seems bitten by big tarantula
all over in spots. Riots, from the Terri
tory clear down to the Mexican border,
are in order, and bad blood is engendersd
on the slightest proyOcatiOn. The
northers seem to have little or no in