Los Angeles herald., 1890-12-20
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1ss
GIVE THE SCHOOL A PARK.

LOS Angeles Is SpeuulIS great ueal
of money on her school system, and the
result ought to be something that the
city might be proud of. One thing
seems reasonably well assured; what
ever may be said of details, there will be
ample room for all our needs in build
ings that are quite presentable to the
eye.
The high school is in general respects
fine building, and will afford ample
accommodations for the purpose in
tended, for years to come. But there is
one aspect of that institution that can
hardly be regarded as satisfactory from
any point of view. 1t is a matter that
was very fully discussed before the site
was finally decided upon; and so much
alarm was felt on the head referred to
that had not the public been given most
positive assurances that the school
should not go there, the bonds for its
construction would never have been
voted.
The reference is to the two old and
overcrowded graveyards that lie right
at the doors and under the windows of
the school. In similarly Objectionable
situation is one of the district or ward
schools which stands on the other side
of these burying grounds.
No intelligent and unprejudiced per-
son will for a moment attempt to main
tain that these are not Objectionable sur
roundings for school, or that the OBJ
lection is not a very serious one. So
great is the gravity of the matter that
we repeat, had not the public received
the most positive assurances that the
high school would be built at some
other point the bonds would never have
been voted. But these assurances were
not made in good faith, or at least not
with good judgment, for no sooner had
the bonds been voted than it was dis
covered that the promises could not be
kept, and the school was accordingly
built among the tombs. In the
sacred scriptures the story is that it was
demented person who had so lost his
reason that he cut his own flesh with
stones, who frequented these grewsome
and unhealthy premises. Madder than
he was, we propose to send our children
to sit all day where the poisonous efilu-
via from putrid bodies shall enter into
every breath they inhale. And the
place is unhealthy to mind as well as
body. Youth requires for it's mental
stimulus as much sunshine of thought.
as flower does of the natural beams of
, the orb of day. Here every time a boy
or girl raises his eyes from the study OF
the moment and looks out of the win
dow, a gravestone strikes across the line
of vision.
Well, the building is there, and can
not be removed. What is to be done :?
Remove the tenants of the marrow
houses. One Of these cemeteries belongs
to the city, the others to certain frater-
nal societies. Burial has been stopped
in these places for years, for obvious
reasons. But that is not enough. These
graves cannot remain forever, or for
long, in the very heart of the city.
Sooner or later they must be removed.
ASoW iS VIC DC6b CllhC w oO its IL VIII
be much more in accordance with the
sacred feelings of those who have friends
inferred there to have the dust of their
dead removed to some spot where it may
rest without further interruption.
The proper thing to do with the ground
is to appropriate it to the uses of the
schools in the shape of a park. Set a
portion OF it off for a playground
for the Ward school, and a
similar portion for the same use
for the pupils of the high school. But
keep liberal slice for the planting of
handsome trees, shrubs and flowers.
Something very attractive might be
made out of these grounds, and some
thing that would be source of health
to mind and body. Trees and flowers
purify the air, and make it sweet, and
they refresh the iaind as few other in
fluences do. The city can well afford to
give this property to the school de-
partment, and no doubt the societies
who control the other portions will do
the same at nominal cost.
The notion that when river breaks