The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1896-10-13

When / was child and had simple
country pleasures for my designations,
l INDUCED in dreams of a far-away
city that was big, busting, worldly and
interesting from every point of view.
A favorite aunt was the nucleus OF my
visions, which, bright to the eye of
faith, were yet to be actually seen by
the physical eye. The time came when
in my hurried fight to Hawaii, I broke
the overland journey by rest at Chi
cago, the great city of my dreams.
For five days I was hurried about to
see the objects of pride and progress,
and aside from my memory of intense
fatigue. my most vivid recollection is OF
the unrivalled park system, its enor-
nous GASES scattered through the dusty
streets, connected by miles upon miles
of boulevards, or half parks. Let us
learn the lesson of parks and play
grounds from the city which could pack
an Exposition into one of its mammoth
gardens.
The glory of the Chicago parks is
that they are for everybody,
poor, old, young; those who ride and
drive and those who wheel and walk;
those who come to see the landscape
gardening and those who love Nature
as nearly natural as she can be had;
those who come for tennis, baseball,
racing and rowing, and those who come
to lie face downwards on the soft grass
and sleep all the sunny afternoons.
The babies tumble about on the grass
and pick daisies and dandelions and
even have buildings devoted TO their
especial use, with nurses to take care Of
them, and all the delights Of childhood
for their amusement.
More than any city I know, Ghicago's
parks are for the people. The magni-
fcent stretch of Fairmount park is in
accessible to the many till the Phlla-
delphia trolley pierces the very hart OF
its exclusive green wood. Boston's
parks are popular, and its Common is
black with human beings any fair noon
from May to October. Its great sweep
of new suburban park lands is being
made available for picnic parties and
little excursions as well as for carriages
and the omnipresent bicycle. Best Of
all is the playground that has made
the unsightly banks of the Charles
beautiful, near the bridge that Long
fellow has immortaliZed. This is the
precedent for our city to follow-a play
ground just off the thickly settled Cam
bridge street where children of the
poor may frolic on the grass with no
fear of being ordered off. The great
Common is higher up the hill-but the
CITY fathers ordained a breathing place
Just there, and they are justified by the
children. New York affords fresh air
for thousands who come to its Central
mark, and San Francisco's Golden Gate
welcomes its multitudes any day. None
of these do we need to emulate. We
have places for wheels and horses, for
foot-travelers and band-concerts. We
do need. however, to resuscitate that
Park Bill that was so accidentally and
unfortunately forgotten by the Senate
in the rush of business at its session
In the meantime while the plans for
the crater park system are maturing
which will open up Punchbowl and
Tantalus. we must have Aala, as Mrs
Nakuina names it. We must have It
inst for the reasons she so foreibly pre-
sents. The children in Chinatown and
vicinity. or their older friends, will not
walk half mile farther up Nuuanu.
The park must come to them or they
will prefer theshops and curbstones Of
the unlovely narrow streets. Perhaps the
narrow streets will remain for years.
We can only atone for them by putting
parks within stones throw of every
body.
The beauty of making this especial
mark is that it puts little additional bur-
den on the shoulders of those who carry
our financial load. Manienie grass and
a few algaroba trees produce most
beautiful effects, and there would be no
call for the botanical display of Tho
mas Square or the scenic illusions of
Kapiolani Park. A shelter from the
tropic sun, retreat from the busy thor
oughfares. a bit of pure Nature in the
midst of the city's MOL and toil,-and
hundreds of lives are better for this re-
placing of dwellings, warehouses and
ugly wharves that bring in little
money. by the beautiful breathing,
places that further our higher prosper
i+v SIBYL.