The herald., 1896-08-02
A CHlLDREN'S PLAYGROUND
cogent Reasons Offered fot Establishing
These In Large Cities

| cogent Reasons Offered for Establishing
I These In Large Cities
Comptroller Fitch, General Coils and
| President Cruger. as members of the
| board of street opening, have received
| the following petition, praying for the
opening of the first municipal playground
| in New York city, at the foot of East
| Seventy-sixth street:
| Permit us to urge upon the board of
| street opening and improvement favora-
| BILE action at an early day upon the pc
| t1tionS for the establishment of q small
park on the East river between Seven
| ty-sixth and Seventy-eighth streets, for
| the following reasons:
THE East Side house has maintained
| for five years at its own expense a play
ground or small park on the East river
| front extending from Seventy fifth to
Seventy-sixth street. This piece of
property, 200x75 is favorite resort of
| the neighhors within a quarter of a mile
| radius. Here parents and children come
| during the summer months from early
morning until late in the evening. 1t is
provided with six swings, a sand box
covered pavilion and benches, and
| built out in the river is an enclosed SWIM
ming bath, S0x20, for boys
THE proposed exterior street and sea
wall will destroy all this public resort
| and deprive the neighborhood of much
esteemed and very beneficial Mace of
| recreation and health.
THE managers and friends Of the set
Element ask the city authorities to set
apart for the public good the plot of
ground between Seventy-sixth and Sew
enty- eighth streets. and extending about
SUI feet west of the new exterior street
rms is now vacant. 1t is everywhere
underlaid with rock, and represents
value in house lots not to exceed $3.50 600
1T is admirably adapted. at a very small
expense, Tor the purposes of a small
park for the people-an open breathing
and resting place and Playground; not
q Place OF shorn grass and guarded
MOVERS To plant and protect (while
growing) shade trees. to erect a cover
from the sun, to build seats and make
easy approaches; such improvements
are all that would be required to make
the place what it should be for the pur
pose desired"
The petition is signed by Bishop Pot
ter, j. Pierrepont Morgan. Everett p
wheeler. X. Fulton Cutting. John Sa
pine Smith, Edward r. Satterlee. s Y.
X. Cruger. Pierre Jay, Henry X. Pom
roy, A. Mclean Parker, Prof. Franklin
n. GiddinSs and Clarence Gordon as
managers and officers of the Fast Side
house settlement. Accompanvins ihe
paper is the following plea for the play-
ground on the part of the Good Govern
ment CLUBS. who support the petitioners
in their request
Ch penalI or the council of confeder-
ateo 5000 government clubs, and by its
direction. l beg leave to add the strone
Endorsement of that body to the request
maze by the East Side house settlement.
Inc history of our city teaches clearly |
the truth, long since recognized in older |
communities, that crime in the great |
cities is largely question of athletics:'
that is, of chance for the children to |
play. The murders of the Five Points |
ana the Mulberry Bend ceased with the |
ADVENT OF Paradise park and the Bend /
park, that wiped out the shameful rock !
cries. Tompkirs square ceased to be
a storm center, the scene of bread-or-
blood riots, from the day it was changed !
from sand lot intoFhe white garden
Of today. The ruffianism of Poverty !
gap vanished when PUBLIC spirited citi- i
zenS opened a playground upon the site
of its worst tenements
In pursuit of this experience, and in |
recognition of the claim Of the children ,
of the poor to fairer chance. the small /
parks We're planned, the relief from |
winch we are at last to realize. In bet !
ter understanding of it, the legislature |
School, shafl Nave playground attach
to it. But this provision came too late
to he applied to the East River Park, the
only one near the site of the proposed
public playground. The children of the
up town East Side have no sporting
lots which will not much longer be va
cant now
The proposed playground has a good
chance of becoming a fact The mayor
and the comptroller and the other men,
bers of the board of street opening have
gone over the plan and given 1t individ-
ually their strong adherence The cost
Of the property asked for will probably
not be over 100000, even if that much.
It is at present a rocky waste, rising 70
the height Of ten to fifteen feet above
the street, and sloping up from the
river opposite the East Side house. The
latter is an old dwelling on the bluff,
approaching by a series of steps.--New
York Evening Sun.
Newell, the New England healer has
purchased the famous mineral springs
at Sadawga, VT, where he is TO put up
a bottling house and do a large business
with the water The SDriuCs are on the