Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1897-10-02

sult-How 1t Was Done.
This town has furnished an entirely
new method for getting from the "pow-
ers that be" in the city government the
things that are wanted, writes Cam
den correspondent of the New York
Herald. This new method is summed
up in one word-woman. She it is who
found way to give Camden a public
park when all else and everybody else
had failed. The park is now an estab-
lished fact, the grounds are being
cleared, the money has been paid for it,
the women will have charge of it, and
it is possible that Camden will get
high school thrown in.
For years the people of this city have
been crying for public park. Some of
the young men who started the early
agitation or helped to voice the senti-
ments of the people are old, gray haired
grandfathers now. They worked and
toiled with the subject, but all to no
avail. Years and years ago the city was
offered a strip of woodland near what
is now Sixth and Penn streets for mere
song. 1t was coed sized piece of
ground. People then thought it would
be extravagant to buy the plot. Later
this became a summer garden with
liquor attachment and was called Dia-
mond Cottage grove because of the dia-
mond shape of the windows in the old
cottage that stood in the midst of the
tall trees. The onward sweep of the
years wiped this out, or big piece of
it, and five blocks or more of dwellings
now stand Oh the western and southern
sides of the plot. 1t is immensely valu-
able ground now, and Camden is sorry
her former rulers were foolish enough
to let the bargain slip away from them.
AS the years have gone on it has been
more and more manifest that this city
ought to provide breathing places for
the children and working people.
Time and again the men tried it.
Some ten years ago former Judge D. ].
Pancoast headed citizens movement
that demanded a public park, and two
newspaper men went out with blank
petitions. In two weeks or less they
had some 5000 or 10000 signatures
asking for the park But they did not
get it. Later the city council really did
undertake to get a big tract along Coop
er's creek, known as Red hill. This got
all tied up in the courts and was aban-
doned as hopeless.
just about the time all the men in
town had given the thing up and ac-
cepted the declaration of the city au-
thorities that the tax rate would not
stand it and there was no authority to
issue bonds, so a park was an impossi-
bility, along came call for meeting
of women to arrange for park. The
announcement was at once laughed at.
The laughing was done on the quiet,
however, for no one wanted to "hurt
the feelings of the ladies, who really
mean well, You know" The meeting
was held and the new movement was
launched, with DR.. Sophia Presley as
the president. The fact that DR.. Presley
was put at the head of it rather reduced
the size of the smile, because she was
the first woman in the state of New
Jersey to secure membership in a regu-
Atel diStiSoA sSClSly. Iuo uOGtOI WSu1
right at work on the park with the
other women, a mere handful at the
start, They called a public meeting at
the Y. M. G. A. rooms, had some short
addresses-one by one of the newspaper
men who had circulated the former pc
tition, another by a lawyer, and DR..
Presley did some talking herself.
Nothing was heard of the organiza-
tion for awhile. 1t was called the
Women's Park association, but all the
time some quiet work was going on
This was the good part of it, The men
had failed to win the politicians over.
There was another way of success, and
some bright woman's mind discovered
it. They simply went around with
little membership list, visited the
homes of the politicians, and before
anybody knew it had as members of the
organization the wife of every politi-
clan, councilman and officeholder in
the town, and if the man they were
after did not happen to be married they
went after and secured the support of
his best girl. With this excellent ground
work laid they set to work. The result
of the work is that the council asked
and secured from the New Jersey legis-
lature power to issue $75, 200 worth of
bonds for IA park. With this money a
plot near Second and Cooper streets was
purchased.
At the last meeting of the city coun
Gil the park was named Cooper park
and, as recognition of the work done
by the women, was placed in their care.
AT the last meeting of the school board
that body voted to the women the use
of the school yards of the city as little
parks or Fairgrounds for the children
for the summer. The Pennsylvania rail
road has given the women the use of
big plot of ground at Cooper's point for
the same purpose, and the old Diamond
Cottage grove, or what is left of it, has
also been turned over to the women un-
til it is wanted for building upon.
The women have done by strategy
what the men for a long time tried to
10 by making big fight.
The building and ground of Cooper
park were formerly the property of the
Coopers, who founded Cooper hospital.
The grounds are now being cleared of
everything except the old mansion, and
the women have a proposition before
the school hoard fnr tba uco of th;s