The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-28
FOR THE CHILD
An Eloquent Plea Made
For Fairgrounds.
What IS Being Done by the Leaders.
Advancement In Many
CitieS-FrOebe


FroebeI, the lover and student OF
children, says: Through his play the
child first begins to perceive moral re- /
lations," for in his play he reproduces .
the world around him. The child
reared IN q home CT squalor and sur
rounded by an atmosphere CT degener- +
ate morals, can have no other idea in
his so-caIled play, than to copy the life
to which he is accustomed. The en- /
bryo citizen. then, in his earliest infan- F.
cy, inculcates into his young being, q
repetition Of the vice which surrounds
him, thus paving the way for the vic
iCus type he Will present in later years, /
of brutal manhood.
Some one has said that the. physical
welfare of children means the happi-
ness Of future humanity. The state
ment carries deep meaning, and more
over is absolutely true. 1t has been
publicly recognized before now, as a
fact Of serious import. and so much
consideration is given to the question
and the Importance attached thereto.
that in the large cities of m0dernized
Europe, the government has for many
years made special provision for the
maintenance of public Fairgrounds
for children.
The Importance of having these Te-
served spaces in the cOngested districts
where humanity is deprived Of its due
quota of fresh air and sunshine is a
point specially noticeable.
London has long since recognized the
necessity Of providing recreation and
breathing spaces for the swarming hive
which stiI5 ceaselessIy in her streets.
Particularly is this so in the case Of
the children of the poor, for over three
hundred public Fairgrounds are estab-
lished in the most crowded parts of the
city, and the government is constantly
providing more grounds, though being
obliged to tear down old buildings and
tenements in order to obtain an open
space.
Paris has over d hundred small parks
and Fairgrounds, and the present ad-
ADMINISTRATION is making active endeay-
Ors towards the increasing Of these in
the poorest and densest part of the
city In Berlin the Fairgrounds for
children number eighty, in Hamburg
there are sixty, Dresden has thirty-five,
in fact they are established by the mu-
nicipal authorities in all the cities Of
Germany, in numbers according to the
size of the population.
These facts are significant, they at
test the right Of the child to larger
inheritance than that to which he is
born; that in his play he can be taught
the ethics Of good citizenship; and that
out OF lawlessness. through proper di-
recting, can come the respect for, and
observance CT, law and order.
Our own country has come at last to
a realizing sense of the importance OF,
not only giving them the place, but Of
teaching these children of the street
| how to play.
The knowledge Of how to fight is in
stinctive with them, playing as recre-
alton is an unknown joy.
| Within the past fifteen years public
Fairgrounds for children have been
opened in many Of the principal cities
of the United States.
| Philadelphia takes the lead in this
direction, and that prominence is due
to the efforts of a foreigner, Slogan
| Tsanoff, who, coming to America to
| learn the best way to enlighten his
own benighted land of Bulgaria, found
so large a field for reform among the
street gamins OF Philadelphia, that he
directed all his energies towards the
overcoming Of the evils Of the street
play. For he saw there power which,
wisely directed, would make a strong
character of the lawless child, and he
realized that only through the child's
play could this result be obtained.
Through his endeavors Philadelphia
had her first public playground. and
I0thers followed quickly. The Woman S
Civic Club has taken up the work and