Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-08-18
LYNN'S FIFTY YEARS.
LIFE is PLEASANT IN THIS NEW ENG
LAND TOWN.
An Industrial City T:at is Not Too
Busy to Neglect the Beautiful.
Splendid Public Library and n
Wonderful Forest Park.

Splendid Public Library and n
Wonderful Forest Park.
The fifticth anniversary of the city
of Lynn, which was Incorporated in
May, 1850 has recently been cclcbrat-
ed. Lynn is very frank and com
pletC product of modern American in
duStrialism. Before the manufacture
of shoes was begun there in a system
attic way, after the invention of the
sewing machine, between 1910 and
1850, 1t was no more than n country
village, surrounded with great tracts
of forest, marsh and rocky fell country.
1t was practically no more than Il rus
tic calling station on the road between
Boston and Salem.
Elias Howe's machine and the es-
tabliShment of shoe factories soon
changed all that. The town was built
up almost wholly on the factory sys-
TEN and has become as complete
product as may be of that factory syS-
TEN of which 1t has been sail by a
popular economist that II is ugly, dis
agreeable, mechanical, injurious to
public health and II danger to the ma
tional existence"
This application of the factory sys-
tcm, indeed, has resulted in some
things which are highly desirable and
which tend to make the life of a poor
man, and particularly the life of the
poor mans child, more agreeable and
fortunate t..an that of the vast ma jor
ity of the poor people of the world. If,
for instance, the poor boy of Lynn,
coming from his barely possible tcne-
mcnt house home-thcrc are few tcne-
ment houses in Lynn-to Il public
school, Is sent out to obtain statistics
as to the comparative cost of lis cdu-
cation, he goes to n SumptuOuS public
library for the purpose. There. sitting
at a massive oak table, an original
work of art, especially designed and
carved to suit the architecture of the
hall, he turns the leaves of documents
which are placed before him by an at
tendant and ascertains that he is IA
vorcd among all the school children in
the world in point of the annual eX-
penditurc for his education.
He glanceS up at beautiful dCcOra-
ton, painted by gifted artist (of New
York, by the Way), at Il large cost. rep
resentng the 'Awakcning of Igno-
rance" and representing the angel of
universal enlightenment pointing some
astOniShcd primitive barbarians to the
ideal modern city looming above the
clouds. The child, impressed by these
things goes back to the school where
he is being so admirably educated. but
if he is healthy boy his mind proba-
bly, will turn away from the expensive
instruction which is being bestowed
upon him to the uncXamplcd facilities
for open air recreation with which this
badly induStrialiZcd community has
provided him. His mind wanderS to
the great Lynn woods, that noble pub
lie forest. or, if the weather is warm,
to the farreaching Lynn beach. which
Is really very remarkable ocean side
terrace, where the municipality has
provided him with free bathing and
general recreation facilities.
This beach quite equals that at Co
ney Island. and it Is rounded out at
either extremity by n much finer nat
ural prospect. The Lynn woods are
worthy of Il letter by themselves. Just
behind the city, within half mile OF
some of its most important structures,
there stretches Il great eXpansc of nat
ural and rocky woodland more than
1000 acres in extent. Within it the
sites of former sWamps are occupied
by pretty lakes. There are evergreen
glens, footpaths winding along rocky
slopes and smooth drives, where. if
the poor boy possesses a wheel, as
most of the poor boys of Lynn do, he
may ride it amid sylvan solitudes for
hours.
To provide this great recreation
ground for the people and preserve
forever the natural beauty of the for
est, where the ancient wolf pits of the
early settlers still exist intact, the city
of Lynn several years ago not only
gave vast sum outright, but decided
to forcgo the opportunity for cXpan-
sion and its well to do citizens the
chance of profitable real estate invest
mcnts and dedicate the whole space
to the people. There is not noblcr
or more beautiful public park in the
United States than this one provided
by an enlightened public policy in this
highly "induStrialized" city of $1,000
Inhabitants.
Between the municipal ocean side
terrace in front and the municipal pub
lie forest behind this little city of
Lynn extends in thin gray red line.
1t is not at all remarkable for the
beauty of its architecture, but it is re-
markable for what we are not suppOs-
ed to expect in factory town--the
number of its modest and thrifty
homes. The tenement house system
is practically abandoned. AS for thar
matter, it is abandoned throughout
New England. | may remark, paren-
thetically, that in Fall River, which
has been in the past one of the worst
examples in America of the factory
and tenement house system, the mill
corporations are tearing down their
cannot get anybody to live in them.
The operatives have acquired homes
of their own. and the little houses of
the poor are stretching far eastward
and nOrthward into the region which,
ten years ago, was a continuous wood.
At Lynn there is still, owing to this
determination of the people to live
in such little houses of their own, much
of the appearance of a big country vii
lage, but with this country town look
there has gone n very remarkable de-