The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-17
BETTER THINGS IN NEW YORK.
Rffs on Some Phases of Mayor Lows
Administration.
New York Telegram.

New York Telegram
Jacob A Riis is authority for the state
ment that Mayor Low said to his asso-
ciates at the commencement of his present
term of office:
1--WE will do three things. Whatever else
goes undone we will take care of the chill
dren, We will take care of the sick and We
will take care OF the poor" And in Mr..
Kiss opinion Mr.. Low has done it.
1t was to the Twentieth Century Club, OF
Richmond Hill, l.. l., at its opening meet
ing that Mr.. Riis quoted the present city
executive, although Mr.. Riis insisted he
was not making a political speech
Mayor Low told me at the time that
those had been his words. Any one who
has seen what has been accomplished dur
ing his administration will realize that he
has kept his promise. 1t seems as If we had
lived fifty years in the last two" Mr.. Riis
said, enthusiastically, $50 great has been
the progress in all improvements
1T has been worth while living in these
last two years." he continued, ''jus. to see
the city.s progress. In the latter part of
Mayor Strongs administration, when he
appointed parks committee, of which |
was made secretary, to select sites for chill
dren's Fairgrounds, there was not one in
Manhattan. Now the city is well laid out
afresh in an automobile ride the other day,
which l took just to see these places. When
Mulberry Bend went and the park took it's
place, although our reasons for clearing
the place were others, We found we had
won the whole children's cause for the Sec
ton; The city is now little Elysium for
children were toughs naturally, because
they had only the cutters to play in. At
the beginning of his. present term Mayor
Low told me that whatever might be left
undone he intended that children, the sick
and the poor should be cared for. And they
have been under this administration.
II don't know what genius 1t was that
decided 1t would be good to plant a few
trees the vacant plots of the city. A
sandy lot Is always scene of disorder
Look at Tompkins Square Park to-day,
wind blown, and helped the police in that
year TO Quell riot on the spot There
were broken heads on the occasion, for the
square was then the meeting place of An
archists and all sorts Of rebellious persons.
For twenty-eight years there have been no
Anarchists in Tompkins Square. The BAN
ner that read Blood and Bread no longer
floats there. 1t Is out of fashion.
There is the De Witt Clinton Park. Go
and see what Mrs. Henry Parsons has
done there. She Is a whole womans club
has called the park department to
stand and deliver and 1t has done so.
She has gathered around her the children
of neighborhood that, in my. memory,
turned out the most disreputable toughs in
the city. Such is their affection and re-
spect for her that not a board is missing in
the fence that surrounds the garden. In
the old days the gangs of that part of the
city tore down a whole frame house and
burned it, Now property in the neighbor-
hood Is respected.
1T makes mans heart glow to see how
things in the city have come out right be-
cause they were insisted upon. Things al
ways will come out right If they are in
sisted upon-they will spring right up.
There were four years all but waste after
Mayor Strongs committee had selected the
sites for ten parks. almost nothing being
done, because the new administration was
busy with the annexing of Greater New
York 1t took ten years to clean out Null
berry Bend. These municipal improve
ments were insisted upon and they have
come out beautifully right