Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-23
NEW YORK GOSSIP
What the Big City Does for
Her Poor.
FREE BATHS AND ICE
RRECREATIoN PIERS AND A GOOD
BAND PLAYING.
Pasturized Milk for the Sick Babies
The Vacation
Schools.
FREE BATHS AND ICE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
NEW YORK, July o. 1904.
| There would be no fairness in withhold
ing from New York the credit belonging
to 1t for the admirable methods 1t en-
ployes for alleviating the suffering Of the
poor and especially for furnishing enter
tainment and breathing space for poor
children during the hot months.
Efghty-two vacation schools, so-called.
and well-called. are now open to the East
Side children of New York and others will
be open as rapidly as preparations can be
made. The idea is a new one. not only
in New York, but in the world. 1t hap
pens that the school grounds of a school
| situate In the heart Of a tremendously
| congested tenement district is often, II
not invariably, the only open space In
the neighborhood, and the only space ca
pable or being kept sweet and clean dur
| ing the heated spell. 1t was a wise head
| which suggested that these schools and
grounds, thus located, could be kept open
curing the summer months to the vast
advantage OF the poor young ones. The
| loea was adopted this year. right on ton
OF the suggestion. The ample and shaded
GROUNDS surrounding most of the schools
| set aside as vacation schools during the
| summer months offer play spots for the
children, under mild supervision. such
as the majority ofahem could never find
ELSEWHERE and they are kept off the
streets and away from vicious influences
| at the same time. Classes competentIy
| heaoed are formed, not for the purpose
Oh taxing the childrens minds during the
| months devoted to the vacation but for
| the purpose of giving those of thorn Who
| want TO avail themselves Of the adyan-
tase the foundation of a trade The vaca-
.lon schools, in this respect, are non-com-
Puisory open-air industrial schools run
during the summer months at which oil
! Sorts or manual trades. from basketrv TO
carpentry are taught by men who know
now TO teach them
| The children whose parents do not o,.
| 10 nave them go In even for these mild and
instructive employments during the vaca-
eioi period are not required to take up
| anything, but just to have all the nm
| they want to on the school grounds during
the vacation school hours and nick nm the
| elements of becoming behavior under the
| hllo tutelaSe OF women trained in caring
! Tor children in their hours of unrestra inf
| Every imaginable game with the gear re-
| CURED. Is furnished for the amusement of
| the children. and all of them, girls and
| poys, are given systematic physical train
! ing at the vacation schools, primarily for
| the purpose of keeping them in good con-
| dition during the hot weather. but also with
the idea of intoxicating in them healthy
| love OF exercise and outdoor sports. Baths
| shower and plunge, are provided for them
| and they are required to take them this
being about the only mandatory practice
| of the vacation schools
The Band Plays.
At stated evenings, band concerts are
| provided In the school grounds not only
| for the benefit and enjoyment of the young
| sters, but for the delectation of their
| tagged out. heat-tortured parents No
more praiseworthy idea has ever been car
| ried to quick and successful fruition in
| New York than the establishment of these
vacation schools, and members of the
| boards Of education from other cluttered
! ntti DIV ,lx.;,,
the conduct of the institutions, with the
! purpose of urging their establishment and
| maintenance in the other congested cities
| The recreation piers of New York for the
| poor Of all ages and classes that have been
running for many years and undergoing
| constant Improvement are equally praise
worthy institutions. All of them To-
| Gated at the water ends of streets that
| would yield the municipality large revenues
| IL the pier space were to be used for COM
] mercial purposes. but the schemes of hard
| ened grafters to abolish the recreation
| piers on the ground that they "conduced to
! immortality" and to barter them for leas
/ ing purposes to the highest-biddng steam
| ship companies, have all been knocked in
the head by the always ponderable ma
! jority Of conscientious men who run the
| New York city government and maintain
saving warfare against the schemers.
| The immortality cry as to the recrea-
ton piers, which has been raised 80 often
! during recent years by the underhanded
| chaps in cahoots with steamship companies
| ambitious to obtain the recreation pier sites
! for their own uses, is the purest moonShine.
| There Is no immortality on the recreation
| piers. which are under the dilisent but not
interfering espionage of ample police
! guards. The recreation piers splendidly
| serve the purpose for which they
| meant to serve-to give the painting and
| heat-wilted tens of thousands of New
York's tenement-environed poor breathing
| spaces and nightly opportunity during the
| blazing months of renewing themselves
| physically against the labors of the NOR
| row.
Liberal With Music.
| Band concerts, and exceeding good ones
are given nightly on all of the recreation
piers. The liberality, by the way, with
which the municipality of New York fur
nishes music for the enjoyment of the poor
| is a matter which has often commanded the
| attention and the admira ton of foreign
| critics disposed to sharpness in their re-
| marks with respect to many other phases
| of New Yorks governmental system. In
| every downtown park in New York-and
there are many of them-eXcellent band
| concerts are given as often as three or four
| nights a week. This has been going on for
a number Of years, and the effect of these
| concerts in building up among the humble
love for really good music. as opposed to
musical rubbish, has already been naked
| 1t has come to pass that most of the park
| programs of the band are now comprised of
request" pieces, and the pieces requested
| by these humble folk who congregate in
the parks on the hot summer nights have
come to be of an astonishngly high class A
| few years ago all of the request pieces
without exception. were the most grotesoue
and common of the ragtime COMPOSITIONS
and 1t is curious to observe how the tastes
of the poor In respect to their free music
has changed all over the city of New York.
Public Baths
Consider, too. the splenddly-contrfyed
public baths of New York, on both water
fronts. twenty-eight of them and all of
them run on liberal and expensive scale
out of the public funds of New York-on so
| liberal Scale in truth, like other provisions
made by the city for the comfort and en-
tertainment of New York's poor, that there
have not been lacking cries of "paternal-
ism" and Socialism on the part of testy
taxpayers who have their summer estates
at Newport and their steam yachts In COM
mission all the year around. These public
baths, long ago established have come to
be an actual necessity for the poor of New
York. and it is difficult to apprehend what
they would do without them should they by
any chance be closed now. Tens of thou
sands of boys and girls and men and women
avail themselves of the public baths on
hot do bod Iatl