The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-29

New York Times.
 It was not 50 very long ago that the recreation centre was an unknown thing. The idea of what may be called
 organized recreation" Is new one. But it has gained SO many converts sSs ss rapidly and SC successfully that now recreation centres are as firmly estap- tished as if they were the growth or many years of toll. Most innovations need e long time to take root 1t was not so with this one; the explanation of it's immediate and powerful appeal not only to the trained mind of an educator, but to the intelligence Of the average man or woman.
 Outsiders. when they come to New York, have noticed that the tnhabit- ants of this city always deal in super lattvea. That is the biggest apart mont house in the world or That 10 the tallest office building in the world" Is what the visitor is continually hear ing He notices that New Workers either have, or think they have. the biggest and best of everything. We'll. the recreation schools furnish another opportunity to use a superlative New York has the finest system of recrea- 3ion schools in the world. This Is an . admitted fact. Cities of Europe have begun to take lessons from the New
 The supremacy of New York in this direction is largely due to the efforts and the zeal of a woman. She Is Miss E Whitney and her ote'sl Charge of Vacation Schoolss Play grounds and Recreation Centres" She has built up, with the help of q group of fRfthful assistants, the system which Is now in force in New York and which is growing larger and better every year.
 The experiment is now no longer an experiment; 1t has gone beyond that stage. The Board of Education re- cognizes 1t as an important, sneces- sary. part in the general sch She of education. In Superintendent Max wells report to the Boarq of Education substantial chapter Is given up to Mas Whitney's description of the work that has been done a.-d the work that must still be done
 For If New York has the best recre- atlon centres now, 1t can also be sad that it still needs others more than any other city in the country. It is an uphill flight for the school author ities to keep up with the tide of i'm migration-a tide that brings in so much ignorance and poverty. There are thousands of boys and girls who attend these recreation centres--there are thousands more whose only play ground is the street and who are only too ready to seize whatever opportuni- ty is held out to them.
 Much has been written on the edu- cation of the African and the Indian" says Mss Whitney; but comparatively little upon the education of the street waifs and those in the way of bscom- ing such. It Is particularly this class which recreation centres endeavor to reach"
 .s The fact that only bows and girls over fourteen years old were admitted to the centres last year shows how great is the need of further facilities Iudeed, 1t seems that if a slum kid" has to live in filth and even In ignor- ance of what cleanliness and health full recreation are until he is fourteen, the chances Of materially improv- ing him are injured. It is vain to hope that the great system will be anything like complete for years, but 1t Is going further and further toward perfection all the time. Only when all children ~ all ages can find aeeomodations will theFe be enough recreation centres in New York.
 If any one has curiosity as to how long this will be, let him take a trolley car at his door, transfer to a Delancey Street horse ear. and alight in the neighborhood of the Williamsburg Bridge The multitude of children will almost make him dizzy, and unless he is man of wonderful confidence and hope he will shake his head In de- spaif. But confidence. together with unabating industry, is just what the deyotees of the idea possess Even though they know that when they are dead much of the work will stll Je unfinished. they kept steadily at 1t. oetermined to leave the system in as finished state as possible when they naye to leave tt at ail.
 Hast year the total attendance at ehe city's twenty three evening reorea- eiOn centres amounted to l,S44.629. The average nightly attendance was 6,1s1. 0 ie much greater than that now. There were tens of thousands who were ready to get in, but there wasn't room for them. The readiness of the children themselves to respond to all efforts on. the part of Mss Whitney and her neutenants Is the great en- couraging feature of the work The child of the slums sees enough of the street; If you show him a vision of padded mats and parallel bars he win go to any length-he will even wash hIs face-to get to them.
 Persons who have never seen or read of the recreation centres ate apt to get a false impression of what they really are. Recreation at these places does not mean mere amusement. but far more The play idea is always