Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-30
CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND.
Superintendent Beach Thinks Little
 Ones Have Some Rights.

l superintendent Beach of the police
 department thinks Waterbury ism
 doing the right thing by the chil-
 dren. Say" remarked the superin-
 tendent to a Democrat reporter this
 morning, did it ever occur to you
 that Waterbury has no playground
 for children, except Hamilton park,
 and little ones cant go there every | time they want exercise. I was down
 in Simonsville the other day and
 came home by way of Baldwin street, just as the children were being dis
 missed from school, and after look
 ing at the army of pupils turned
 loose from Mulcahy, Washington, | Merriam and the convent schools couldn't help wondering what all of
 these do for playground, consider
 ing that there is no place set aside | for that purpose by the city.
 I mention this because quite fre-
 quently we get telephone message to send an officer to such and such a place to drive children away that are
 amusing themselves on the street, or probably in somebody's back yard or lot. I appreciate the fact that pri-
 
 maintain playgrounds for the chill dren of the community, but where are the children going for little re- creation? There is Baldwin street, for example, with thousands of chill dren and no playground except mar row street with a trolley running through the center and either side blocked with teams. The same con- ditions exist in other sections of the town and yet you never hear any body call attention to 1t. When the children collect on the streets the first officer who comes along chases them home; if they go into some body's lot they are driven onto the street again, so that really most of the children of this town have no playground but the public streets. and when they cut up there they have one eye on the officers and the other watching out for trolley cars and other vehicles. Once in a while one of them becomes so absorbed fin the sport, he forgets and falls vic tim to the trolley car or some other vehicle and if he isn't killed he is probably maimed for life.
 What I wanted to say was that I think a great deal of this hardship which children are put to in finding suitable places to amuse themselves. could be removed at a small outlay on the part of the city by renting tracts of undeveloped ground and converting them into public play grounds for children. How much do you suppose this would cost? Very little. I should say. and l know of nothing that would be greater ben eft to children. to say nothing of the peace of mind 1t would bring to fath- CTS and mothers who would know that their children were safe on pri- vate property instead of in danger of getting into trouble on the streets. I'm afraid too many of us forget the time when we were young and want ed lots of room to stir about know there are youngsters in Waterbury who ought to be in jail, but the num- Der Is very small compared with the whole and for that reason it does seem to me that something should be done to furnish suitable places of for children whose par ents cannot afford to take them to the shore or maintain large tracts of land where their children can romp without being driven out and charg- ed with being trespassers."
 This is a mater that has been hinted at on and of by City Engineer Cairns. but nothing ever was done improving the situation un- Gil recently when Mayor Thoms sug- gested the selection of playground for children at the old Locust street school grounds.