Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-05
RECALLS THE EARLY DAYS
PRESIDENT CUNO 81. RUDOLPH
DISCUSSES FAIRGROUNDS.
What They Mean to City-Not All
Plain Sailing, But Persist
ency Won Day.

President Cuno II. Rudolph of the Wash
ington Playground Association is highly
gratified over the showing which the chill
dren made In their annual tournament at
Van Ness Park yesterday and Tuesday
| afternoons. While he was waiting for the
| end of the shower that unfortunately broke
up the games for the colored Children, the
| playground president discussed with several
! persons interested in the movement-among
| them Mrs. Allen Spencer Mussey, chairman
| of the playground committee of the board of
education; Commissioner West, who was on
! hand to award the medals and banners,
and Supervisor Henry S. Curtis of the To-
| cal grounds-the success of the work among
! the youngsters of the city within a few
| short years.
There certainly is a difference between
| the way they acted today. and the way they
| acted when we first jumped into this
work" said Mr.. Rudolph, his eyes twin
king as he thought of the early troubles of
the association.
when Mr. Charles F. Weller of the AS
| ISOLATED Charities and l became interested
In the matter, through the suggestion of
President Roosevelt. in the spring of 1903,
! we found we had absolutely new ground
| to work in, and. strange to say, we en-
! countered the greatest difficulty with the
| parents of the youngsters whom we were
| trying to help.
| First Playground.
1.-The first playground was in Mr.. Weller's
| little back yard at Neighborhood House,
! 46S street southwest We were enabled
! to get things under way through the kind
ness Of a good lady, who still refuses to
| allow US to mention her name, who con-
! tributed 5000 toward the movement. The
| children came all right; they thought 1t
| was great fun. But, my, how dirty they
| were, and what poor manners they had!
| Then, when We tried to make them mend
| o1a ar,d
| act like little ladies and gentlemen, we
heard from many Of their parents who in
| dignantly declared that we were trying to
put notions into their children's heads.
| Shortly after we received the $500
| committee was organized to further the
| plan, and we Immediately went into debt
| for $40 for equipment We started to
| equip the old Pipe lot on NJ street south
west, now all built up. That was the Sec
| ond Playground
| Mr. Rudolph laughed again as he re-
lated the troubles he and the other mem
| bers of the committee had with another
| class of DIRECTORS to the Fairgrounds.
| Her Literary Work.
These were the people," he went on,
who objected to the Fairgrounds in their
| neighborhood on account of the noise made
| by the youngsters in their play. We had
to call on many Of them and bring them to
| terms We nearly always were successful,
| too. 1 recall an instance of a lady who
wrote us a letter in complaint of the noise
| and who stated that the youngsters inter-
| fered with her literary work. / went
| around to see her and found her literary
| aspirations were represented by three
| volumes of Mrs E. D. E. n. Southworth's
novels, two Observation-Disclosures stories Of the
dime variety, couple of newspapers and
three or four out-of-date magazines.
soon persuaded her that she could do
splendid work by not interfering with the
| innocent rompngs of the children who had
no other place but the pubic playground
| in which to play.
LAS our work progressed we were able
| to interest few more persons in the move
ment. The contributions we received were
| not large. but they Were expressive of
good will that we appreciated. Then, too.
there were any number of encouraging let
tiers, so we kept on.
The Supervisors.
"Our first supervisor was Mr.. E. T. Burk-
halter, who was succeeded nearly two years
ago by DR.. Henry S. Curtis. Now we are
fairly under way and are justly proud of
the showing the children are making.
You should have seen the first two
tournaments we had in the old coliseum
in the northeast, SO that you could COM
pare the helter-skelter work of the chill
| dren. over whom we had practically no
control, with the conditions today. You
could note the difference between the
way the youngsters are dressed, See how
much cleaner are their faces and hands,
and how much more politely they act
toward one another and toward the di
rectors."
Mr.. Rudolph went on to say that the
public of Washington had been very
generous to the association especially
this year, when less money was received
from Congress than last year. The asso-
ciation however, is still in need IF about
81 900 to carry on the work among the
$4,000 children Of the city already
and, of course, could use much more to a
great advantage in establishing new
grounds.
Among the Helpers.
Among those whose early efforts made
the playground movement the success it
is today are Miss Van Trump. Commodore
Sutton. Mrs. Gillian, Miss Ryan, Miss
Greene, Miss Towner, Mrs. Mussey, Mr..
G. A. Weber Mrs Fernandez, Prof. Craig,
Col. Symonds and exCommissioner Bid
die.
Several of the playground directors have
| been busy today in hanging the Industrial
work in the lower classrooms of the Frank
| lin school, where 1t will remain on exhibit
| ton until Friday, September 49, from to
5 o'clock every day. The articles were re-
moved from the Van Ness mansion, where
they had been on view.
There has been much more industrial
work done this year than in any previous
year, and the children, 1t Is declared have
shown a decided increase in interest and
skill In the crochetfng and reed and raffia
work which forms the exhibit. The Play
ground Association invites visitors to the
Franklin school to look In at the lower
classrooms and see the work.