The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-08-13
PROPOSED RELAY RACE ALREADY
GIVING LOCAL ATHLETICS BIG IMPETUS

healthy impetus you are giving to the
playground movement through your
proposed relay race from this city to
Sea Girt. There are many people,
and some of them are to be found
among the aldermen, who labor under
the delusion that the playground move
ment represents nothing higher than a
new nurserymaid system for the keep
ing of little children off the streets.
Talk to the average person about play
grounds and the usual comment will
be: "They are an excellent thing for
the children; it keeps them off the
street Well, the Fairgrounds do keep
a few children off the street. y
A Higher Motive.
But there is a higher, a more far
reaching principle back of the properly
conducted Fairgrounds; it is in the de-
velopment of our rising generation: 1t
is in the building up of our future men
and women; it is the making of good
citizens and the making of good citi-
Zenship means not only a civic better
ment, a social uplifting, but also old
forth the promise of a new generation
OF bigger and better men and women.
If you are not familiar with the inside
operation of our two city Fairgrounds
you will ask, wherein have | and THE
STAR advanced this playground move
ment? Let me tell you.
Explains the system.
First, let me preface by saying that
our two municipal Fairgrounds, while
they are filled by little tots and schoo
children during the day, are at night
thrown wide open to working boys and
working girls. Unlike all other play
grounds ~hereabouts we keep our play
places open every day and every night
in the year. After 6 o'clock in the eve
ming our grounds are, so far as the
limited area will allow, given over to
the toilers in our shops and factories.
We are not able to do half enough for
these young people, and they are the
ones who need healthy recreation and
places where the surroundings are at
tractive more than the smaller ones.
Some of these young men are the kind
that stand around the corners, some
of them go to places where vice in vari-
u forms is the attraction, but we are
trying to make a stronger counter at
traction with our Fairgrounds and /
can say without boasting that we are
succeeding. We are breaking up the
gangs and saving the. police a lot of
trouble.
Relay Race Did This.
This explanation is necessary so that
you can fully comprehend me when I
say that o are giving our playground
movement a healthy, physically and
morally, impetus by this proposed relay
race to Sea Grit. When the first an
nouncement was made in THE STAR
of the proposed race Mr.. ~Tanenbaum
and Mr.. Birn, the c%ustodians of the two
Fairgrounds, called some of the young
fellows together on the Fairgrounds
and suggested hat they enter the race.
The suggestion was eagerly acted upon
and there and hat very night a
group of young men n some boys
started off on a practise sprint to the
of the city. They did not
regulation running shoes or the
proper clothes for that kind of work.
but the youngsters of the tenements
to do without so many things hat
the absence of these equipments did
not bother them. Since then every
night in fair weather and foul there
have been practise runs from the play
grounds to some point a few miles dis
tant.
Anxious for Run.
Now, here is where you gave the i'm
petus to our work; When the Gus
todians saw that the enthusiasm of the
young men was aroused, for they took
to the idea like hot cakes, each
night the number of runners was aug
mented by young men who had not
come to the grounds. Some
there We're as many as fifty or
sixty runners They started from their
respective grounds and ran to and
around Weequahic Park, to Irvington
Centre, to Millburn, and are planning
for runs next week along the river
road. Some of them procured proper
running gear, and all of them, at the
suggestion of the custodians, came to
the grounds with an extra suit of
suitable for running In. AT
the conclusion of the run they would
return to the Fairgrounds. The GUS
todians accompanied them. on bicycles
to give hints as they went along on
the proper way TO carry themselves,
and when to jog and when to sprint.
They have a single shower bath on
the first city playground In South