The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-01-10
ATHLETIC FIELD
IS SUGGESTED
Plan of Boston Outdoor Gym
Might Well Be Taken
Up Here.

A plan to use the Makiki grounds as
an athletic park and to build a cinde1
race track at that place. is creating
| a great deal Of interest among the
local athletes.
| This idea is one which has been most
successfully carried out in the Eastern
/ States and though it is rarely taken
up in the West there is more reason
| for it here than almost anywhere else.
The first city to start work in this
line was Boston, and from that time
to the present, the New England city
had led the United States in athletics
and viii probably continue to do so
for a long time.
The first scheme of this kind was
what is known as the CharIesbanlx
Gymnasium, from the fact that it was
located on the banks of the Charles
River. which separates Boston and
Cambridge. This gymnasium is used
for outdoor athletics entirely. It is
a large plot of. ground, with cinder
track of five laps to the mile. Inside
this track are all the different kinds
of apparatus which an athlete could
desire. Horizontal bars, parallel bars.
hurdles, an enclosure for shot putting,
travelling rings, and every other kind
of apparatus needed, are ready for the
ambitious youngster, or for his older
fellow, who wishes to go into strict
training.
The Charlesbank goes still further
than this. A large clubhouse is pro-
vided. In this are a number of shower
baths, with hundreds of lockers. These
lockers are open to the public. Any
+-1~
enter, register his name, and will then
be given a key to a locker and at
the same time soap and towels. He
can put on his suit of running clothes,
take half mile run on the track, or
practise any other stunt which he
wishes. have his shower and rub
down. and then leave, refreshed and
better, both physically and morally,
for what he has done.
Still further attraction is added.
A trainer, one of the best to be OBJ
tanned in New England, is in charge
of the gymnasium, and his advice can
be had for the asking. If youngster,
who has just started out running,
wants to know what distances he
should take up, he will soon find out
Assistants, who have specialties, such
as shot putting, bar work, and other
like stunts, are also ready with advice
for all who ask it.
The most important thing of all is
that this is free. The city of Boston
pays for everything mentioned. Any
one living in that city is entitled to
the privileges spoken of and both rich
and poor avail themselves of the OPP
portunities. In The Charlesbank, Tom
Burke, for years the champion of the
! United States at half and quarter mile
runs, received his instructions. w. w.
Coe, who broke all the shot-putting
records a year ago. was another de-
votee of this gymnasium, when in
i school. At that time John Bowler,
W no was taken from q position as
athletic instructor at Harvard, by the
offer of a better salary, was in charge
and brought out many of the best
'ner who ever put on a running shoe
in the world. Arthur Duffy, the feet
fc.sted 100-yard man, who has since
hcen declared professional, started
lin at this gymnasium when only fif-
teen years old and developed into q
world beater.
In the same line the gymnasium at
Wood Island, East Boston, is conducts
e., and takes care of the young ath-
letes in that section of the big city.
The younger boys are not allowed to
stIoin themselves to the utmost. but,
/ carefully watched by a man who un-
derstands what limits should be plac-
ed on their exertions, they are de-
veloped into athletes of whom their
city may we'll be proud.
Something of this kind at Makiki.
would certainly be good. We all know
| that the more exercise taken here the
better There is no need for too much
expense at first, but it would certainly
be a great public benefit if an in
stitution based on the lines of those
in Boston should be taken up here.
-s.$-s-