The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1910-11-02
PLAYGROUND IS ASSURED
Spring Will See the Establish
ment of Much Needed Recre-
alton Park on West Side.

North Yakima is to have a recre-
alton park next spring. Women's
! organizations have talked parks and
| Fairgrounds for a long time, and
have tried to influence the city coun-
Gil to take some action towards set
ting aside convenient sites for park
use before the land in desirable To-
cations has increased too greatly in
price. One club took steps towards
acquiring a park site itself, but found
the financial burden too heavy.
Now. through the generosity of
two pioneer citizens, the Messrs. Ar
thur and Stanley Coffin, the city is
to have a recreation park and the
children a playground, and that, too,
| in location where the need for
place of shade and greenness is es-
pecially apparent The park is to
be on the west side, somewhere be-
tween Sixth and Eighth avenues, the
hill crest and slope of the bench
on which the high scool stands to
be adapted to park purposes. Mr..
Arthur Coffin says that they are
planning a toboggan chute where the
children of the neighborhood can
summer this can be turned into a
wagon slide. There will be trap
ezes on which young acrobats may
be developed, horizontal bars, sand
boxes for the babies, and in short an
adequate equipment for the outdoor
gymnasium which is proving such
successful features of the more pro-
gressve cities. There will also be
benches where mothers can sit on
hot afternoons with their sewing
and watch the children at play.
y Great Social Need.
The public playground gets at a
great and vital social need, accord
| ing to students along this line. The
play instinct is a primitive one and
healthful play and exercise may be
| looked upon as a safety valve for
energies which, checked, might work
themselves out in terms of crime and
vice. Most of the crimes of rob-
berry, burglary and larceny, says
! Clarence barrow, the Chicago law
yer who has been studying crime
and its causes for many years, are
committed by boys from IS to %
! ears old, boys who We're not brought
| up on the farms or the open prairies,
but in the crowded cities without
sunshine and air and a place to play.
The lack of Fairgrounds properly
| equipped in connection with the
| pubic schools was brought up by
one # the speakers at the recent
joint meeting of the Woman's and
Twentieth Century clubs when the
public school system was under dis
cussion. The North Yakima school
grounds are for the most part very
/ poorly equipped. This is due, prob
ably. to a shortage of funds. Most
of the buildings have a few swings
and the horizontal bars and a bas-
/ ket ban court. Some of the schools
have purchased additional appara-
tus through candy sales or other
ways of special endeavor. but none
of them have an adequate amount
for the purpose, if It is true, as ar
gued that healthy play, especially
under direction, keeps the children
! out of mischief.
Valuable in Summer.
The value of the Fairgrounds be-
fore school and during intermissions
is very great, but it is recognized by
social workers that the public play
grounds do their best during the long
summer vacation when the children
have no restrictions on their time.
except to come in to meals. Many
cities of the east and middle west
maintain from one to q dozen mu-