New-York tribune., 1910-07-17
NEW ERA IN FAIRGROUNDS
Eighty Workers Added to Staff
of Supervisor of Recreation.
ORGANIZED PLAY THE AIM
Commissioner Will Wait Until
Fall Before Spending Appro
priation for Equipment.

The opening of the city Fairgrounds Tor
the summer season tomorrow will mark
new era in playground activity in Man
haitian Park mmissioner Slower has
added eighty playground workers to the
staff of Howard Bradstreet, SUPERVISE or
Recreation William r. Harper, for many
wears connected with the Public Schools
Athletic League, will be the director OF
boys activities during the summer season.
While s250oo0 has been appropriated for
the equipment of old and new Fairgrounds,
Commissioner Slower has decided to wait
until fall before making any radical
changes, in order that the children may
have the use of the recreation centres dur
ing the hot weather. Only baby swings,
hammocks and sand bins will be installed
at once.
II is the plan of Mr. Harper to introduce
the group system in all the Fairgrounds.
The boys. according to weight. Will be
formed into squads of twenty-four. One
group will each day be held responsible for
the care of the apparatus and equipment
This system has already worked well in
Tompkins Square in the last week. where
thirty-three such squads have been or
ganized.
Mr.. Harper organized the Passaic On.
j. grounds on that basis last year.
It is planned to install Fairgrounds at
the Williamsburg Bridge. Mulberry Bend,
East 1olst street and in these parks: Bat
terry, Hishbridge Colonial, St. Nicholas,
Morningside, Riverside, Westerleigh and
Jackson Square.
While eighty workers have been tenn
porarily appointed, it is expected to bring
this number down to between sixty and
seventy. With the present number of at
tendants 1t will mean that the former aver
age of two to playground will now be in
creased to four.
One of the projects to be put under way
at once is that of the soft baseball. In
only three city parks hereafter-Chelsea,
Dewitt Clinton and Jasper Oval. near City
College-wil permits for baseball with the
regulation hard ball be issued. 1t has been
impossible, Commissioner Slower says. TO
allow the use of the hard ball in certain
parks. but the soft ball may be used with
out harm. This is true of Riverside and
Morningside parks, where games with the
soft ball will be permitted
A soft BALI league will be organized
from teams representing all the play
grounds. In September the championship
series will be played
Commissioner Slower IS considering the
advisa bilfty of opening some of the grounds
in the lower section of the city at night
In all likelihood such parks as Seward and
Hamilton Fish will be the ones where this
plan will be tried. 1t is possible that some
of the grounds in the same neighborhood
may be opened on Sunday. This matter is
to be taken up later. At present, in some
cases, the gates are opened, but the ap-
paratus is not put up and no attendants
are in charge.
The Fairgrounds have been divided into
three sections-downtown, central and up
town. Heretofore the headworker at each
ground introduced those games he saw fit
but, according to the organization OF the
grounds from now on, the competitive sys-
tenn, already instituted, will work for a
similarity throughout the city.