The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1913-08-19
JOURNEYS INTEREST
At The PLAYGROUND
Hand Ball and CrOquet Games
for Boys and Girls.

Superintendent Arthur c.. N. Fair
lamb has submitted his report of the
activities of the public playground
during July. 1t is as follows:-
During the month of July, which is
the hardest month Of the whole year
to keep up the activities, the play
ground nevertheless started two
tournaments, one of croquet, the other
of handball, the former amongst the
girls and the latter amongst the boys.
On the 22nd of July thirty-one chill
dren were taken on an excursion to
Coney Island through the kindness of
Mayor J.J. Todd, Mrs. r. w. Locke,
Mrs. Cutler, H. NJ Smith, Mr.. Hinch-
man and the contributions of the chill
dren the sum of $52.25 was raised,
this sum would not have been ade-
quate, but for the generosity of Mr..
Rath, of the D., L. & W., and the
managements of the Steeple Chase
park and the Luna Park Amusement
Co., the former made material re-
duction for the bathing and the lat
ter gave all of the attractions of their
park and sent a representative to
all of the concessions and got re-
duction of two-thirds of the regular
prices. The full cost would have
been about $4,000 but the sum of
$52.25 covered it all. The children
enjoyed the greatest day of their
lives. The participants of this trip
have extended vote Of grateful
thanks in appreciation of the kindness
extended to them.
Amongst the girls the favorite
games for the hot month were cro-
quet, bowling with croquet balls and
baseball. The latter has created spe-
cial interest of late and a warmly
contested game has been played al
most daily. A croquet tournament
was started July 5th and is still in
progress, there are twenty-six girls
enrolled and five have not lost more
than three games IN all
The basketball has been used in
circle games such as .passball, sitball.
roundball, numberball, guardball.
teacherball and dodge ball.
Some of the larger girls have been
taught the three-step and two-step
and we are only waiting for cooler
weather to give more lessons in dane
ing for both little and big. The small
er girls enjoy the singing and folk
dances.
Swimming has been very popular,
especially after two pair of water
wings were added to the playground
materials. The little ones have had
great fun padding and playing in the
sand pits.
The girls braved the sun and heat
on several occasions to do work in
the gymnasium on the flying-rings
and side-horse.
Tetherball has been played con-
stantly without a let-up hot or cold.
Gymnastic work on the apparatus
was carried on and several of the
boys are showing marked ability IN
advanced gymnastics and tumbling
Calisthenic exercises are source of
great fun and physical benefit to
many that avail themselves of it.
Running and standing jumps, running,
pole-vaulting and walking still hold
the interest in spite of the heat,
wrestling and leap-frog are also popu-
lar as we'll as games with the basket
ball and volleyball. A very popular
game is pinch-oh and it never fails to
gather goodly crowd before it has
run for many minutes.
The little boys enjoy swimming and
padding in the stream. -
is beginning to take hold
and some excellent talent is coming
to the fore. Baseball has been very
,excitingly. as we'll. as, .energetically
played by the midget teams of the
Fairgrounds, ~ - s"
Handball has become quite the
craze and the tournament which
started on July 2Sth now, numbers
nineteen contestants all playing ex-
cellenta gaines, every succeeding game
is played harder and, harder and some
very fast volleying has consequently
been shown. : Each contestant will
play each other one five games this
win make 1920 games, to be played.
Prizes will be given at the conclus-
ion of the schedule.
The attendance was remarkably
good for July. and such hot and dry
weather as it was as the following
will show