The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-28
CITIES CALL TO PARENTS
 IS LOSS TO LITTLE CHILD
How The Street Urchin Loses Life and
 Is Taught To Swear and Gamble

oayS lHe n0WSPaVerS reported that twenty-five children were killed and
 ninety-fve children were injured while playing on the public streets of this country.
 In answer to the questions asked of a large number of school girls as to what they did with their leisure time, many of them answered: sT and my Friends {go walking on Main street. They form 8 habit that leads to the making of indiscriminate acquaint- ances and their lives are ruined Who
 is to blame? Is the child to blame
 for playing in the only open spaces which he has? Is the motor-man, chauffeur. or the railroad company Al- ways to blame, or is the community to
 blame for not furnishing spaces for play. Children have a right to play.
 and will play, but no boy will leave
 a swimming pool, or a we'll equipped
 basebaH ground to play On the trolley tracks.
 For lack of better places to play
 many children will be found playing on the cities dumping grounds. on the
 dangerous Streets. pitcing pennies and shooting craps in secluded alleys Is this the kind of play we wish our children to have? They should have clean, open spaces for wholesome
 character building play.
 NO PLACE FOR BOYS TO PLAY.
 Tn many cities. in fact in most cit- ies during holidays and after school
 hours the school yards are c1osedsand mo children are allowed to play in
 them.
 If the boys attempt to play ball in
 the streets they are chased away or
 arrested by the "cop.', If they are for tunate enough to find a vacaantflot on
 which to play it is soon taken for 8
 building.
 
 the boys of South Norwalk for several
 years, in telling me Of their expert
 ence of being forced from one vacant lot to another, each one a little fur-
 ther from their homes. called 1t "The
 Tale of the Hunted. 2 She says the children R.re just hunted Sor driveh
 from one lot to another, until she
 had commenced to wonder if the time would not soon arrive when, in that city, there would be no opportunity for play. She welcomed the suE
 gestfon of public p1aygrounds, and is now working toward the securing of
 play spaces for the children of South Norwafk.4 @ tS Fortunately or unfortunateiy my early life was spent on the outskirts of growing city. When I was eight years old Iremember our play ground was large tract Of land containing two baseball diamonds. some small trees and shrubbery with plenty of opportunity for playing wild Indians. But in a short time this sec ton was cut up into building lots and my family moved into a, house in that section. We still had vacant lots
 here and there on which we could play, but we lost them one at time
 until we were evenaually forced into while flying a. kite, being chased from the streets by a poIicerna.n,s because
 the kite scared the horses on the street cars. Now that street is paved with asphalt, trollies and automobiles make it an exceedingly dangerous place for children to play, and there are no open spaces within three quarters of a mile. In order that these children may have natures right to play pre- served. it will be necessary for Syfa- cuse to spend large amount of mon ey for a playground in that section of the city. A playground could have been secured thirty years ago fpr $1,000 will not nuy as much land in that section today as s1O0 would 30 years ago.
 BUK FAIRGROUNDS NOW.
 The right time for any city to se- cure playgrounds is now, before the land advances in value Four or five years ago some of the people of New Britain agitated the proposition of buying land for a public park and playground, but failed to get the ap-
 propriation made. This spring they ala- thorized bond issue for that purpose, but as the first track of land was cut up into building lots, they had to go g mile and a half farther from the center, and purchase a piece of land no better suited to the purpose and pay as much for it as the other piece would have cost five years ago.A few years ago New York city paid $1,- 800, 900 for a tract of land of less than two acres.
 Under present conditions the chil- dre mare really losing their play life and many of them are becoming just 1oafers Last year in Cleveland, De- troit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Mont ies of various sizes in widely separated sections of the country, 24,000 chfl- dren were observed during the process of recreation surveys Fifty per cent were idle-absolutely doing nothing; thirteen per cent were working, and only thirty-seven per cent were play ing, and over half of these were just fooling. pushing each other, teasing smaller children, shooting craps or pitching pennies There was very little constructive or educative play | which would be of any real benefit to them, such play as Wellington spoke of when he said that -tthe battle f Waterloo was won on the cricket and football fields of England.'' Many of the children of today do not know how to play. You can test this fact for yourself by remembering the dozen or more games which were popular when you were children, and then ob- serving how few of them are being played today
 GOOD STRONGER THAN EVIL There is a real need for children to play if they are to be healthy They
 cannot play on the streets with out great danger, therefore they mn st have play spaces. Children are born with the instinct to play, to run, to throw, chase and be chased are strong racial instincts and must have some