The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-08-26
HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN PLAY
six city Supervised Play Grounds and
One Municipal Golf Links Being OPP
Grated at Total Cost Of $4,000 for
the Summer Months.

A little delegation Of Kenosha peo
ple who are interested in the big
problem of public recreation, went to
Racine on Friday afternoon to see
just how admirably Racine has pro-
vided for the solution of this big
\ problem. They were the guests Of
Burton e. Nelson, superintendent of
the Racine city schools and one Of the
prime leaders in the big movement for
municipal Fairgrounds which has put
Racine on the map and made it the
leader in Wisconsin in this line Of
work The Kenosha people saw
hundreds of happy Racine children
4 playing on Fairgrounds equipped and
I properly handled by paid officials of
/ the city, they saw almost as many peo-
pie playing golf on public golf links,
and they saw children in the parks
and everywhere there was evidence
that careful handling Of this big ques-
tion is bringing the best possible re-
suits Racine may have been a little
! backward in taking up the playground
movement. There were no surveys OF
conditions made, but lot of big men
I'm Racine, who have money and money
to spare, got to thinking of the happy
times they had when they were boys
and they just naturally dug down into
their pockets and gave the playground
movement start in Racine. A couple
of years ago Racine people shook their
heads and wondered whether or not it
twas best to have places where children
could play Now the men who make
the annual budget for the Racine COM
mon council think that an appropria-
tion for the Fairgrounds is just as i'm
portant as one for the building of
sewers or the paying of the aldermen
salaries. The public recreation move
ment is no longer an experiment
up in Racine.
:" It does not take people long to
see the value of play places when you
once get them opened,'' said Superin-
Edent Nelson. ''There are lot of men
and women who play just the same as
their children. We started out with
few places with sand piles and tennis
courts. Then the children began to
come and with them came the mothers
and the fathers. The mothers and
fathers began to drop that care that
was holding them back and now you
can see old boys and girls just as well
as young children on the Racine recrea-
tion grounds. The sand piles and the
teeter boards were all right for while
bat then the children began to come
by hundreds and it was found neces-
sary to have something more. We had
two Fairgrounds at first, but now we
have six Fairgrounds and golf links
and all of them are under the care of
paid people. There are at least dozen
people employed by the city just to
see that the children play and play
right Then you know Racine is the
only city in the country that has a
municipal golf instructor There are a
Hot of us that go back to the days of
real sport every once in a while and
this new municipal golf course is
pointing the way. We are finding it
impossible to take care of the people
without crowding little, but they are
good natured about it and they don It
mind waiting little bit in order to
lget things started"
The Kenosha Investigators took a
"trip to the various Fairgrounds and
found more than thousand children
lat play. They were having great
Eeime and there was no sign OF disorder
ia3 any Of the Fairgrounds. Then they
went out to the public golf links.
Nestled away in one Of the big ravines
along what used to be the Horlick
farm, nine of as pretty holes as could
be found anywhere have been laid out.
They have lot of natural hazards
and for the first season there were
greens which were in excellent shape.
Just try it round was the sug-
gestion and when the visitors walked
up to the first green they got their
numbers just like the rest of the peo-
pie and waited in line until their time
came to drive away toward the first
hole. The record of the keeper of the
green's showed that more than two
hundred and sixty people had played
golf on the Racine municipal links at
the close of the afternoon. There was
no crowding at that and every one
seemed to be considerable Some of
them had played before five o'clock
in the morning.
"There are a thousand Racine peo-
pie learning to play golf right now, :"
said George Hansen, the club profes-
sional, who gets his money down at
the city hall just like any of the other
salaried officials Of Racine. '9They
are not champions but when it comes
to fresh air and sunlight they are get