The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-02-18
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THE IDLER.

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l was reading the other day an ar
ticle in some magazine written by
Andrew Carnegie on THE Principle
or Giving" He says that money is
often given so as to produce the very
evils which it is hoped to cure" Well,
| reckon he is about right in this
statement, but l believe that if I had
money for this purpose that could
place it where it would do whole
lot & good. and make a whole lot Of
people happy. He believes in giving
to those who are willing to help them
selves, and, generally speaking, tnat
is a very correct rule to follow. II
is little use to keep giving to fell
!ow who is too lazy and triling to try
to help himself. Among other things
that he enumerates as being the right
direction to place money is in the
building Of parks. My. purpose in re-
ferring to this article is to quote what
he says about parks and the giving
TO them. Here it is:
public parks are in the very front
rank of benefactions, provided the
community undertakes to maintain,
heautify and preserve them inviolate.
Is there a more useful or beautiful
monument that could be left by any
man than a park for the city in which
he was born or in which he has long
lived? Or how could the community
pay more graceful tribute to the
citizen who presents it than to give
his name to such a gift?'
That is very true, and if / had the
money l would long ago have built and
given to this city that park O. which
| have been writing 10, these many
moons. suggested long time ago
that there was a family in Newberry
that owned a beautiful place that
would make an ideal park, and that
they could erect no more beautiful tri-
butte to their forebear than to give
a sufficient portion Of this property
to the city for park, and it is true
also that the city and county has hon
ored many of the members of this fam
ily with high honor, and it would be
not only a fitting tribute to their fore
bear to erect such a monument to his
memory. but it would in some meas
ure be an act of appreciation for the
many honors bestowed upon them. But
I suppose they take different view
of the matter, and will not act upon
my suggestion. But l am sure that
while l have no money with which to
build a park that some day Newberry
will recognize the hard work that L
have done to get park here, and tnat
there will be somewhere along the
shady sides Of Scott's creek a beau
tiful park in which the children will
gambol and where the young folk will
tell again the old, old story, and wnere
the old folk may spend an hour Of
rest, and the name of the park will be
The IdIer's Park. Not for the money
that | have put in it, but for the long
and faithful work l have done to
arouse the people to build it, and it
will be built by the people, and not
by any one or two individuals. 1t will
be tribute from the people of the
community to the unselfsh service of
one of their obscure and humble cit
izens. And no better monument could
desire. For nearly ten long years
now l have been writing for this co..
umn, and not many times have | writ
ten that l did not have something to
say about a park for Newberry. l
nave begged, l have pleaded, l have
quarrelled and l have said pleasant
things and sometimes l dare say some
have thought that l have said some
things that were not so pleasant. Be
that as it may, I had but one purpose
and that purpose was to get the peo-
rle aroused to the necessity Of build
ing a park. 1t will come. There