Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-30
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w tends to keep up with the literature OF the
war? When the war books and pamphlets began
to roll in, shortly after the outbreak of hostlities
this war stuff was my regular diet and, if ! read
one, read fifty of them, almost without stopping.
These early war books were in class of their
own. They told how it happened and who was to
blame and what they were fighting for and how
the map of Europe would be redrawn at the con-
cusion but no one is excited by this guess work
any more. Then came literary output of per-
sonal experiences of those who happened to be
marooned in the zone caught in the lines
or who had chance glimpses of the mobilization
and early fighting, with descriptions. Of the ruin
and havoc being wrought, but these, too, are now
shop worn. The war literature of today is mostly
in the fiction class, stories with the war as
background entertaining and interesting many of
them, but with tense war flavor which, in large
doses, is not pleasant to the literary palate. The
real histories of the war are yet to come and the
first histories will be warped by too close vision.
After while we will have the personal narratives
corresponding to those of our civil war like
Grants Memoirs and the stories of Sherman. Nc
Clellan, Sheridan, Logan and the other military
leaders, providing, of course that the guiding
spirits of the present European conflict not
first killed off, as was Kitchener, without an op-
portuny to give their observations to us for pos
terity.
Talking about books, the readers of this
column will remember a reference some time ago
to the unique Children's Book Above which had
been established by Mrs. Matthews in the new
book store. Mrs. Matthews launched the idea into
broader field by reading paper on Women in
Bookselling" at the big national convention Of
booksellers in Chicago this spring, and her &C
count of what she had accomplished was gener-
ously treated in the Publishers Weekly" the
St: standard trade paper, with consequent result
that the story of the children's corner in Omaha
now comes back all the way from London in
chatty book column in "The British Weekly"
To use pardonable slang expression, THAT is
gong some At the time originally commented
on this subject, believe offered some sugges-
tons along the same line for making the chldren's
department at our public library more attractive
and servceable by furnishing it like loungng
room and equipping it with comfortable chairs
and desks and lamps and window hangings and
making it so home1ike and cosy that the children
would prefer to spend their leisure in its book
and picture atmosphere than any other place that
might tempt them. By doing something that
would make the children's room its most striking
feature, our public library, too, could draw atten
tion from strangers as we'll as home folks and
have its fame spread far and wide. s e.
We Omaha people are just beginning to ap-
preciate our parks and to see the beauty and ad-
vantage of them, but not everyone harks baek
to the comparatively short time ago when most
of these parks were either ravines filled with un-
derbrush or sunbaked cornfelds. A drive through
Eimwood park the other evening impressed me
with the tremendous improvement it has under
gone and then the very next day | received al
most BY coincidence, letter from my old friend,
John 7. Bell, now living out at Newberg Ore,
to remind me that we owe the possession of this
park to the homely industry Of picking cucum-
bers," Let me give Mr.. Bells story in his own
words and they will require no further explana-
ton or comment. He writes:
II take some satisfaction In the reflection
that had something to do with getting Omaha
started in securing system Of parks. Driving
about in the northern part of the city-north- |
ern part as it was then-along about 1884, /
stopped at the market garden Of Henry Hur-
by John A. Horbach. They were putting up
cucumber pickles. said though there ought
to be money in cucumber pickles They said
there was and that if they had some more
capital they would go into the business extern
siyely the next year, l suggested that buy
was accepted and shortly afterward / was
partner in business had no experience in
and found it very fortunate investment in
deed. Messrs Hurlbut and Wiley were expert
enced market gardeners. Before locating on the
Horbach land they had been engaged in that
line out on the Big Papillion on the old mill
tary road. had nothing to do with the opera
tion OF the business, but my investment brought
me the biggest dividends eyer received for
the same amount of money.
"A year or so later Mr. Horbach wanted his
land for residence purposes and we went out
west of town and bought quite tract of land
of Pierce Himebaugh, a portion of which land
we afterward sold to the seven men who plated
the West Side addition, of which seven l was
one the others being Sias H. H. Clarke, John
M Eddy, M. H. Goble, Frank Murphy John A.
McShane and Nathan Merriam We then bought
seventy-hve acres little farther west and there
gardening operations were carried on success
fully, beautiful stream, fed by springs, ran
across this land, and on the borders of it were
many large trees
u suggested to Mr.. Hurlbut and Mr. Wiley
that, as this stream cut out several acres that
could not he used for gardening purposes, we
give 1t to the city for public park. They at
once agreed ana atter discussing the matter, we
to ask some property owners above
ana below US to join in the plan and thus make
the tract Of considerable size. The property
owners we had ip mind were Henry Snyder
lyman Richardson and Leopold and Charles
DOLL My recollection is that from our garden
property we donated twenty acres and that the
Others contributed enough to make the entire
u offered the city 6fty-two acres. wrote
the offer of the land and was exceedingly care
full in the penmanship. We all signed the docu-
ment and handed it over to the city council.
council committee went out to view the
property, in order to see whether it was worth
accepting as free gift, ! suppose. Newspaper
men Went along with the committee, and re-
friend Sands F. Woodbridge, then city editor
OF the Herald, and his story Of the attractions
OF the proposed park site was of graphic
order. OF course, the offer was accepted and
we eacn received copy of resolution Of
thanks from the city government
Soon afterward bond proposition was
submitted calling for 100000 to be used in buy
ing considerable tract of land in the vicinity
OF the land donated (and which took the re-