Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-02-15
Stella Marie Stutenroth Writes of
Watertown People and Los Angeles
San Diego, Calf, Jan. 20, 1917.

San Diego, Calf, Jan. 20, 1917.
Dear Mr.. Editor Saturday News:
have been thinking that I prom
Used to send a message to my Wa
tertown friends through the medium
of your paper and just why l have
not done 30 l do not know. 1t has
been a long time since l have writer
an article for your paper or for any
paper for that matter. However
there was a time when writing news
paper copy" was my ~favorite pas
time. That may be back in those
good old days when Eve Up to Date
was known by everybody in Water
town and welded her pen fearlessly
There have been times when | felt
called upon to remark about things in
my old free lance way. but have re-
Trained from doing so.
This vas TO be a California letter,
but there is n thing l want to speak
about hat is not a California sub
ject. For years, or ever We have been
having band concerts in the court
house square, ! have wondered why
our city fathers or whoever has the
welfare of the people at heart and is
sitting in high places, have not pro-
vided chairs or benches for the peo-
pie 10 sit on. Now l love music as
than the average person, but to go
down TO the court house square and
stand through q concert, no matter
how excellent, is with me a physical
impossihility. OF course l can hear
concerts most anywhere, and have
heard them west, east, south and
north, wherever l happen to be, but
I don't have to stand up all the time
for a municipal band concert. Even
In the small cities of Florida chairs
are provided. While not in use they
are folded and covered with canvas
and are ready for the next concert.
Now as most men and women have to
spend a great part of their daily
lives in duties the object of which is
to obtain a living, 1t seems to me a
necessity that music should enter into
their lives in order that they may
not be merely animal. Music helps
In olfYe Va the YJuixy thSpv- 1f re-
and is everywhere where men and
women can be had to make il, 1t
accompanies US from the the cradle
to the grave. And I believe we have
the first requisite to this good in
luence in our band. There are a few
of our people who have no automo-
biles in which to sit while these
concerts are being played. What
then must they do? or course. sit
on the grass, omeone says. Certain
1y that is so. But think of the aver.
age woman who has from one to four
children and who has washed, ironed
or scrubbed all day at home. That
woman may have a soul for music
equal to any who sit on cushioned
seats in the vehicles but she is too
tired to stand at the concerts and
while the grass may be clean, one is
not sure in the dark just what they
are sitting on and anyway little white
stresses get grass stained and dirty
n 1t means SO much washing. II
there Were chairs for these average
women, wouldn't the human need for
music III daily iife-the daily life of
Watertown be better satisfied? If
there is no money available for chairs
such as l mention after various small
needs sue as Fairgrounds, skating
Kinks, athletic parks and other human
needs are cared for. include them in
the next budget of expense along with
the auditorium or something else
necessary. Or, better still, let the
city ow nthem and charge FIVE or ten
cents each at a concert, chautauqua
style, until they are paid for. And.
my friends, had you thought of this.
The city, is us--is the people whoI
Y in it and pay taxes in it. The
cleaning and regulating OF sidewalks
n streets, the policing and fre-I
guarding of our tosn-a1l cost money.
which the people pay. The ~"city.i
COINS or creates no money OF itself.
. .
It's q long jump or walk from wal
tertown n January to California. but
here goes. While not especially bal.
my up to this time, California is
California. One can stand on the
street in Los Angeles and everybody.
Utmost, passes by. Some there bel
from South Dakota, yes, lots OF them.
n many from Waterfowl. since
my last trip to California four years
ago Los Angeles has made a tremen-
dous growth and now owing to the
traf1c conditions down 4oy,n 49, ~