Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-26
Children in Lower End Dis
trict Get Heaps of Fun at
New Play Plot Just Open
ed This Year at Paxtang
Schoolgrounds.

''As the twig is bent, so the tree
inclines."
Do you remember you business
men who are growing gray, how the
gang used to congregate on the
corner those early spring evenings
and give the cat-call Didn't take
you long to finish your supper and
join them on Kelly's vacant lot for
game of biacktom, prisoners base
or leapfrog, did it? We of the gen.
tier sex would wheel our doll car
riages down that way and from the
outskirts gaze enviously at the ac-
plishments of the lords of crea-
ton. Harrisburg was a good, .thriv-
ing little city in those days and the
children, well, they had a good time
of the blessings of childhood.
First Opened in 1908
After time along came a man
who understood boys and girls bet
ter than most and who knew the
town like an open book. He sug-
gested public Fairgrounds fully
equipped and well conducted, but
the powers in control laughed at the
idea. Teach children to play? 1t
was as absurd as inviting a postman
to take a walk for exercise. Then,
that the children of the poor would
not use them. They were needed to
held at home or to work during the
summer months and. the children of
the rich were taken out of the city.
It was discouraging,. but the dream
had taken a grip upon the man and
would not let him go. He urged
and argued until the Park Commits
sion began to sit up and take notice.
What other cities had found feasible
might after all be a good thing for
Harrisburg. So it came about that
an appropriation was secured. and in
1908 the first public playground was
opened in North Cameron street as
an experiment, and another victory
for the dreamer, it was in the very
heart of the city's poorest neighbor-
hood. Shortly before an insurance
company in that locality had closed
its doors. After four years of the
playground existence they decided
it would pay them to solicit the
trade again. Did this green breath
ing space for the poor do more than
merely entertain, do you think? 1t
covers nearly nine acres of level
ground, has quantities of well-kept
turf, tennis courts, longball, swings,
seesaws, tether, tennis and a COM
modious shelter house. Miss Martha
Wall and Chalmer Moore are en-
ployed as regular instructors to keep
the children occupied and out of
mischief. There is also a special
young colored teacher, Miss Mary
Braxon, to oversee those of her own
race. In beauty and completeness it
is hard to surpass.
So successful, indeed, did the
Cameron street playground prove
l,af e. Iaz rf hnr-
scattered over the city, each forming
as far as possible the hub for a
quarter mile radius; each provided
with swings, slides. tennis courts and
other forms of amusement dear to
young hearts and active bodies.
There is a young woman instructress
for each and the larger ones have
also a male teacher. One sewing
teacher employed by the Department
of Parks and Fairgrounds divides
her time so that each group of chill
dren has two hours of expert in
struction a week, while the work is
carried on during the intervening
time by the local teacher. Crochet
ing and knitting are included in this
course and the influence of war upon
the children has resulted in some
of the older ones undertaking knitted
garments for the Red Cross. Vis-
tied the Hamilton playground early
one hot afternoon and gathered
upon. long benches in a cool, shady
spot sat the children hard at work
upon their worsted. some of them so
young that their little feet did not
touch the ground but earnest heads
were bent over soiled little fingers
as the bone needles laboriously
found their way in and out of the
yarn.
Teach Folk Dancing
There is also a visiting teacher for
folk dancing and, in the cool of the
evening, it is an interesting sight to
watch the Irish Tilt or Italian Vine
yard dance taking place in smooth
corner of the playground or on the
tagging in front of some school
house. There is something about
this character dancing which makes
an especial appeal to children, filled
as it is with the suggestion of story
and fairy tale from the lands of
mystery and romance beyond the
seas.
So far there has been no profess
sional story teller employed but the
STORYTELLING art which is rapidly be-
coming such an important item in
the public school curriculum is un-
derstood more or less by the play
ground instructors and is used by
them to occupy the odd hours, those
when the heat of the sun makes play
100 strenuous a pastime or a sud
den shower interferes with a game.
Strong Protective Spirit
In many sections of the city the
ground is too fully occupied to al
low any open spaces for Fairgrounds
and under these conditions the yards
of the schoolbuildings have been
fitted up as substitutes. In the con-
gested districts how much comfort
it must be to busy mothers to know
their children are out in the air but
safe from harm, protected from the
flying wheels of motors, but free to
run and romp to their hearts con-
tent! New York's crowded East Side
has known far less child mortality
from hideous street accidents since
the public Fairgrounds have been in
existence.
The Instructors tell me that the
protective spirit has sprung up very
strong and without solicitation
among the children. The older girls
duet t,af,.ral1v ~ anfhar IN Iffffa 49,