Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-12-24
HASKIN LETTER.
RECI AIMING BACKWARDS
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

/, turning them into model tenements. The
association was compelled to lease the
houses in order to retain the backyards
which form the playground.
On the East Side, backyards are not
the common institutions they are in most
communities. They are rare. All about
them every inch Of space is worn shabby
by strenuous use, but the backyazds are
apparently sacred spots, carefully re-
stricted BY tenement landlords to all SAKE
alley cats and janitors. The East Slider
is permitted to gaze wistfully out on the
backyard of his tenement, but there the
intimacy ends. He may not place q. ham
mock in it: his children may not play In
it; his wife is forbidden to hang the
the back yard leads an idle, lazy Life,
| while the front steps and pavements sink
and crack under the heavy burden placed
upon them.
Why this should be 80 is a mystery
known only to the tenement landlords,
but it is responsible for the existence
of the Backyard playground association,
psn f or noH he ea.a1x rrsa on
backyards for East Side communities.
1t has already opened up four backyard
playground centers, where the children
Of the East Side are invited to come and
play as loudly and as frequently as they
want to-, unchallenged by janitors.
The playground is the principal thing.
It consists Of two or more backyards
thrown together. with play apparatus,
ing in the summer time. There are
swings, see-saws, basketball equipment,
and basket swings for babies. It is open
to the children of the neishborhood
whenever school is not in session, with
the exception Of Sundays. In the eve
nings when the weather is warm it is
thrown open to their elder sisters and
brothers for dancing and other social
diversions.
In the winter. when the East Side
vastly prefers to remain indoors the club
| rooms established in connection with
three of the playground centers are much
more popular. Here the children flock
around the warm .gas-loss and learn to
do many useful things--to sew, to cook,
to knit, to, folk dance and to cebble. A
when tie small boys Of the neighborhood
learn to mend their own shoes and those
of the other members Of their families.
This class. which was formerly conduct
ed by a hired instructor, is now conduct
ed by the Italian jalitress of the house
on Thirty-firs street known to every
body as .Mamit," who also acts as the
supervisor of the playground and an in
On two days each week. the rooms
are converted into clinics, on one occa-
sion a general clinic being held for the
children, and on the other a maternity
clinic for their mothers. DR.. Thomas
Darlington. and DR.. c. G. Darlington
of New York, conduct the general clinic,
while the New York Milk commission
sends DR.. Sophie Peck Ehrlich and Miss
Kinney, a trained nurse. to advise and
watch the health of prospective moth
ers. These two clinics are probably the
most important work that the BACKYARD
Playground association caT<ies on. They
are so accessible to the entire neighbor-
hood that they are patronized even by
the busiest mothers, who are unable to
wait the long hours required for treat
ment at the city clinics.
The comfort Of feeling at home IN
their own clinic goes a long way to car
rying out the Doctors orders. too says
Mrs. Robert G. Clarkson, president of
the association. "The East Side mother