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Show ADVANTAGE OF THE SMALL PARK , ; Bif Factir In Fight Against ! ' ' ,, Infant Mortality. $ 4 . ;: ' : SHOULD BE NEAR THE HOMES. I V. : A Big Park on tho Outakirt of a City j Does Not Do Half tho Good of a Smaller One In a Congested' District Where the Poor Live. i ,, Somewhat less Important than tho i playground, becaiiBO play holds a less Important placo in tho llfo of the adult than, it docs in the llfo of the child, is " ' the public park. Tho park Is tho city's i iooryard. Tho contact with nature ' -which the Individual has lost through the crowding out of grass and trees by tenements the city has re-established ' by buying: up a large area of land and I devoting it again to nature. Since tho parks of the city arc owned by all Us people may they not Justly de-i de-i 'Biand that each receive a share, or. M in other words, that nature in some I form be placed within tho reach of all V that there shall not be a community I In any city without a blade of grass 5 or a tree or some other trace of God's. t (1 - great world? I ' :,: The objector may say that the parks I at present belong to all the people and r ' every one may visit them. But In this 5T -- true? When can a laboring man And II ' - "' ' time or fcow can he get tho money to i i IT . i I BBHEHjSadBHak. A PARK nJATOBOUKD. take his wife and four or Ave chlldron to n park that is four or Ave miles distant? The car fare alono would bo from CO cents to $1 a sum which he very often cannot afford. In Questioning Question-ing tho children in one of the play-I play-I grounds on tho lower east Bide of New York, says Henry Curtis in the American City. I found that very many of them had never been in Central park and most of those who had been had visited It ouly once or twice. I suspect if the parents had been questioned ques-tioned Instead of the children the proportion pro-portion would have been oven smaller. I need not speak of the depressing effect ef-fect of endless rows of tenements and the endless procession of coal and beer wagons, unrelieved by any spot v where the materialism of modern life is lighted up by a glimpse of sunshine or the rustle of a leaf or the blooming of a (lower. The school playground should Im also the community park. With a small park In every community com-munity there would be n place to which every mother could take a lllaBaaaHBfWfTfeaaBiMHf i?iy&?ymiM wK YflYflYAYflMEBMHEw!SS ibaBaaaaBBMWOaoall i A 01TT BOHOOIi PLAVaHOUND. ' delicate child and keep it for a con- slderahle part of the day In the npon air. Perhaps In Home sections there 9 should be n nurse provided to look ; after the children. In tlila way the ; mothers with the babies might well ; have the chief use of the playground i up to a o'clock In the afternoou. From i ,'l o'clock until 7 It should be the play- ' ground for all tho children of the J i-oumiunlty In charge of n permanent il fllmitoT. At 7 o'clock or tueren bouts. lu the wnjrnfer cart of (he yea, he nrhps should Vj brought Hi for tW adults. Then w)tn tho evening mewl Is over rest and welcome should be found at the park. The reasons for putting Ute small park and tho playground together and around the school nre tho name as (hose heretofore given. Both tho school and the community need tho spare, but at different timer.. In this way It would bo In use constantly. Every community would bo provided with n playground and a park, and in no chro coujd UiIb be distant from the homes. |