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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1903)
Public Pleasure Grounds lly M. O. Stone, Secretary Rochester Hoard of Trade OT many years ago, public parks N were, looked upon as expensive and unattainable luxurii'H, and not to be seriously considered by 2 the average city. Now, about three-fourths of our cities with populations greater than 25. (WO, have parks, and eighty have park areas varying from &O.UW to 70, 000 acres. We aitm to have reached a point in the administration of municipal affairs whore liberal expenditures for the pun-huso and Improvement of park lands is not only considered proper, but demanded in the In terest of the public welfare. Hut there are still many cities with park areas entirely inadequate tven for the present. BapiUly growing towns have permitted hundreds of acres to be thickly built uinm, making no provision for open spaces to be reserved as pleasure and recreation grounds. Small, Interior parks are therefore practically Im possible in such sections, as the cost of se curing large blocks of improved property would be greater than most muncipalities are ablu to incur. But in a large number Of cities there are still open spaces adjoin ing closely built up sections that .can be obtained at reasonable coat. These should bo secured at once for public pleasure grounds, even though funds for their im provement may not be available at the time. Any municipality which neglects such op portunities makes a serious and irretriev able mistake. There ought t be In every city a public sentiment strong enough to demand and secure action In this line; city officials generally act promptly when there Is a popular and vigorous demand for any thing that promises to better the condition of the masses. It is no longer a debated question as to tho need of these large open areas liberally scattered throughout all cities. They mean Will (Copyright. 1903, by T. C. McClure.) HK comet and the end of the r I " world! Like blossom aud tlower, they belong to each other in the 1 ' mind of man. i it i By basing deduction on astro nomical figures that are strictly exat, it is possible to deduce that in the last 2.000 years alone 250,000 comets have traversed Our solar system.' We know, too, that our earth has passed through what were remnants, at least, of Comet swarms even in our own day. From this we should have to conclude that the danger of a collision between arth and comet does indeed hang over us like a sword of Damocles. But let us consider tho matter in tho light of another Bolidly founded science. We can count at least i,U00 years for the history of our human species In the sense of a. history of culture. These 6.0U0 years are only a tiny fraction of the time during which man has existed on the earth. And again, this greater period of time Is In significant when compared with the tre mendous lengths of time during which ani mal and plant life developed on the earth before the creature man was even possible. There is a drastic way to show the won derful contrast between the millions of years of world-history nnd the few thou sands of years of man-history. Suppose, that the millions of years since the world began were represented by ono day of twenty-four hours. In that one day the primordial histicy of the world would occupy twelve and one-half hours, from midnight until 12:30 noon. The following epoch, during which the present coal-layers were greun forests and the fish de veloped themselves to lizard-fish, salaman ders and lizards, takes up the succeeding eight hours and five minutes till about 8:30 In the evening. Then come the ichthynsau rlans. Their history occupies up to 12 15 at night. Now we have left on!r three-quartern of an hour. That time, with the exception of only two minutes, is occupied by the de velopment of the tertiary world the world of the monster mammals. And the two min utes that are left-they are the time of the whole life of the creature man from the glacial epoch until now. And only the I.tt six thousand years are a history of civilised man-in other words, the last five sceon Is of those last two minutes. I-t us apply this to the question of the terrible comet. In those "five seconds" comets have passed through the path of the earth at least M0 times; In our whole noir system there were, no doubt, hundreds of thou sands, perhaps as many os 7.600,010. Now caluculatc; so many In five seconds means how many In twenty-four hours? One gets a new Idea of the heavens. And yet In nil those atwenty-four hours -our hundred millions of years there has not lx-en a serious collision between the earth and any meteor. Never have there been devastating catastrophes on this planet. Never has the steady evolution of life mi earh been Interrupted. Never could the thread have been torn between the oldest, primeval bacillus and the man of tod.iy. Hd it been otherwise, mun could not be here now. Not the tiniest vestrga better morals, and better health, and more legitimate pleasure, and these convenient pleasure grounds will certaiuly be provided If not now, they will be later, but at. much greater cost. Convincing lessons show what these smaller parks have done for the poorer and overcrowded pnr;s of New York and other large cities. In the vicin ity of these recently opened apace d'srep utable rookeries have quickly disappeared, sanitary conditions have rapidly been Im proved, vice and crime have been lessened and the condition of the entire population has been affected for tho better. All this is the first importance. Hut It also Is a clearly demonstrated fact in very many cities that the creation of large or small public parks has been wise from a financial point of view. Invariably, and neressarily, ti e value of real estate In the neighb rhi.od of newly opened and completed parks steadily Increase. In two-thirds of the cities where there are public pleasure grounds, the records show that improved and unimproved property In the vicinity of the parks has Increased in assessed valua tion far beyond the average Increase in other parts of the cities. In Huston, near the "Hack Bay" system of parks, the In crease during the last few years has been over 300 per cent; during the same time land values in the rest of the city have risen but IS per cent. Real estate has rsen enormously In value near Central and other New York parks, and everywhere, as parks ure developed and become more attractive, the same conditions must exist and the same results will be obtained. Where park systems are still In a rough iiml unfinished state some years may be necessary to show their value In this d' rection. There la no danger that growing cities are likely to get more park lands than they will eventually need. When municipalities neglect to acquire park Mankind Perish by Fire or tn all the geological layers of those almost endless epochs hints at the wild fall of any thing from the sky or at rude encroach ments on the chemical substance of our at mosphere. This permits only two conclusions. In the millions of years during which comets swarmed through the planetary system by millions and more millions, there either has never been a grave collision beteween earth and comet or tho earth has passed through so many hundreds of thousands of comet tails, comet heads, comet parti of every kind and they puffed themselves into harmless "star showers" on striking our atmosphere. In either case there appears to be nothing In the scare about comets. If the planets nppear as the big, protected children of the sun, the comets are like gaudy soap bub bles that play around the children's heads. Who is afraid to run into a soap bubblo with his hard head? But suppose the sun were some day to eat her child, the earth. Suppose the flight of tho earth were to lessen. Immediately the attraction of the sun would become predominant. The earth's path would change from a circle to a spiral. The great power would pull the little planet to Its heart. A shock and the earth planet goes up in steam, turns into flaming gases. The sun, which perhaps gave birth to the world uncounted mil lions of years ago, has taken it back. An awful mystery play! Or: Some day the sun becomes dark. Not at the result of a harmless eclipse. Its spots have been growing alarmingly. In that day the veil will not lift a, all. A cold ring has formed over the hissing hearth of the giant. Then, to the ey.st of a distant observer on some fixed star, a star will have died. But 90,000,000 milts from thai star some thing else has died the life of the earth. Polar cold spins Itself around the globe. The last power oef blossoming by the help of light vanishes In the last plant cell. Helplessly dance the northern lights, helplessly the light of phosphorescent crea tures illuminates the sea for the last time. The oceans freeze solid. Water and life, the inseparable allies, die together. With the lust drop of 1I20. the great sunflower of earth, Ufe, disippears. Is this to be the final catastrophe? The thrends do. indeed, weave themselves very closely together here. The planet spheres an preserved only by their monstrous speed In their race around the sun from fa'llng headlong Into Its open fire sea. They are lost In that Instant in which any cause arises to hem their des perate flight. It may be a very tiny cause. It may develop very, very slowly through millions of ye-irs. What are millions of years compared with eternity? If the cause is there at all the hour of reckoning will come and no power of heaven or earth ran stop It. Ami the cause exists. The 8iaee through which the planet darts la not absolutely empty. Inist, meteoric dust, the finest of mete oric mass, the thinnest of comet stuff, drifts ceareleasly against the planets In their path. Well, then: A lightning express train whuuM along, tiwimns of gnats strike It lands, or to add to those already Improved, the work might well be t:iken up by the men who have been giving magnillccnt sums to colleges, hospitals, libraries and other public institutions. Can they Iiml a broader, a more practical way of giving their millions to the masses, who, next to food, shelter and clothing, need fresh air and sunshine, and the rest to body ami mind that public pleasure grounds furnish? Very few titles have received such gifts and not more than twelve have been given large tracts for imrk purposes. The mak ing of these public talks is an ef-pscl illy worthy cause, because they have to do with tho entire community. In every city, who really desires to give wisely as well as generously. Iet them remember that in this way they are building for posterity, and that their gifts steadily Increase In beauty and usefulness. F.xperlence has shown that the adminis tration of public parks should be entrusted to permanent commissions and that nothing should be done until a competent land scape gardener has been employed and has advised as to selection of land and com pleted his design. This having been ac cepted, the plans and detailed specifica tions for construction and embellishment ought to be carried out under a skilled park superintendent and engineer who will intelligently and conscientiously develop and carry to completion the work entrusted to him. With a superintendent who has been appointed because of his special Ill ness, and who is supported by a board which persistently adheres to the plans prepared by their professional adviser, the work of constructing and Improving public parks will always be satisfactory. Nearly all of the park systems of this country are under strictly nonpartisan boards; this has Insured the application of strict business and are hurled away. Now and then a caterpillar or a bug gets on the rail and is smashed into nothing. How could they check the train? But let the lightning express whlx thus for millions, billions, trillions of years. Time is a terrible, inexorable accountant. It has built sky-pterclng mountains out of microscopic kernels of sand; it has burst those mountains again with the falling drops of water, sent downward year after year through thousands of years. The endless, limitless swarms of gnats Will bring the lightning express to a stop as if with an emergency brake when Its hour has come. The meteoric dust, perhaps in a still longer period, even the ether of light itself, will gradually check the course of the planet. 1-ong before that course has been stopped entirely the planet will have fallen Into the sun nnd has disappeared us a tllckering metallic flame. For as soon as Its race has slowed down, even a little, grav ity jiounces on it with vulture's talons and tears It toward the sun. Its path Is-comcj a spiral until at last, Ikarus, It dives, Itself only a colossal falling star. Into thU sun that has already drunk up so many little meteoric swarms with its naming kiss. Now a second possibility. I throw a piece of white hot Iron into thq snow of winter. Tlio snow hisses, melts, vanishes in steam lu a big circle around it. But the winter remains. The frosty night rules undisturbed. At first the hot iron bus conquered the cold in a few sec onds, na In play. Now the frost settles on the Iron, hour after hour, days, weeks. And It masters the iron completely, till It Is cold to its heart like the snow. The sun is such a piece of Iron. Today it throws its flaming . rays out with such might that the deserts of earth 90,1100,000 of miles away scorch the naked foot. A little shift of the earth's axis, that will bring the Ice of the pole under equa torial fun, and all the Ice would flow In melted water like the snow around our hot lump of iron. In twilight of Imagination wa can sur mise something teyonil our own chain of life. A mighty course of events was neces sary to develop at all that which we know now as "life." We do not know what ''life" really Is. Perhaps Its elements and properties are properties of cosmic matter Itself. At any rate, the first cell-formation was an evolutionary achievement of the first rank. The first life manifested Itself In a form that was, doubtless the best adapted to the temperature of the earth at that time. But the conditions that led to that formation of the first "life" must them selves have developed much earlier. And, liefora that the earth was probably red hot like the sun today. We cannot con ceive that the photoplasm known to us, and of which the animal and vegetable cell consists today, could have lived in lint fire period. Yet Its origin must atwolutely have been In that time. The whole beginning of time primeval thus becomes part of our chain. Now It may be that the glowing earth was a piece of the sun. left behind by It as a ring when the sun shrank, and finally whirled to gether Into a sphere. Ilcnce our story of principles, and thorough. Intelligent admin istration. In ten of our largest cities that have fini park systems controlled by Independent commissions, the annual tux rate on t,iK) for park Improvement and maintenance has been, for the last few years, only 30 cents. The cost of developing and main taining large urban parks where rolling meadows and woodland and all natural scenery has been preserved and perfected Is much less than for those that are more pretentious and nrtltlclal. And these parks are best adapted to the wants of those who seek relief from the noise and vitiated air, and the overwork In the crowded cities. More than half the population of this coun try Is now In our cities, and In a few years the proportion will be much greater. Clearly, we must bring the country to thn town, as far as possible. Tho people should not be obliged to go far In any direction to reach the public pleasure grounds. Wa cannot afford to be niggardly In this direc tion. Public parks have special functions to jMirform which are as clearly dellned as those of our pu')llc schools, public li braries, public buths and other branches of our municipal governments that uro considered essential to the welfare of the whole people. The public pleasure grounds of this coun try are equaled In betjty nnd extent by only a few of the more famous parks of Kurope. But our park area is still too small, and entirely inadequate for tho wants of our cities. There should be an earnest and continued effort made by all lovers of nature, and those who are con stantly trying to better the condition of the masses, to arouse a public sentiment in favor of more public pleasure grounds and more money to preserve and beautify them. Ice? life may lead us back into the sun Itself. And the sun was n. part of the primeval mists from which the systems of the milky way sprang. 8o we look back to our home lu the milk way, and thence Into the infinity of cosmos. I think, then, that when we look clearly at those things of the past we approach the matter of the world-end In a manner quite different from that which i usual to humanity. But over this gigantic metallic; lump of our planetary system there rests tho re morseless frost-night, everlasting. Let us assume that the space of universe has a (enii;eiutuie of only !K degrees below sera. Its cold certainly Is not less than that. In that unchanging Ice-bath the sun must inevitably burn out pome day and becomo cold to Its very heart, like our lump of Iron. "The day will come" which will be no Day but tho end of the Sun-days. Baldur's reign will le done. These astronomical reasonings about the sun's dying have something that differenti ates them decisively from other concep tions of tho end of the world. They lark the element of suddenness, unexpected ness, the accidental. We see an end thit approaches slowly, in the course only of Inconceivably many mi!liuns of years. And in this plow, logical, orderly pro Cess we ece a great Indication that this coming end Is not to be called an end, but Is, In truth, only a great, wonderful step In the course of evolution! From the primal cell to the prlmonllal plant, from the plant to the first animal, from animal to animal, it all follows lildi the rings In the tree that shows Its suc cessive years. Arid at last man fights him self upward fio:n It nli. Our ancestors of the glacial period, who hunted the nvirn molh, stood barely as high In culture as the Kskimo stands today. And yet "wo" developed from them, "we" in the elec tric glows of Twentieth Century, with our poetry and ethics the Kskimo who ,aa tiecotne Shakespeare and (Socthe. The natural philosopher deduces the un known from the known. Nothing can binder him from seeing In this act of man-dcvclopment only one act of a development that Includes the wlVilo uulvenie. The evolution of man has a cos mic significance. Throughout the whole lmm-is'ty of I:m4i there must have flowed un unbroken course of events, only one part of which wan llio development of ourselves. It Is entirely Impossible that this course could have been broken even for a second In U that tlno, for if It had the results would have b csa Impossible. That chain of development that led to humanity has withstood the enormous chnnges that made fixed stars out of tho etheric mist; It has withstood the tremen dous shock of the fragmenting of such a fixed star Into pieces that became planets; It has withstood the formation of an earth out of a fiery mass; on that alowly cooling globe It has created one wondrous slums after another, from the first cell to man. Now we hear that In further millions of years we ran say billions with perfect (Continued on Page Fifteen.)