Newspaper Page Text
THE ATLANTA GEORGIA!??
ftATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 22. lwo.
ANSLEY PARK AUCTION SALE
t3 UR$ WU BE MUI MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24,240 P. M.
Sale will begin on
Piedmont avenue near
the Driving Club.
If you want a high-
class lot for a home
or speculation, don’t
WHAT JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES SAYS OF ANSLEY PARK,
From The Georgian, September 17.
ATLANTA WILL NEVER KNOW
A RESIDENTIAL SECTION
TO SURPASS ANSLEY PARK
By JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES.
When the children of Edwin P. Ans-
tey, are grown to manhood, they will
flpd that one of the atatelleet monu.
ment ot architecture and domeatlo
beauty which adorns this famous city
will bear the name of their strenuous
and enterprising parent, who had the
sagacity to see, the liberality to spend,
and the tireless and energetic courage
to dare the achievement which will
hand his name down on the list ‘of
famous men among Atlanta's builders
and workers.
There Is never any heed to consider
the question of advertising Ed. Ansley.
He advertises so largely himself In
the newspapers that no man ever
grudges him a notice that Is without
flnandat consideration, and he Is so
constantly advertising the city of At
lanta and magnifying It at such a
rate that he Is richly efttltled to all
that Is said of him In this or any other
newspaper In the city. To one whc
saw the broken chain of rugged and
ragged hills that lay along the Peach
tree Road from Fifteenth street out
ward a year ago, the changes that a
year has wrought look a little short
of marvelous. With an enterprise and
daring which few men of his age have
risen to, Mr. Ansley has expended near
ly 1160,000 In beautifying the magnllt-
cent piece of residence property whose
possibilities he had the sagacity to
foresee some two years ago. If one
had no desire to buy or to Invest, It
would be worth a trip to Ansley Park
and a study of Ansley Park just to
observe the possibilities that rest In
the landscape artist and the resolute
business man combined.
It Is no exaggeration to as? that the
annex to our famous Peachtree street,
which Edwin P. Ansley has framed,
must Inevitably become. In the course
of time, the most beautiful and the
most elegant residence section of At
lanta. The very beauty and variety of
Its building sites, the hills and valleys,
the rolling slopes and the little Bwlt-
xerland ravines, which Intersperse It
will make It Indeed the garden and the
ornament of all Atlanta's residential
section. The city has never had, and
In the nature ot things can never have
a finer section of homes than this.
What Euclid Heights la to Cleveland,
Ansley Park will be to Atlanta
One has only to look at the marble
mansion now going up for Mr. Wlne-
coff on one of those lovely elevations
and follow around the graceful curve
of Peachtree Circle to see Just, what
transcendent residential loveliness Is
growing out of Ansley Park.
There are lots enough already sold
In Ansley Park to make Its power and
Its prosperity It no other purchaser
ever came. But the demand Is so rich
and so constant for this gilt-edged
property that Its prospects are simply
brilliant with promise for profit and for
repute to Its enterprising founder.
Drive from Atlanta's court house
out In the direction of Ansley Park.
Take a circle through the side streets
and a sweep through the lots that were
vacant two years ago, and everywhere
the observant will be struck with such
a remarkable growth and development
and eager a demand for building lots,
that It takes no prophet to foresee the
great glory that Is coming to Ansley
Not yet have these lots on Ar.Vey
Park reached the high prices which
mark our Peachtree Road, but to those
who watt too long the time will come
when the man who has the honor and
the privilege to live In this beautiful
section will have to pay for It as he
pays today for the best lots on Peach-
tree street within the older limits of
the city.
Without hesitation the writer coun
sels every ambitious young man who
aspires to live In the loveliest section
of his native or adopted city to util
ise the present opportunity, and, while
he may do so with comparative econ
omy, to purchase a lot In Ansley Park.
Get a plat and
drive Ihrougli the park,
make your selection
and attend the sale.
An absolute sale,
reserve or
lit, to the highest
bidder.
ronnrsT and george amir.
eseeeee
ANSLEY BROS.
CHARLES M. ROBERTS.
Officers
•tats Society.
P.eeldtat:
Dupont Ouerry,
Macon.
Atlanta.
Second Vlco-Prcs.:
Dr. E. C. Paste,
Mscon.
Secretary-Treasurer;
Dr. W. T. Jones,
Atlanta.
Annual Meeting In
May, 1387, at Mscon.
SOCIOLOGICAL
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE—Rev. C. B. Wilmer, J.
D. Clcaton, E. Marvin Underwood, Dr. R. R. Kime.
Officer*
Atlanta Sociaty.
President:
Dr. R. R. KIuip.
Vice-President:
E. M. Underwood.
Jlecretary*Trea»urer:
Dr. E. C. Cartledge.
Regular Meeting on
Hecond Thuliday
Night of Each
Month nt Carnegie
Library.
‘ATLANTA A MODEL CITY”
The above Is the motto of the At
lanta Sociological Society, and If the
Mine and ambitions of those compos
ing the membership tire ever realised,
there la no question mark attached to
the quotation. And more: When such
realisation takes place It will be large
ly dueto the growth of sentiment along
the poI y pursued by the society.
Already the Influence for good this
society-has exerted has been felt. The
employment of children In local liquor
houses was brought to public notice,
and the law correcting the error was
proposed, the ordinance framed and
pressed for passage by council, by
members of this organisation.
The Atlanta Soclolorlca! Society
now bringing to bear a strong Influence
favoring the establlehlng of a system
of playgrounds for children In the con
gested districts of the city. The es
tablishment of more permanent parks,
especially near the center of the city. Is
another end to which strong effort Is
being directed. Atlanta- is building for
time, e\ ry’Vear marks the occupation
"f more and more space, and the tow
ering structures are cutting ofr, pro
portionately. mors snd more of sun
light, and, In view of the fact that we
are "building for time,” the question
comes forcibly homo to everyone, How
long will It be until our central dis
tricts become as sweltering and suf
focating ovens, where labor of any
character will claim new victims dally?
And the suggestion Is not unreason
able. Other cities, populous and close
ly bullded, furnish examples of this In
their dally mortuary reports.
Sunstroke In Atlanta now Is practi
cally an unknown term. The reason
we are fr-e from It is found In the
fact that our high altitude and the
freedom of air circulation make It Jm-
p")«lble; cut otf this freedom of cir
culation of purs air and our high alti
tude win not atone protect us. And
this Is but one phase of the question,
niwases that reap their richest harv-
*"<* In congested city districts will. In
due time, begin their work In our fair
city, too, and we will be scourged, as
other cities are scourged.
■ he Atlanta Sociological Society, at
meeting on Thursday evening, the
IJJh instant, discussed the question of
'Parks and Playgrounds for Children,"
and the enthusiasm aroused over the
discussion ot the subject was moot en
couraging.
■Mr. Walter R. Brown, chairman of
the board of park commissioners, led
me discussion of the evening, his aub-
l"'t being, "Parks as an Investment,"
“Ud. aside from the pleasures and corn-
torts Grant park alone afforded our
feature of good derived from parks,
Mr. Brown demonstrated the fact that
the park had been a paying Investment
to the city, in drawing large excursions
from neighboring towns to Atlanta,
when, on each occasion, there was a
large sum expanded among the mer
chants, thus adding to the volume of
trade, and proportionately to the profits
ot our city business. Mr. Brown un
consciously Impressed his audience
with hla seal and- genuine Interest In
the cause of parks for Atlanta, and
those present could but feel that, with
a free hand and fair, if not liberal,
support, the board, under such lead
ership, was bound to accomplish still
greater things In the near future. We
say this as warranted also by the Im
provements that have been made In
park circles; these, too, with small ap
portionments of funds. The city coun
cil has been unable to do for the
board any more than was needed for
running expenses. Next year It la ex
pected that more liberal appropriations
will warrant a widening of the scope of
park work by the board, which, we are
assured, will be greatly pleasing to that
body.
Dr. Theo Toepet, physical director of
the public schools of the city, and an
enthusiastic sociologist, rend a strong
paper upon the subject of playgrounds,
stressing the athletic feature, as so
very essential, as a developer of mus
cle and bone, and the producer of a
plentiful supply of rich red blood. Dr.
Tocpel's wide experience, thoughtful
study and extended observation lend
great force to whatever utterances he
makes upon this subject, and his paper
made a strong Impression.
Mrs. Warron Boyd, who has devoted
much thought to the subject, treated
It from the viewpoint of the economic,
social and hygienic value of parks. We
have been fortunate In securing a very
full and comprehensive resume of this
most Instructive paper, which we em
body herewith.
There Is nothing like successful ex
periment ns a support for theories pro
mulgated, and practical application
was given of this In the timely ad
dresses of Mr. C. E. Folsom, a former
citizen of Minnesota, now a full-
lledged and loyal Atlanta citlsen, and
Mr J. C. Logan, general secretary of
the Associated Charities of Atlanta.
Mr Folsom gave account of the recla
mation of a barren island In the Mis
sissippi river nt St. Paul, which had
been; within a few years rendered the
most pleasant spot In all that section;
and, while the effort at flrst was ridi
culed as an unpromising and unprofit
able project, It had. In these few years,
become not only the pride and Joy of
a great city, but It Is also a paying
Investment, while affording bathing and
to carry convlcltlon, If summed up In
the single statement that his experi
ment at Fair Street school yard dur
ing the past summer afforded health
ful sport, pleasant recreation and a
world of fun for sixty children for sixty
days upon an expenditure of 3*7.41.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
PARKS AND PLAY GROUND8.
(Mrs. Emma Garrett Boyd’s Paper.)
The need ot parks and play grounds
arises obviously from the concentra
tion ot great masses of population in
cities. The consequent overcrowding
In our largest cities can scarcely be
realised. The eastern half of London
has only one acre of open space to
every 7,481 persons; In Chicago there JJJ**" 1
are 23 wards that average a population
of 4,720 to a single acre of park space,
while more than 800,000 people live
over a mile from any large park; In
New York 20 wards south of Fortieth
street have over a million of popula
tion to only 80 acres of parks; that Is,
there Is but »ne acre of park space to
every 12,600 people! No wonder Pres
ident Wilson, of the board of health,
reports that the population of New
York Is more dense In the tenement
house district than that of any other
civilised city from which returns-have
been received. No wonder, with 1,018,-
136 people massed In these tenements
and almost completely cut off from the
fresh air of tree-covered areas, there
arises the fearful mortality that has
given so terrible a fame to New York
slums and so potent a warning to other
cities where rapid growth Is Inducing a
similar congestion. The summer mor
tality In New York rises about 30 per
cent over the average for the year.
Little children are .the chief sufferers
and In 1887 nearly 1,000 died In one
week. In Lung Block, a fearful struc
ture bounded by four streets and
swarming with 4.000 people, there are
over 400 dark rooms and 20 bed rooms
without windows ot any son, while
for nine years there has developed on
nn average a new case of tuberculosis
for every 12 days, whole families hav
ing been wiped out In the same room.
Health authorities tell us that there
Is practically no third generation In the
average New York tenement
With hldenua conditions such as
these In the largest cities of the world,
and with a constantly Increasing ten
dency toward such conditions In all
rapidly-growing ettlea, the flrst Impera
tive need for parka Is oblous—that
they may serve as great ventilating
shafts In congested areas. The annual
exodus of the well-to-do to the coun-
other facilities at such small cost as try reveals tneir recognition ot a great
to place these In reach of all. Mr. Lo- deficit on the part of our cities; the
generation In tenements shows that
failure In appalling statistics; while the
Identity of the lll-ventllated and dirty
with 1he vicious and poverty-stricken
districts has In It more than a mere
coincidence, our generation Is begin
ning to realize that disease and crime
are not merely the producers of crime,
but are ofttlmes Its product. Deprive
a child of fresh air, a sufficiency of
food, and decent surroundings, und you
can no more expect to make a normal
being of him than you van expect a
perfect flower of a plant shut up In
darkness and out off from air and
water. Truly, "foul air prompts to
vice and oxygen to virtue." How Im
portant a life-saving agency proper
ventilation may be Dr. Oliver Wendell
Holmes asserted when, In a speech ad
vocating parka, he said; “A single phy
sician by a single measure (the pro
vision of ventilation In a lylng-ln hos
pital) saved more lives than were lost
at Waterloo by the British army and
all its allies, the Prussians alone ex
cepted."
But the physical uses of parks are
not limited to the serving as mere ven
tilating shafts for fresh Mr; they offer
much needed opportunities for physi
cal exercise In their walks, ball
grounds, play grofinds, drives, bridle
paths, etc.; they tempt many away
from streets and saloons who are
driven thither, particularly In large
cities, merely' by the stifling streets
too strenuous and crowded,. unattrae
tlve homes, nor can their Invitation to
rest be regarded aa useless In our teo
strenuous American life.
Nor should the direct physical ser
vice of the trees In parks be over
looked. They not only lower the tem-
e ernture and help to circulate breefces,
ut by giving out oxygen and absorb
ing carbonic they directly promote
human vigor. Eminent authorities
claim, moreover, that they act aa bar
riers against disease by absorbing nox
ious vapors. Even the ancient Romans
recognised the value of surh tree bar
riers against malaria and enforced the
planting of trees by law, as the Roman
tablets bear witness, while Germany,
undoubtedly the foremost country In
the world In scientific knowledge,
places such a high value upon her
trees that a person Is not allowed to
fell one, even upon his own premises,
without the consent of the authorities.
Moreover, parks do not merely serve
to better the physical being of the peo.
pie in cities; they have a psychic func.
tlon that Is less marked and yet of
great Importance. No onp has ever
satisfactorily defined beauty or ac
counted for Its peculiar combination of
pleasure with rest and stimulus.
Yet about the beauty of nature and
the beauty ot human nature have been
woven practically all that we have of
poetry and Imaginative literature.
It Is Incredible, and yet It Is true,
that nature Is absolutely unknown to
hundreds of thousands of dwellers In
big cities; that there are tenement chil
dren who have never seen so much as
a plot of grass; that tenement workers
living In Inside rooms, without so much
as a glimpse of the sky, have been
terrified by the awful bigness of the
logical gardens and botanical gardens
In parks have always been centers for
naturalists and botanists: but In the
f >ast dn;ndo there has been a constant-
y growing movement to utilise parks
and park collections as direct material
for the nature study that has proved
Itself so popular nnd valuable In our
schools. In Washington, Boston and
other large cities little children are
taken In groups to the parks and there
ntudy living plants and animals. Teach
ers are more and more realising the
Importance of the visual nr objective
element in leaching and of training a
child to make hla own observations and
deduction!; In other words, to see and
think for himself. This method has
not yet reached Atlanta, except per
haps In sporadic cases. Grammar
school teachers who assign such sub
jects as "Trees” for a one-page com
position to a fourth grade class are
not yet extinct, nor are those who
ramble desperately through Carnegie
for material, Instead of studying the
specimens In their own school yards.
Nature study, properly speaking. Is not
study In books about nature, but the
flrst-hand observation ot such factg as
go to make up books.
Akin to the movement to utilise parks
and park collections as un Integral part
of the city's educational system Is
the movement to utilise bits of waste
space as little pnrks, accessible to the
very poor, to tired mothers and to
bnbles, and the great and very recent
movement to supplement city parks by
a host of small playgrounds especially
for children. New York city Is author
ised by the laws of 1887 lo s' -nd
11,000,808 a year nn email parks and
playgrounds; In Boston, Philadelphia,
Providence, Baltimore and Chicago
such playgrounds have been most sue
cessful for several years. Of the play,
ground established by the University
Settlement In Chicago the locat lieu
tenant of the adjacent police station
skys that It has saved not less than
fifteen lives from the electric car and
decreased Juvenile arrests In the vicin
ity by at least one-third.
nut these playgrounds, established as
they are under trained supervisors, do
not merely save children from the dan
gers of the crowded streets, prevent
crime by employing the Idle, and teach
children respect for property In teach
Ing them to respect the rights of oth
ers; they serve to satisfy what Is one
of the most fundamental rights and
needs of childhood. The Instinct to
play Is common to the young of all
animals, and play Is absolutely essen
tial lo the proper physical develop
ment of young creatures. For this rea
son even roof playgrounds are being
established In some cities, while many
cities are opening yard after yard of
their schools and placing them at tha
service of the children not only In vaca
tion, hut also after school hours. Such
a movement , has been begun In At
lanta by the Associated Charities,
which this summer equipped Fair
Street school grounds and opened
them, under proper supervision, to the
children. The success of the experi
ment has. been so great that a plan
Is already on foot to have the city
equip and open a number of other
school yards as an experiment for the
next summer.
It Is to be hoped that this move
ment will meet with heartiest success.
Already frequent accidents on the
streets attest tha need of taking the
children away from tha traffic fur
play; the many Juvenile Idlers on tin;
streets are being constantly graduated
Into potty offenders; and the constant
ly widening area that has been denud
ed of trees and grass bears testimony
to the Immediate need of Inviting spots
for recreation purposes. Wo boast thnt
our building permits are doubling every
two or three years, but wo must be
most careful lest we begin to congest
our central districts and then face, tot
late, a problem such as other cltlce
have faced, Increased by all tho hor
ror of the length and fierceness of
Southern summers.
EMMA OARRETT BOYD.
STRANGLED TO DEATH;
THROWN IN SWAMP.
Speelsl to The Georgian.
McRae, Os., Sept 22.—Tho body of a
negro womap was found dead In Gum
Swamp creek near here Thursday aft
ernoon, with her hands tied and a
cloth tied over her face.
■ The body was Identified as the wife
ot a laborer employed here since June
by a sewer construction company In
laying the sewer system for the city of
McRae.
The negro gave his name as Jecns
.Anderson, and two weeks ago he mar-
•rled Rena Coleman, a daughter of a
negro preacher here.
A coroner's Jury rendered a verdict
to the effect that the woman was
strangled to death and the body placed
In the water. Anderson has not been
caught.
REMEMBER
The Great China and Glassware Sale
will go on all next week—-everything
goes at a tremendous reduction. ,
We are closing out this department.
sky and quiet of the country. Clvlllza.
tlon Is a development out of, not a
deviation from, nature. When tt be
comes as complete a deviation as this,
then Its product Is Inevitable decay.
Besides Its physical and esthetic
functions, the park has yet another
that la being generally recognized In
the greatest of our cities—that Is, Its
educational function. Even the casual
visitor, consciously or unconsciously,
gains some knoweldge of native plant
and animal life while the untold delights
of a "soo” are only equaled by Its pow-
!^p,e. whlc^SterML tottTm32 ^tfa speech would be forceful’enough decimation of the second and third ers of Instruction. Great aquaria, too-
KING HARDWARE CO.,
53 PEACHTREE STREET.