8
THE STJXDAT O RE GO NT AN", PORTXA2TD. JT7L.T 3i. 1910.
TIREg MOTHERS AND HAPPY CHILDREN ENJOYING
PENINSULA AND COLUMBIA PARK PLAYGROUNDS
Mayor Simon, After Tour of Inspection, Tells Grilly He Is Highly Pleased With Work Being Accomplished, and Will Visit Other Playgrounds.
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ARGE numbers of happy boys and
girls and some tired mothers enjoy
ing themselves Immensely was the
Bight that greeted Mayor Simon yester
day afternoon In the playgrounds of
Peninsula and Columbia parks, where he
; went In company with Supervisor Grllley,
on an inspection tour.
"1 ni highly pluvised with your work,
Mr. Grllley," said the Mayor, after ob
' serving the great amount of enjoyment
the children are getting out of the play
fc'rounds In both urks. "I think there
Is nothing bvttur In the city than this."
Later tne Mayor will visit City Park
and Kellwood playgrounds and see what
Is being accomplished there. lie is and
has been from the start greatly interest
ed In this feature of the municipal gov
ernment, as he tcelg that money expend
ed to make the children happy and
healthy is well spent.
"More playgrounds and fewer Jails,"
in the polu-v as defined by Mr. Grllley,
who Is physical director for the T. M. C.
A., end this year volunteered to organize
the playgrounds.
Apparatus tor each playground, when
complete and In double sets, costs fciOOO,
but when one seen the happy children,
enjoying themselves to the limit of their
bility. it is easily seen that, as the
Mayor said, it la worth while .
Peninsula and Columbia perks are very
beautiful and the apparatus that has
been installled in them is being well
patronized by children and not a few
mothers bring their babies to these
places?, where there is opportunity to
swing them to sleep and for the mothers
to get rest, too, in the cool of the shade
trees, and to enjoy life the more be
cause of the progressive park policy of
the administration.
- There were more girls than boys In
both of the parks visited by Mayor Simon
' yesterday and it is said this Is true all
: Alr: A Publisher's Ufe-Story. by John
Adams Thayer. $1.20. 6malt, Maynard
'o. .Boston, and the J. K. GUI Co.,
- Portland.
Mr. Thayer is a healthy rolling; stone.
The old proverb has it that a rolling
stone gathers no moss, but Mr. Thayer
is a living contradiction to that asser
tion. He changed "jobs" as often as he
desired, aud each time made a change
for the better. Suppose he had served
one firm, as an employe, all the days of
his life up to the present? He would
have been paid each week's wage, and
America would have been without one
of the greatest natural advertisers this
country so far has produced. Mr. Thay
er was the real business genius who
planned and worked out the improved
form of that modern money-maker,
Everybody's Magazine. He. of all oth
ers, has fought a life-long fight for
clean advertising.
It was by chance that these memoirs
have reached the light. Mr. Thayer in
tended that the world should see them
after his death, but he says that he
yielded to the entreaties of friends to
issue the book during his lifetime, and
a most surprising, human, wonder-tale
comes into view. It Is a rare record
of business instinct that drew dollars
to It, and at the same time stood for
lofty business Ideals and ethics.
In beginning his story, Mr. Thayer
ays that when he was a mere child, he
went upon the platform at a Sunday
vchool concert, and recited:
111 be a printer if I can. and I can.
M'hen I'm a man. a mu
Mr. Thayer was born In Boston. Feb
ruary 20, 1S61. and IS years afterward
he received from his father a small
printing press and a few fonts of type,
young Thayer began by printing cards
u 10 to 20 cents a dosen. and he soon
launched a four-page monthly paper.
bout 4 by 6 inches in size, a paper he
tailed "The Printer."' Such was his
(beginnings w-ith printers' ink. He grad
uated from a grammar school and at
tended a high school for about one
month, and. as he says. "My people
vore poor, a livelihood had to be gained
.rd so it fell out that the composing
room became my high school and the
world my university."
In the first five years after he left
fchool, Mr. Thayer worked in seven dif
ferent printing offices, (one of which
was the University Press. Cambridge,
"the oldest printing establishment in
America," and an office where the poet
Longfellow was an occasional visitor.
At 19 years of age Mr. Thayer was
earning $12 per week, and when he be
came a union printer he went to Chi
cago, where he received US per week.
Returning to Boston, he became a
foreman printer, but did not begin as
l
the time. Every swing In Peninsula
Park was in operation and the German
awing, the largest one, was crowded. The
girls were having a fine time, as were
also the boys. Each have their separate
apparatus. The park is large enough to
accommodate thousands of people and
hundreds of children can play games and
use the apparatus together.
While the apparatus already installed
ALfTilXi TfOYES, JLUTJiOR
an advertising expert until he joined
the staff of the Ladies' Home Journal,
Philadelphia. He got the position
through an advertisement he saw in the
Boston Herald. It was in the year 1892.
v .
is proving to be very attractive, there is
little doubt that the most popular fea
tures of the playgrounds are going to be
the swimming tanks. The first one of
these will be finished next month in Sell
wood Park. It is the plan to equip each
park with at least one tank. This will
give several nrst-elass places for swlm-
i
vj
OF "XHIAKE 'AN WGZJStii PJC?
and it was Mr. Thayera apecial work
to change the typographical appearance
of the magazine, making- it artistio
from eever to cover. That meant bet.
ter illustrations, and replacing all the
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ming and will keep the boys away from
the river. Next season these will be
ready.
In each of the playgrounds there is an
instructor to teach the children how to
work the various devices and how to play
games. Many people send their children
alone, as they are well cared for.
black and heavy types, then used for
advertising, with the lighter styles just
coming into vogue. Just then the fight
against accepting patent medicine ad
vertisements came into prominence, and
Mr. Thayer found himself in the thick
of It. He began to study the science
of novelties in advertising, his salary
then being J40 per week. Appreciative
mention is made of Cyrus H. K. Curtis,
then the owner of the property, and his
editor, Edward W. Bak. now well
known as Good Young Man Bok. Mr.
Thayer was one of the first to work
up one-page advertisements on an ar
tistic magazine basis, and his salary in
creased until he became advertising
manager at $5000 a year. The maga
zine did a business in advertising of
$1,000,000 a year. Frequent interviews
took place between Mr. Curtis and Mr.
Thayer as to an advance in salary for
the latter, and it seems as if Mr. Cur
tis granted the advances rather unwil
lingly. On one occasion Mr. Thayer
told Mr. Curtis that he was worth the
money and needed It. "Whether you
need the money or not, is a personal
matter in which I have no interest," re
plied Mr. Curtis.
But, "more salary" acted as a beacon
light to Mr. Thayer, and he asked his
employer to give him an option of $20,-
000 worth of the company's stock. A
negative reply was given, and within a
month Mr. Thayer resigned, having se
cured a position as business manager,
at $7500 a year, with Frank A. Munsey,
the magazine proprietor. Mr. Thayer,
advertising expert though he was, only
remained one month and one day with
Mr. Munsey when he was "fired." be
cause be was not the strong man Mr.
Munsey had supposed him to be. De
cember 31, 1897, Mr. Munsey wrote Mr.
Thayer a letter of about 1600 words in
forming him of his disappointment,
saying, in short: "You are not the
strong man I expected you to be. You
have shown nothing of the versatility
1 expected to find in you. nothing of the
alertness of temperament I expected to
find in you. You have brought no new
ideas to the house, no new ideas to the
advertising department. You have
brought no business, either directly or
indirectly, to the advertising- depart
ment In the four weeks you have been
here not so much as a line. You have
shown no extraordinary genius in your
correspondence; you have written no
advertising, have got up no advertising.
And in your handling of the force, you
have not evidenced any remarkable ex
ecutive ability, or even first rate di
plomacy." And o on.
A position as advertising manager to
the Boston Journal was Mr. Thayer's
next position, and here he "made good."
It is Interesting to note his dislike of
the conservation of most Boston men
as to newspaper advertising. He says
that most merchants in that classio city
still dwelt in the middle ages and were
entrenched behind a Chinese wall of in
difference. Stephen O'Meara was then
the Journal's publisher, and he and Mr.
Thayer forestalled what is now the
newspaper Sunday magazine supplement,
by reducing the Sunday Journal to half
its size, and using a larger type and
better paper, making in effect a weekly
magazine, with the news of the world
thrown in for good measure. Mr. Thay
er's salary was $7500 a year, but when
he learned that he bad reached the lim
it of remuneration for Boston, "the city
of sanctified traditions," he calls it, he
resigned and went on a trip to Cuba,
where he witnessed the withdrawal of
Governor-General Castellanos from that
island, and the beginning of American
occupation.
Just then, George W. Wilder secured
control of the Buttericlt Publishing
Company, a millionaire concern in New
York, manufacturing dress patterns and
publishing a monthly publication called
The Delineator, and Mr. Thayer secured
an appointment as Mr. Wilder's adver
tising manager. This was the opening
of the golden road that ultimately led
to Mr. Thayer's phenomenal business
success. Mr. Thayer calls his work with
The Delineator "bleaching a black
sheep," and speaks well of the help he
recelvd from his co-worker, Thomas
Balruer, whom hescalls "the strongest
advertising man in the world." Clean
advertising was fought for in The De
lineator. Mr. Thayer soon secured an
interest in The Delineator stock, thanks
to the liberality of Mr. Wilder. Erman
J. Ridgway advanced the idea of pur
chasing Everybody's Magazine, but he
had no money. He and Mr. Thayer
talked over the matter, and they took
into their confidence their employer, Mr.
Wilder, whom they selected as "angel."
The deal was made. Mr. Thayer had
secured one-third of the purchase price
of the magazine, and "15 monthly notes
for $5000 each were duly signed, in
dorsed and delivered to Robert C. Og
dn. then the New York partner; of John
Wanamaker, and the magazine was
ours."
What followed with Everybody's is
well known it was a shower of gold
and business success. One of the first
"new" features was the Individuality
of Alfred Henry Lewis' article, "The
Madness of Much Money," and then
came Thomas W. Lawson's articles on
"Frenzied Finance." .
Mr. Thayer retired with a big fortune,
and in the leisure that came to him he
wrote this book. It is worth studying
by all young men in business that is
why it has been selected- for this ex
tended review.
Wild Oats, by James Oppenheim. $1.20. B
. . Huebsch, New York City.
A clever novel about a nasty sub
ject. One star shines through the
gloom the pleasant home life of Jew
ish families on the East Side of New
York, the Ghetto, and here the author
shows remarkable ability. In graphic,
descriptive work pathos and senti
ment are artistically mingled. The
novel is commended to the attention of
all young men and parents of children,
but in my opinion It should not, for
obvious reasons, be read by girls and
young women. However, once the latter
know the social condition this story de
picts, no advice to the contrary will
prevent them reading it their natural
curiosity will be aroused.
What then, is the text of "Wild
Oats?" That which is known as the
social evil, and the harm that visits
mothers and children when fathers
have led impure lives before marriage
It Is the fulfiilling of God's threat on
the wicked spoken of in Exodus xx:o,
"... For I the Lord thy God am
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of them
that hate me." So Important is "Wild
Oats" that no less a person than Ed
ward Bok that distinguished Phila
delphia authority on such subjects as
lingerie and "How to Eat Lettuce"
has condescended to write a preface,
or as he calls ' it a "foreword." Mr.
Bok speaks of a particualr branch of
the social evil as "The Great Black
Plague," and pleads for a campaign
of publicity, so that we may catch but
"a glimpse of the burden we are lay
ing upon the next generation by blind
ing not alone our own eyes to the
death-dealing evil that lies at our very
door, but the actual and pitiable blind
ing of the unborn and the newly-born."
The heroine of "Wild Oats" is Miss
Edith Kroll, 17 years old, a pretty Jew
ish girl, so pretty that she is described
as the wild rose. She is stenographer
in the factory where Frank Lesser, a
Jew, is employed as salesman, and
Frank is her first sweetheart. Edith
is as pure as Frank is cynical and
worn, but at the moment he falls in
love with her he's a changed man he
longs for better things, for a home,
and Edith. However, in Frank's body
there slumbered a blood disease
brought on by his own dissipation, a
diseause that he thought had" been
cured "Out West" by a physician years
previously. Frank asks counsel of Dr.
Rast, known to the Kroll and Lesser
families, and Dr. Rast advises him not
to marry. Frank Is torn between what
he calls love and duty, and marries
Edith. One happy year passes and their
baby is born blind.
"I have reviewed this story in as
discreet a manner as possible, knowing
that this page is read by both sexes,
and particularly by families. The sub
ject should decidedly be taken up by
parents too many boys and girls are,
at a certain age, ruined through their
own ignorance.
A Guide to Great Cities. By Esther Single
ton. Price, $1.25. Illustrated. The Baker
& Taylor Company, New York City.
Travel at home is here made a charm
ing entertainment. The cities described
are those of Northwestern Europe
London, Antwerp, The Hague, Amster
dam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm,
Christiana. Edinburgh and Dublin.
The Aviator on Secret Service; or. Working
With Wireleee. By Captain Wilbur Law
ton. Price, M cents. Hurst & Company.
New York City.
Emphatically, for boys this novel has
adventure and dash in which an aero
plane, wireless telegraphy and a hunt
for a new explosive hold the stage.
Drakes An English. Epic, by Alfred Noyea.
Frederick A. Stokea Co., New York City.
Spirited verse by a new English poet, of
the voyages of the great sea captain of
Elizabeth's time, one special event pic
tured being the defeat of' the Spanish
armada.
JOSEPH M. QUENTIN.
CUTTING HARD PAVEMENTS
New Ordinance Desired to Protect
Taxpayers' Rights.
PORTLAND, July 29. (To the Ed
itor.) My . attention has Just been
drawn for the first time to the com
munication in The Oregonlan of July
17, by H. M. Esterly, a member of
Mayor Lane's last executive board, with
reference to my communication of June
80, in answer to the protest made by
Robert S. Farrell concerning the cut
ting of hard-surface streets. The bur
den of Mr. Esterly's communication is
that I had made an attack upon Mayor
Lane's administration. I think my
friend is unduly sensitive. I was not
conscious of any desire to attack Mayor
Lane's administration, nor do I think a
careful reading of the communication
written by me can be so construed. The
only mention of Mayor Lane's admin
istration, in my communication, was
complimentary, with reference to a pro
posed conduit system.
It is true that upon coming into of
fice the present executive board found
that there was an indiscriminate slash
ing into hard-surface streets by public
service corporations, private contrac
tors and individuals, indicative of a
looseness ' of the system theretofore
pursued. It may be, however, that
these wrongdoers simply regarded
members of the incoming 'executive
board and City Engineer as easygoing
persons, who would allow them to run
over the rights of the public. We
promptly, therefore, took steps to pro
tect both the public and the property
owners in regard to these depredations.
It is true that there are ordinances
N SELECTING
TOILET SOAP
Wli y not procure one possessing delicate emol
lient properties sufficient to allay minor irrita
tions, remove redness and roughness, prevent
pore clogging, soften and soothe sensitive con
ditions, and promote skin and and scalp health
generally? Such a soap, combined with the
purest of saponaceous ingredients and most
fragrant and refreshing of flower odors, is
Cuticura Soap. It costs but a iittle more, it
Wears to a wafer and gives comfort and satis
fact'on every moment of its use in the toilet,
bath and nursery. No other soap has done so
much for poor complexions, red, rough hands,
and dry, thin and falling hair. It has done
even more for skin-tortured and disfigured in
fants, children and adults, when assisted by
Cuticura Ointment. As a toilet soap for pre
serving and purifying the complexion, hands
and hair, and as a skin soap for dissipating
irritating and unsightly conditions of the skin,
Cuticura Soap has no rivals worth mentioning.
Its sale is greater than the world's product of
other skin soaps combined. It is sold wher
ever civilization has penetrated. It has depots
in all world centers. For the thiry-two page
Cuticura Booklet, a guide to the best care of
the skin and hair, address Potter Drug &
Chemical Corporation, 131 Columbus Ave.,
Boston, U. S. A.
providing a criminal penalty for such
depredations, and Mr. Esterly may rest
assured that there will be a prosecu
tion at the next violation if I have to
sign tue complaint and conduct the
prosecution myself. The ordinances
which Mr. Esterly cites, however, do
not touch the point at issue. To prop
erly protect a hard-surface pavement
it Is now believed that in wet weather
excavations must be back-filled with
sand or gravel. What the present ex
ecutive board desired of the City Coun
cil was the enactment of an ordinance
providing a criminal penalty for a fail
ure on the part of an excavator to so
back-fUL I do not think the City
Council failed in the passage of this
ordinance willfully, but through a mis
understanding of the necessity, and I
have no doubt that such an ordinance
will ultimately be brought about.
Ardent Prohibitionist Repudiates Prohibition
Remarkable Contestation From a Southern Man Who Worked and Fought Hard
for tbe Cause, but Who Haa Come to See That In Practice It la a Moral
Fraud.
Louisville Courier Journal.
The attempt to compel men to be ab
stemious by act of assembly, which is
only a survival of the attempt to make
them religious by edict of the Inquisi
tion, having failed through 60 years of
drastic legislation in the State of
Maine, could not succeed In Georgia,
In Alabama, in Mississippi and in Ten
nessee. In each of those states from
two to four years of ignominious and
tragic experience have suriiced to sat
isfy thinking people not only of the
false pretension, but the corrupt pros
pective and ignoble character of coer
cion as an arm of society and the
church. Only bigots and fanatics, lead
ing the Ignorant and the credulous and
playing into the hands of the self-seeking
politicians, can believe that the
human appetite may be reached by
statute and man be made virtuous by
process of law; especially by laws
which take no account of conditions,
of Nature and of rieht.
The good In us Is spiritual. The
beauty of religion is its inner light.
The church itself is only efficacious
under God when it educates the souls
of men and women and diverts their
minds from evil. Christianity is much
stronger in the world today than ever
it was. It is theology which is break
ing down, the theology of ambition and
power, of greed and cant, which for a
thousand years sowed the earth with
blood and flame, with terror and fears,
one sect not differing from another
sect in brutality and crime.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal pub
lishes a communication from William
B. Tork, of Chestnut Bluff. Tenn., who.
from a believer in prohibition as a
moral theory, has come to see that in
practice it is a moral fraud. Like a
fearless and conscientious man, he
makes a clean breast of it. He pre
faces his remarks with the following
altogether frank utterance:
No man in the state haa been more
enthuaed over, or more thoroughly imbued
with state-wide prohibition than I have
always been, and no man has done more
In a humble way to advance the cauae of
temperance and to Impress upon the mlnde
of candidates for the Legislature the necea
alty of passing- some ironclad prohibition
laws than 1 have.
I even wrote to you and Colonel Watter
son to this effect and. among other things,
asked you, almoat with tears in my eyea.
why it waa that both of your truly great
Sapera, the Commercial Appeal and Courier
ournal, deemed it Just or fit to oppose or
antagonize such a laudable and much-needed
reformation as state-wide prohibition. You
both answered me in a friendly and highly
Intelligent manner, giving me your views
upon this Important issue, and at the same
time pointing out to me the error of my
course and poaltlon. and plainly showing the
fallacy and evanescent tendency of all pro
hibitory legislation.
I have but recently awakened to the fact
that you were both right, and that I waa.
caeteris paribus, all wrong. I admit It.
and can now but wonder that my skull was
so thick aa to have entertained such a
preposterous idea for a single moment,
e
Mr. Tork is by no means alone in his
discovery. The woods are full of good
men and women who have seen with
their own eyes that prohibition does
not prohibit but brings in Its train
evils of its own, that the only way to
promote temperance is through the
heart of man, by suasion and not by
force. "State-wide prohibition," Mr.
Tork testifies, "is an utter failure, not
only in this state, but in every other
In which it has been tried. It waa
wrong in its inclplency, wrong in prin
ciple and impossible in the observance.
It is a fact not to be gainsaid that
there is more whisky sold and drunk
in Crockett County today than at any
time during the last three decades. Our
state is thereby defrauded of its nat
ural and legitimate revenue, and our
In the meantime, for the protection of
the public and the property-owners,
the present executive board is incor
porating such back-filling requirements
in its permits, as it aaa a right to do
under the discretionary authority rest
ing in the City Engineer under the or
dinances cited by Mr. Esterly. If these
permits are violated by excavators, a
second permit will be withheld, under
the discretionary auuiortty resting in
the City Engineer. This is the best
we can do until the City Council aids
us by the passage of the ordinance re
quested, and perhaps it will be as ef
fective as though we had the ordi
nance. I think any sound lawyer will
agree that it is thoroughly within the
power of the executive board and the
discretion vested under the ordinances
cited by Mr. Esterly.
ROBERT TREAT PLATT.
taxes are thus raised to meet a deficit.
Sumptuary legislation is Incompatible
with a republican form of government,
and if we are forced to adopt any such
measures in Tennessee, we had just as
well retrograde to the old blue laws of.
our Puritan ancestors, who placed a
man in the stocks, bored a hole through
his tongue and split his ears for kiss
ing his wife on the Sabbath."
Nothing can be truer than this. It
is an epitome of the universal experi
ence; prohibition does not promote but
hinders temperance. It substitutes for
the free agency of man, lawlessness -of
every kind, smuggling, adulteration, ex
tortion, the corruption equally of con
stables and society. It is the friend of
graft, not of temperance. Real tem
perance has made no progress under
prohibition. Prohib.non Is an Invita
tion alike to the drunkard and the ras
cally official. But in those communi
ties where the people have been left
free and put on their own responsibil
ity, there is a continuous and marked
diminution of the drink habit. Mr.
York continues, and every word he
writes is as true as holy writ:
But for all this, and In apite of every
thing the whisky men can do to the con
trary, genuine temperance is coming on
apace, and public opinion is the lever by
which It will be placed in opposition.
There is no doubt that Just as long as a
man can drink whisky, and still retain hie
place in society and his standing in the
business world. Just so long will intemper
ance prevail in the land. But when the
drinking man finds the door shut against
him in the social world, and that his serv
ices are not desired in the counting houees
nor workahop, nor in any otbjer avocation
where real men are wanted, then, and not
until then, will intemperance die of inani
tion. Note, if you please, the wonderful .change
which haa taken place In thia country,
during the laat half of the present century.
Before that day It waa no disgrace to drink
whisky and get drunk. Even our officers,
from the President down to the lowliest of
our county officiala, were addicted to In
temperance, and no one thought any the
less of them for it.
The world is steadily growing better and
better, wiser and wiser aa the year go by
Old ideas, old thoughta and deairea are
passing away, while a better, brighter and
more humanising Influence is gradually
stealing over the minda of the people,
wherever civilization aits enthroned and
woman reigns Queen of tbe household.
How many true converts to true re
ligion were made by the thumb-screw
and the rack, the gibbet and the stake?
Not one; yet, through ages, Incalcu
lable cruelty and wrong. "Only a year
ago," says the Commercial-Appeal, in
laying Mr. York's candid confession be
fore its readers, "only a year ago Mr.
York, wrote to the editor of the Com
mercial Appeal and the editor of the
Courier-Journal a letter, in which he
sorrowed over the fact that both of
these papers were fighting state-wide
prohibition. Mr. York's letter was dis
cussed in this paper at that time. The
reasons why Mr. York changed his
views are interesting. If everybody
advocating prohibition would advocate
and work for real temperance, in a few
generations such a thing as a man get
ting drunk would be as rare as a per
son committing suicide by an overdose
of morphine."
The Village Blacksmith.
Under the spreading chestnut tree ,
The village smithy stands;
The smith a lonely man is he.
For his shop is in other hands.
And before the door a puffing steed
Now oil and gas demands.
"Harper's Weekly.
SHORT-STORIES 21?
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