The Harvester World: Volume 2, number 8, May 1911

              The Harvester World

31

wholesome pleasure becomes the stimulus to better work. But that the utmost may be done for the in¬ dividual and the community by the rightful develop¬ ment of the play spirit, it must be met and dealt with in its embryonic state, in the child.
To meet this need there is nothing so efficient as the playground. It is at once a minimizer of juvenile delinquency, not alone that it keeps the child from the street and its ofttimes careless and vicious associations, and offers wholesome play, but that it is a force in character building, in the teaching of fair play, co¬ operation, self-reliance, self-restraint, resourcefulness, and virility. These are lessons which,in later life, pro¬ duce results in good citizenship, attesting to the lasting ethical value of playgrounds.
President B. A. Eckhart, of the West Park Com¬ mission, at the dedication of its park. No. 1, said: "In these playgrounds and in their work lie the beginnings of social redemption of the people in large cities. They furnish the spectacle of a city saving itself."
The few are beginning to appreciate what provision for recreation may mean in the advancement of com¬ munity life, to the lessening of its crime and poverty and the enlarging of its capacity for power and useful¬ ness. When there is universal interest in the retaining of the play spirit and in giving it opportunity for ex¬ pression, we shall have achieved social progress.
HARVESTER CHORAL  SOCIETY CONCERTS
The Harvester Choral Society was organized last fall, held its first rehearsal October 4th, and since that time has had twenty-three rehearsals in all.
Sixty-two names were handed in of employes who were interested in such an organization. Thirty-two joined at once, eleven members came in after the first of January, and nine members, either new employes or
meniibers of families, joined in March, making a total list of fifty-two.
The first concert was given April Sth, in Ziegfeld theatre. The generous co-operation and financial sup¬ port of the patronesses, and the cordial response of friends in buying tickets, insured a full house and a balance in the treasury, after all expenses were paid.
The assistance of the reed quartette was a friendly courtesy extended by H. A. Waterman on behalf of the Milwaukee Harvester Band. The appearance of Signor Tramonti, the harp soloist, was with the per¬ sonal compliments of Cyrus H. McCormick.
The success of the concert on April Sth, was an encouragement to offer a repetition of the concert as a complimentary entertainment at the clubhouses at the Deering and McCormick Works. On Tuesday, April 11th, the concert was repeated in full at the McCormick Clubhouse, only three members of the society being absent. A dinner for the members, the ushers, and the quartette was served at the Harvester building at six o'clock, and automobiles conveyed the group to the McCormick Clubhouse in time for the program to begin at 8:15. The house was full, even though it was a rainy night.
On Thursday evening, the 13th, the members left the Harvester building in a pouring rain for the North¬ western depot. A special car arrived at the Deering station at 6:15. A photograph was taken and dinner served in the Deering works' dining-ro'oin preceding the concert, which was given at 8:15, and despite the very rainy night the house was full, with an appreciative audience.
Rehearsals will be resumed early in September, and it is hoped that, as a result of the concerts at the two clubhouses, there may be a group formed at both of the works to mass with this office organization in one or two grand concerts each season.
The Harvester Choral Society on the stage of the Deering Clubhouse theatre