The Cambridge of eighteen hundred and ninety-six: a picture of the city and its industries fifty years after its incorporation
Arthur Gilman, Ed.

[173] from his hero in the field rather than from his Sunday-school teacher. The stimulus afforded by the athletic life of the students is felt by all classes of Cambridge people, from the boy who crawls under the fence to see a game to the merchant prince who fills a palace car with his friends, and takes them a hundred miles to see a similar exhibition. Some of the best amateur and professional athletes of the country in various branches of sport have been natives or residents of Cambridge, and few will question the source of their aspirations.

In this connection it has often occurred to the writer that the city might avail itself to a greater extent of many of the advantages that the university extends to it. In June, 1890, the college authorities addressed the following communication to the City Council of Cambridge:—

The President and Fellows of Harvard College hereby offer to the City of Cambridge for the use and enjoyment of the public, in common with the President and Fellows, all their grounds lying northerly from Harvard Street and easterly from North Avenue, for twelve weeks from the Monday following the last Wednesday in June, in each and every year, until further notice, provided that the city restore the grounds to the university at the expiration of the twelve weeks in the same condition, as nearly as may be, in which it received them.

This offer includes the use of the running track and baseball ground on Holmes Field, and some thirty or more tennis courts on Jarvis Field, and in a city where over a hundred teachers are being trained every year as instructors of gymnastics and athletics, and as directors of the physical training in the public schools of other cities, the acceptance of such an offer might prove of great utility.

The city need not hesitate on grounds of economy, as the amount of instruction necessary could be obtained for a small sum compared to what other cities pay, and the normal pupils who are brought to Cambridge, when preparing for the work, are desirous of opportunities to teach as a matter of experience. Similar service will be rendered as the city supplies itself with public parks and open-air playgrounds and gymnasiums like those in Boston, in accordance with the plans of the present Park Commission. With these additions to its fine natural facilities, Cambridge will be unsurpassed as a place of residence, not only for the rich and well-to-do, but also for the poor.