t the band-stand danced nearly three thousand boys and
girls to the strains of "Money Musk," glad to be alive and there. A
ball-room forsooth! And it is going to be better still; for once the ice
has been broken, there are new kinks coming in this dancing programme
that is the dear dissipation of the East Side. What is to hinder the
girls, when the long winter days come, from inviting in the fellows, and
papa and mamma, for a real dance that shall take the wind out of the
sails of the dance-halls? Nothing in all the world. Nor even will there
be anything to stop Superintendent Maxwell from taking a turn himself,
as he said he would, or me either, if I haven't danced in thirty years.
I just dare him to try.

The man in charge of the ball-room at No. 177--I shall flatly refuse to
call it a yard--said that he didn't believe in any other rule than
order, and nearly took my breath away, for just then I had a vision of
the club in the doorway; but it was only a vision. The club was not
there. As he said it, he mounted the band-stand and waved the crowd to
order with his speaking-trumpet.

"A young lady has just lost her gold watch on the floor," he said. "It
is here under your feet. Bring it to me, the one who finds it." There
was a curious movement of the crowd, as if every unit in it turned once
about itself and bowed, and presently a shout of discovery went up. A
little girl with a poor shawl pinned about her throat came forward with
the watch. The manager waved his trumpet at me with a bright smile.

"You see it works."

The entire crowd fell in behind him in an ecstatic cake-walk, expressive
of its joy and satisfaction, and so they went, around and around.

On that very corner, just across the way, a dozen years ago, I gave a
stockbroker a good blowing up for hammering his cellar door full of
envious nails to prevent the children using it as a slide. It was all
the playground they had.

[Illustration: The "Slide" that was the Children's only Playground
once.]

On the way home I stopped at the first of all the public schools to
acquire a roof playground, to see how they did it there. The janitor had
been vanquished, but the pedagogue was in charge, and he had organized
the life out of it all. The children sat around listless, and made
little or no attempt to dance. A harassed teacher was vainly trying to
form the girls into ranks for exercises of some kind. They held up
their hands in desperate endeavor to get her