Of Water and St. Winifred

Yesterday I made the comment that St. Winifred on Promenade Hill had once been a fountain. That is not quite true. St. Winifred was originally surrounded by water that flowed out of the statue's base. The water created a pool around the statue, and in the pool there were goldfish. The following article, published in 1898--two years after St. Winifred was installed--makes mention of the pool and also demonstrates that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

HE HAS TROUBLES

The Duties of the Policeman on Promenade Hill

Are Many and Arduous

Acting on the REGISTER'S suggestion an officer has been stationed on Promenade Hill to keep order there evenings. The duty he has to perform there is arduous, and is much augmented by the carelessness of parents who allow their children to trample down the grass and to throw gravel at the gold fish, in the pool about St. Winifred, unrebuked. People also go there with their dogs and allow them to run loose to damage the flowers and dig up the beds. The Public Works Commission should make a regulation prohibiting people from taking dogs on the hill unless they are led in leash. Such an order is in force in other cities having public gathering places ornamented with flowers, and such an order should be speedily put in force in Hudson.

Officer Sullivan is stationed on the Hill in the early evening and the service he renders is commendable.

A fine school of gold fish has been put in St. Winifred's pool on Promenade Hill. The fish are there for the pleasure of the people who frequent the Hill and are not intended as targets for the practice of the young Davids, who scatter in a cowardly manner when Goliath Sullivan puts in an appearance.