St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1868-01-17

My poor, dear father :"
Then they fell upon each others neck
and wept, till it seemed as if their souls
would mingle into one.
The Public Danger: 4;uuSement.
BY REV. LEONARD BACON, u. u.
The moral dangers incident to the
sudden increase of our wealth are all re-
lated to each other. Perhaps the cata-
logue of them might be summed up in
! the statement that we are becoming more
and more nation of pleasure seekers
/ One illustration Of what those moral dan
GERS are, may be found i'll the passion for
amusements which is increasingly char
acteristic of the American people.
Amusements, rs such, are not intrinsi-
cally wrong. Nobody denies that amuse-
ments of some sort are necessary to hu-
man nature, burlhened with labor of the
hands or of the brain. Athletic and
manly sports, III their place and in their
measure, are to he approved and encour-
aged. not denounced. Whatever amuse-
ments invigorate the body, or refresh the
mind, without exciting evil passions -
whatever amusements help to bring re-
tinemelt of manners and OF feeling into
social intercourse, without an overpower
inc tendency TO trivolity or to excess
are useful as well rs harmless. But
when amusements become U am not
writing about children, but about grown
up persons.) an end in itself. instead of
being valued as subsidiary to health and
vivacitv. and TO useful labor-when
amusement, instead of being simply re-
trcshment. becomes an emplovment-
when the question is not, how to do the
most work, but how to be amused most
when Gor example.) the working man
instead of seeking some inexpensive
amusement in order that his work may
be more cheerful and efficient, works, re-
luctantlv. in order that his wages may
enable him to enlov himself at some low
theatre or in some amusement more de-
moralizing than that - then it is that
the amusement answers no good pur-
pose.
Now, without raising any question
about the particular tendency of one
amusement or another, | may say-and
the knowledge OF all whose memory runs
back far enough will sustain me in say
ing-that no change in the character of
the American people, within the last five
and twenty years. has been more obvi-
Gus than the growth of passion for
amusements. Without pronouncing any
judgment on the character of certain
amusements once discountenanced among
serious people, and regarded as hardly
consistent with Il profession of gOdllness,
| may refer to the fact that within a few
years great change in that respect has
been coming over what is sometimes call
ed the religious public. Sermons have
l been preached, and essays by religious
} writers have been published, to show that
l we have inherited narrow views about
5 amusements, and that such and such
amusements which have been convention
I ally under the ban. are really harmless,
and are quite consistent with the more
i cheerful and rational style of godlines,
i which, in his refined and enlightened
Il age, we ought to cultivate. Meanwhile
c the zeal for amusements of all sorts
d spreads in every direction, and becomes
1 1 more passionate.
Il No doubt these things may seem to
e some like trifies. But what if they are
trlhes Even straws, floating on the
surface, show the existence of current,
d and which way it is setting The grow
d ing passion in all quarters for all sorts O.
:. amusements. with the millions of money
If which it lavishes-this popular hunger
:. for shows and stage plays, for the mad
1t dcning excitements Of the race-cours,
n and the regatta, for concerts of negro
II minstrelsy, for exhibitions of butfoon'
: and iugglers-this appetite more cage
Ii and Unsuitable every year-indicates ,
growing resemblance in our nationa
e character to the character of ma tions tina
o have never yet been proved capable o
D.! self-government. y free people, con
lg scious of the grand responsibility involv
. ed in political liberty, will naturally bt
ID a grave and earnest people as our father
d were; and when we see such peopl
= becoming frivolous, hungering after pub
a. lie amusements, eager to be tickled witt
Of shows, taking billiard-players for he
to roes, and putting prize-fighters into Con
IN gress, the change is proof of degeneracy
IN rather than of true advancement, and i
ominous of decay in the manly qualitie
ny by which self-government must be achiev
ed and without which it cannot be main
Id tanned.
tn One element in this new popular ms
en- MA deserves more particular notice
AS l have already suggested, the passio
hs for amusements is, conspicuously, pa.
W sion FER public amusements. There W:
ry a time when our people, if they wante
to amusement, did not find it impracticab
yn to amuse themselves at home and whs
he the thought of home was intimately blel
to ded with all their choicest pleasures.
ch do not mean that they had no soci
amusements for young or old. In IL
M old time, many village tavern had
he bar room; and there were "sleigh ride: