Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-04-15
MONTPELIER, VI:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1868,
Need of Innocent Amusements.


ume is entitled * The Chimney Corner,'' and
is collection of articles written by Mrs
Stowe, under the de plume of Christopher
Crowfield, for the Atlantic, and published
from time to time in that popular monthly.
The titles Of the chapters in this book are as
follows What viii you do with her? or The
Woman Question; Woman's Sphere A
Family Talk on Reconstruction Is Woman
a Worker; The Transition Bodily Religion
a Sermon on Good Health; How shall we
entertain our Company? How shall we be
amused? ? Dress, or who makes the Fashions :;
What are the Sources of Beauty in Dress
The Cathedral: The New Year The Noble
Army Of Martyrs These topics give hint
OF the wisdom and practical good sense of
which this book is as full as an egg is of
meat. We make room for an extract from
the chapter on amusements
= For my part said Mrs. Crowfeld, g
am grieved at the opprobrium which falls on
the race of boys- Why should the most crit
ical era in the life of those who are to be men,
and to g0cerH society, be passed in a sort of
outlawry-a rude warfare with all existing
institutions? The years between ten and
which marks the growth and maturing of the
manly nature. The boy feels wild impulses
which ought to be vented in legitimate and
hcalthtul exercise. He wants to rum shout
wrestle, ride, row, skate and all these to-
gcther are often not sufficient to relieve the
need he feels of throwing off the excitability
that burns within.
- For the wants of this period what safe
provision il made by the Church, or by the
Of bfa lou al,
In all the Prussian schools amusements are
as much part of the regular schooi-system
as grammar or geography. The teacher is
with the boys on the playground, and plays
a. heartily as any of them. The boy has his
physical wants anticipated. He is not left
- fight his way, blindly stumbling against
society, but goes forward in a safe path
which his elders and betters have marked out
for him.
.. In our country, the boys career is often
series o. skirInishcs with society. He wants
to skate, and contrives ingeniously to dam
the course of a brook, and flood a meadow
which makes a splendid skating ground
Great Is the Joy for a season, and great the
skating. But the water floods the neighbor-
ins cellars. The boys are cursed through all
the moods and tcnses-boys are such q
plague The dam is torn down with en-
phasi- ard cxecration. The boys. however
and one, and build it up again; and thus
goes on the battle. The boys care not whose
cellar they food, because nobody cares for
their amusement. They understand them
selves 10 be outlaws, and take an outlaws :
advantage.
Again, the boys have their sleds and
sliding down hill is splendid fun. But they
trip up some grave citizen, who sprains his
shoulder. What is the result? Not the
provision Of a safe, good place, where boys
n0y slide down hill without danger to any
ono, bat an oIicJ 1Jibiiding all Gliding, un-
der penalty of fine.
Bows want to swim it is best they
should swim and if city fathers, forcseeing
and caring for this want, should think it
worth while to mark off some good place,
and have it under such police surveillance as
10 enforce decency Of language and demeanor,
they would prevent great deal that now is
disagreeabIe in the unguided efforts Of boys
t. enjoy this luxury.
8. 1t would be cheaper in the end, even if
one had to build sliding-piles as they do in
Russia, or to build skating-rinks as they do
in NOntreal-it would be cheaper for every
city, town, and village to provide legitimate
amusement for boys, under proper superin-
tendencc, than 10 leave them, as they are
now left, 10 fight their way against society.
- In the boys academies of our country,
what provision is made for amusement
There are stringent rules, and any number Of
them to prevent bows making any noise that
NAV disturb the neighbors ; and generally
the teacher thinks that, if be keeps the boys
SfiH, and sees that they get their lessons, his
duty i done But a hundred bows ought not
to be kept still There ou ght to be noise and
motion among them, in order that they may
hcaIthily survive the great changes which
Nature Is working within them. If they be-
come silent, avcrse to movement, fond of in
door longing and warm rooms, they are
going in far worse ways than any amount OF
outward Iawlessness could bring them to.
=. Smoking and yellow-covered novels are
worse than any amount of hullabaloo and
the quietest boy is often a poor, ignorant
victim whose life is being drained out of hin
before it Is we'll begun. IF mothers coulc
only see the series of books that sold be
hind counters to boarding school boys, whom
nobody warns and nobody cares for-if they
could see the poison, going from pillow Il
pillow, in books pretending to make clear the
great, sacred mysteries of our nature, bu
trailing them over with the filth of utter cor
ruption These horrible works are the in
ward and secret channel of hell, into which
boy i thrust by the pressure of strict out
ward rules, forbidding that physical and out
Ot-dOOr exercise and motion to which h,
ought rather to be encouraged, and ever
driven.
= 1t Is melancholy to see that while par
ents, teachers and churches make no pro
vision for boys in the way of amusement
the world, the flesh, and the Devil are inces
sanity busy and active in giving it to them
There ninepin-alleys, with cigars and
bar. There are billiard-saloOns. with bar
and, alas with the occasional company o
girls who arc still beautiful, but who hav
lost the innocence of womanhood, while We
retaining many of it's charms. There ar
theatres, with bar, and with the society o
lost women. The boy comes to one and al
Of these places, seeking only what is natura
and proper he should have--what should b.
given him under the eye and by the care o
the Church, the school He comes for excr
else and amusement-he gets these, and
ticket to destruction besides and whose faul
is it,
= These are the aspects of public life,
said l. which make me feel that we neve
shall have a perfect state till women vote an
bear rule equally with men. State house
housekeeping would be, conducted by tn
voice and knowledge of man alone.
- II women had an equal voice in the man
agement Of our public money, have faitl
to believe that thousands which are nov
wasted in mere political charlatanism woult
90 To provide for the rearing of the children
of the state, male and female. My wife ha
spoken for the boys | speak for the girl
also What is provided for their physica
development and amusement? Hot, gas
lighted theatric and operatic performances
beginning at eight, and ending at midnight
hot, crowded parties and balls dancing with
dresses tightly laced over the laboring lung
Il. L.. Ill Lloz.