Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-05-19
A GAME.


To be Played at by Parents.
Mr.. EDrToR:-The game of "outs,"
"a played by many of the boys of
Cedar Falls, contains no element of
comedy except to the players them.
selves. Your yard, your garden is
the chosen stage, and you are the
| compelled spectator. You are cx~
pected to be submissive as pup, as
docile as a lamb, free volition and
reason meantime to be thrown to the
dogs. In a word the boys are to be
autocrat, you grown up men and wo-
men the serfs of their pleasure and
service. Outs" is very agreeable
game to the boys, no doubt, though
sure death to the green things and
spreading vines that grow in peoples
gardens. It's destructive of the fond
hope of eating ones home-raised
radishes, lettuce, and the like, The
delightful old pastime of stoning the
frogs is no more severe on the dwell.
ers in the pond, than is "outs" on
peas, onions, and strawberries. In
fact oil things that shoot forth from
the tender soil are wholly at the mer-
CHESS tramp of the boys when en-
gagged in the merclless game of
"outs." Then the Goths come down
upon you, then your premises plain
ly tell of vandal inroads and wanton-
ness. The game produces singular
and unpleasant effect on the boys,
for while under it's immediate inspi-
ring influence they verify suppose
themselves vested with the law and
right to break down your shrubbery.
destroy your plants, snap Off Il paling
here, uLhinge a gate there, Oh!
very exhilerating, exciting, fascinat-
ingt is the game Of "outs, mot TO
be denied.
It's nothing short of pretty seri-
Gus, though petty tragedy. See them
at it: Here they go, there they go;
heller skelter, over your fence, across
yoIr fresh planted beds, crushing
under foot BOW a tomato plant, now
n cucumber, just peeping out from
tne Led of mother earth into air,
now tender shrub that you've
watched over with much care, now
rushing like IA cavalry charge thro'
your currant bushes. now out thro'
your side gate, giving said gate
healthful swing, as if to test the quail
ity of yonr hinges metal, and Ieav-
ing the gate half open, as a tempting
invitation to even a well-bred, and
politely hammered COW.
It's provoking. After supper
you've shut your side gate to secure
your premises from creatures that do
prowl you hate iucursions of roguish
cows, land if you don't, you're not q
good citizen,) down street you've
gone, and return at nine to find a
neighhor's COW helping herself to ev-
cry green thing. Don't be hard on
the COW, but just remember you are
indebted to the nice little game of
"outs" for the privilege quietly in.
dulged in by Madam Boss.
If this, and more than this, which
the boys perpetrate time and again,
is not committing trespass, pray what
is? Are the boys of our town to be
educated into the notion that play
makes wrong right--that no house or
property owners have rights which
urchins are bound to respect-that
what Is full of fun to them excuses
and justifies q liberty.taking other.
wise improper and unlawful?
We would not prohibit single boy
the enjoyment which belongs to his
years, or deny him the amusements
or recreations Of bis times. Good it
Is for boys to play, to have big play,
and plenty of it, only let them not
forget the right of property holders
to have gardens if they wish. Let
the play be on the street, in the parks,
round the corners, on the commons.
Let the boys understand they have no
right, no excuse in an indiscrimlnate
selection of their -ground-no
business to tramp vegetation aud
shrubbery under foet in pursuit of
recreation or pleasure.
The game is we'll named; il puts
you out of humor, out Of results of
labor and care, and out of patience
with the boys, while it puts civiliza-
ton out of the question. Indeed Il.
has come to be an axiom with some
of us that eternal vigilance is the
price of something else besides liber-
ty-even the price of a garden.
Either the game ought to be stopp-
ed, or placed under such conserving
regulations as will insure security to
the kinds of property to which allu-
sion has been made. For be IL known
that vegetables In ones garden are as
much ones property as his house or
table ware, and entitled to the same
need of protection. Then we say,
let the boys play, but let them have
a little regard for each persons grow
ing garden. This il game at which
the parents of the boys may play
wisely and nsefuily. Take a hand in,
Mr.. Parent. and show your boy how
to play without converting himself
into common nuisance. C.viliSs-
ton demands sb's at your hand
NIA1op Twrc.