The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-06-27
The Active Element in Play.

The Active Element in Play.
We make, of course, a great mistake
if we overlook the active element in
play, and children and grown persons
must not get their sport too easily, nor
enfeeble themselves by sedentary
amusements. Here the important dis
tinctiOn of the active and passive voice
| opens upon us. In baseball, in Srick-
EFT, in billiards, in bowling, and in
quoits and football, there is whole
some stir of the limbs and the blood,
and also good exercise for the percep-
tions and Judgment. Spinning tire top
and flying the kite, playing marbles and
battledoor, are mlider sports, yet they
have the use for the mind as well as the
body, and they have place in physical
education too important to allow any
sensible man to despise them. We
tend generally very much, however,
away from all these outdoor active
plays, and we like to get our amuse-
ment as easily as possible, while the
least loss of time or cost of effort.
|
ting plays, the sedentary recreations.
These are of various kinds, according
as they quicken the perceptions and
the understanding at the table, as in
} the case of draughts, backgammon, or
the less Objectionable forms of card
g playing or as in the case of riddles
4 and charades and conundrums, they
e stir the wits or in the play with dolls
e and puppets, which start the fancy or,
e lastly, in the games of chance, that
), move hope and fear without calling out
If any worthy action of mind or heart
e and which are of doubtful service ever
r in their mildest forms, so ready are
e they to encourage the accursed passion
re for gaming. Now we certainly need tt
bring out the more active class of plays
y and men of business and the prOfes
N sions would be much better every wal
if they would keep up the usages ant
re the spirit of their youth by going will
at their children and young people TO tn,
baseball ground or the bowling alley
DR. It is the merest drivel to speak of an,
ST of these wholesome sports as bad be
tie cause they are sometimes abused.
billiard-tabIe and a bowling-alley ar
90 no more evil in themselves than a iii
ed ming room or a bath-house, for each c
these may and has been perverted t
a monstrous corruptions.
Is, It is becoming a very practical ques
tie ton how far the active sports shoul
become so intense and personal as t
so excite emulation and influence partisan
,e, ship, as is 50. often the case with OF
nd rowing matches and ball-playing. He1
a second distinction, based upon emf
els lation and its absence, presents itse7
op Too often these contests cease to /
plays, and when the victory secur,
to either available prize OF. a substanti
honor, and sometimes it brings heat
ICE and even peace of mind into peril.
le- is fun to see. Harvard and Yale or o
or ford and Cambridge rowing for Il
mastery, but the brave fellows who a
ks straining their muscles to win the d.
nd or their color are not especially ioll.
ust and no work is harder than theirs. You
men must, indeed, be manly, and n
lie mind rougbing it sometimes, and t
EN- boat-race is of piece with the scral
| it BILE of life, and one must not be O7C
dainty in play when we are to try o
g is hand and take our chance in the rOug
led and-tumble of the world. 1t is be
sed however, to give to manly plays as mu
ION geniality and harmony as possible.
cad can not ask young men, indeed, to
is content with dancing all the time VI
ladies in sympathetic round and pal
,rd- regulation. Nor can we hope to conf
lite them to the routine of the gymnasiJ
and it's feats of turning and climbiI
nth Military sports meet their active te
ms. per very we'll, and marching and COT
ped termarching with banners and mu
hen are better and more friendly exerc
e. than the everlasting fight for sup
'ove macy, whether with the oar, or
football, or the cricket bat. 1t is W
3 is to calm the pulses of youth, and ey
sley of children, by adding plays of rep
nor sentation to active sports, and fiji
case quality of fellowship goes with hear
sley music, seeing tableax and pictur
e or walking in the fields, or rowing or 81
Gare ing quietly amidst pleasing scene