Middletown transcript., 1883-12-28
THE LONG WINTER EVENINGS.

THE LONG WINTER EVENINGS.
AT this season of the year when the
cold weather and long evenings set in,
the question arises, what shall be done
to make home attractive especially for
our young people? ? Something must be
done to counteract outside, evil infuen-
ces, question that is too often left
unanswered, and as is often the case,
not even thought of by parents. And
yet it is these same parents who wonder
why it is their children go to the bad,
never dreaming that they and not the
children are to blame. No young man
or woman goes deliberately to the bad.
The first step is taken in an unguarded,
thOughtless moment and ere the victim
or friends are aware of it, ruin stares
them in the face. The outside world
present too many attractive though
questionable pleasures for all youth to
withstand. Temptations line the path
way of youth like the roses in a garden,
but which while bright and pleasing to
the eye may contain hidden beneath
their bright colors a serpent whose
poisonous fangs are ever sharpened to
strike the blow that ends in DEATH.
One of the simplest and inexpensive
methodsis to cultivated love for reading,
but this cannot be done with only an
old almanac and Barnes Notes on the
Scriptures for a library. A daily paper,
a good weekly journal, a good history,
late good novels and enough humorous
reading to spice the whole, will, in
eight cases out Of ten furnish strong
attractions to keep the boys away from
places of questionable repute and
questionable practices. An evening of
amusement at home is, for good in
auence, equal to a months amusement
elsewhere. An exchange, in comment
ing on this subject, says:
" Amusement is the proper feature
of home life. 1t is a corrective for
many evils. 1t does not matter so
much what the amusements are as that
they shall be regularly provided. Our
homes are too sterile in
The English are more
in this direction. We are
apt to go away from home for them,
and so wean the children from home
life. A false teaching, too, prevails on
the subject. Some object to amuse- :
ments as leading to gambling. 1t is
barely possible that there may be cases
where this is true but the fault is less
in the amusement than in original pro-
1ensity or bad counsel or training.
# young person has propensity for
gambling he will find how to do it.
On the other hand, familiarity with
certain games, under the healthful in
luence of home, may do much to take
Iway the curiosity which quite often
eads to gambling. How far home
James may go will depend largely on
he means of the family. But money
spent for home amusements
S well spent.
So far as amusements at home leads
o gambling, as has been asserted, it
loes, in fact, have an opposite effect.
What human nature is denied, it wants.
md will get it some way, but what it
inds no trouble in acquiring, it does
lot yearn for. If boys are denied the
pleasure of checkers, domonoes etc., at
home, they will go elsewhere to enjoy
he game, as they are not dead to the
pleasures ATTAINED, after hearing their
telling of their enjoyment
1f these games. Evening parties in a
not these formal stiff
affairs, but the social informal parties,
are productive of much good. Literary
0r musical sociables are another. In
fact there are hundreds of ways to
make the long winter evenings enjoy
able and attractive at home, if parents
would give but few moments thought
70 the subject. The good result to be
derived from such a course as cited
above, is too obvious to need further
by the San. Now is the
lime to arrange for campaign for the
good of the youth before they became
welded to the amusements tob found
IN only questionably moral places
Peck's San.