The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-16
BOSTON BABIES.
Children Who Take Life Seriously and Do
Not Indulge in Noisy PLAYS.

OI4lOren WI rake Lie seriously ana 10
Not Indulge in Noisy Plays.
Correspondence New York Mail and Express
In roaming about the eastern side of New
York during the summer months, have been
struck many times with the persistency of the
children of the poorer order in their games
have watched them on the wharves and in the
squares and open spaces of the more density
populated districts, and everywhere have seen
them at play. Rings of half dozen boys and
girls may be seen on every street, and even kite
flying and top spinning go on in spite of diff
culties and imminent risk of destruction. [
have seen nothing to answer that here, and
have sometimes asked myself why.
Sitting at my open window in the evenings, l
rarely hear the crying or shouting of children as
heard it ceaselessly in the air of New York;
yet if Hook abroad l see them, in numbers al
most as numerous but with such notifications
of nature that they play quietly and with emf
nent selfcontrol have sometimes supposed
thrt it was because gardens are more usual, and
imagine that the children took refuge in them,
but this does not explain it, for the sidewalks
and the open thoroughfares are as popular at the
Hub as elsewhere in this country The families
are gathered under the porch and the little ones
play up and down the shady avenues, but they
certainly do not shout and scream as they do in
noisy New York Why is thisY Are they
becoming more like those wonderful ia
panese and Chinese children of whom
we read, who cannot or at all events,
do not care to ery2 Hardly for they have an
intellectual activity unequaled anywhere. Is
it that the serious aspect of life overshadows
their spiritsl They are so essentially self-con-
tained so well hammered, so cultured-after all,
that is the only word to express it. In the
cars small boy will rise to give, or rather to
offer, his seat to small girl; she will have too
much self-respect to accept it, it is true, but
both the offer and the refusal are character
istic
The newsboys do not shout and scream at the
Hub. They board the cars and modestly an
nounce their wares; and even a fire-and the
fire bell is always ringing-will only cause
stampede and none of that hoarse shouting
which in New York would proclaim the fact.
All, well! after all, one asks ones self is it a
good thing2 Is it, after ALL sign of healthy
childhood? The little ones in well bred En-
glish family are always quiet before visitors,
often preternaturaly so before their parents,
but everyone who knows anything about them
knows that they make up for it at other times,
and a garden full of healthy youngsters will
resound with shouts and laughter. And there
is great miss in this here. Do the children
laugh enoughY They take their pleasure so
calmly and critically that one sometimes thinks
they must be chilled by the ice-cream they de
your. They are so reticent in expressing delight
that even at theater they remain passive
Culture is great thing, no doubt, but one some
times feels that it is too serious matter if it
turns laughter-loving, active children into de-
mure automata. Can not have the culture
and keep the high spiritsY Give them the ad-
vantages of the earliest possible education,
as Vnab IS lnSlSCeu upon, ana YET let Jne1n re-
joice in the animal nature that after ALL for
the first quarter of their lives ought to pre-
dominate
Professor Fiske taught the Concord phiIoso-
piers the othor day, that the longer the in
fancy the greater the intellectual development,
but we are wiser than men of science. and do
our best to shorten the period of infancy and
turn our babes into men and women. An old
proverb says; Children will be children
We, for our part, heartily wish that they would
remain so, and that an ant-educational wave
might leave some of them in happy ignorance.