The Arizona sentinel., 1886-10-23
CHILDREN'S PLAY.
How It Drifts Into the Most Seri-
 OuS Matters.


 Q papa, when will you die?" asked
 one of the youngest of my children. A
 strange question, thought I.
 "Why do you ask, my dear?"
 "Oh, because it will be such fun bury
 ing you"
 This little experience of the author of
 "Olla Podrida" originated in the death
 of a.pet canary which caused the young
 people great tribulaton. 'To amuse
 them," he says, i've made them pa- per coffin, put the defunct therein, and sewed on the lid, dug grave iii the garden, and dressing them out in any remnants of black we could find for weepers, made a procession to the grave where it was buried" This lit tie Advertisement quite took their fancy, and led them to wish for arepetition on a larger scale.
 The memory of back-garden little cemetery of pet birds and kittens, over whose graves the writer had erected head-slates with appropriate epitaphs, occurs to him after hearing of the late obsequies of a pet rabbit at Southport. Little Amy's bunnie went the way of all rabbits, and her playmateS, sympa- thizing with her affiiction, determined to give it an appropriate funeral. They arranged catafalque out of soap box, and with great solemnity dragged 1t in procession to the grave. The children, feeling that service of some kind ought to be performed, but instinctively recognizing the unfit ness of the ordinary religious ritual, joined hands around the bier, and sang with dIgnified pathos the well-known old song: "Oh. Bring Back My Bunnie to Me. '" They did it so seriously, and with such child-like good faith, that even the grown-up listeners behind the ton, and involuntarily sympathized with the young mourners in their grief A ''stepping-stone," as one of the pail bearers afterward described it, was placed over the grave, and the cere- mony was over; but even the gorgeous ness of the funeral pageant and the i'm pressive burial service could not wholly console the owner fer the loss of her rabbit.
 A little girl who witnessed the capture of rat i'll a trap, exclaimed, with the relentless thoughtlessnesS of childhood: ''Me wants you to dead him, so me can see him all buried in the seminary" "- this playing at funerals being evidently
  little folks.
 Much has been said about the power of imagination in the young; but their knowledge and experience being so in- is it not rather the initiative faculty that makes boy with wooden gun act the hero or hunter, and the girl with rag doll, an affectionate though rather caprieiouS moth CT? On their Lilliput stage children initiate doings of adults, who are mainly interesting to them as fur nshing subjects for representation. They value the reproduction more highly than the realities of life, on which they look callously, and will parody a funeral, an execution, .or prayer with remarkable cheerfulness. | One of the writer's schoolfellows, by | way of appropriate Sunday play" once raised an altar of books, placed | lighted candles thereon, and tried to | persuade some of his companions to l io n him in further mummeries, which, | however, paFtook much less of levitv l than earnestnesS on his part.
 A famous American author, who | makes some observations which are very | opposite. says: During walk from | St Nicholas in the shadow of the ma | Iestic Alps, we came across some little | children amusing themselves in what | seemed at first most odd and original | way; but it wasn't; it was in simply a natural and characteristic way They were roped together with string; they had mimic Alpenstocks and ice-axeS; and were climbing a meek and lowly with most blood-curdling amount of care and caution. The guide at the head of the line cut inn aginary steps in a laborious and pains talk ng way, and not monkey budged till the step above him was vacated. If we had waited, we should have wit messed an imaginary accident, no doubt, and we should have heard the in- repid band hurrah when they made the summit, and looked around upon the magnificent view, and seen them throw themselves down in exhausted attitudes for rest in that situation" The same writer says: ''In Nevada, used to see 5he children play at silver mining. Of course the great thing was an accident n mine; and there were two star larts-that of the man who fell down he mimic shaft; and that of the darin 2 lero who was lowered into the depths O bring him up. l knew one small hap who always insisted on playing ,oth these parts-and he carried his point. He would tumble into the shaft md die; and then come to the surface md go back after his own remains"
 Japan appears to be the children's from recent accounts. In no other country, we are told, are the 7oung people treated with such consid- 'ration. The third day of the month is he girls festival. In every family you VII find dolls in large numbers ar anged in one of the rooms reserved for hat purpose, The boys holiday is the