Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-23
CaILDHOOD'S HOUR.
HOW TO MAKE HOME ATTRACTIVE TO
CHILDREN.
Influence of Youthful Pleasures Upon
After Life-Games for Long Even
ings at Home-The Table.

Influence of Youthful Pleasures Upon
After Life-Games for Long Even
ings at Home-The Table
Especial Correspondence of the SUNDAY UNIoN2
Whether home is really home or simply
a stopping place depends entirely upon
the life that centers there. 1t means rest,
contentment, affection, tenderness, purity
and progress. In fact, home in its largest
and truest sense implies great deal.
But | have seen homes where the
parents were good and conscientious, hay
ing the best welfare of their children at
heart, who yet really made no home for
their children, simply because they had
forgotten what belonged to childhood.
They were parents whom it seemed to me
must always have been men and women,
like Adam and Eve, always full grown,
with never a memory of childish wants or
needs. j remember a household amid the
hills of New England, where the fine old
house under the shadow of the elms hard
ly ever echoed to the music of childish
laughter, although it had its share of
children, and where the little boys and
girls were never allowed to romp together,
much less pass an evening in merry games.
The Assembly's catachism was the book
for Sundays, and Bluebeard, Mother Goose
and Cinderella were all ignored on week
days; falry-land was realm into which
the children might not enter, and even
merry old Santa Claus was kept at bay as
Popish invention which they might not
harbor. Nature set the example of glad
ness for them. The birds sang and twit-
tered merrily in the branches the squir-
rels skipped and chartered among the
tree-tops, and the frogs held carnival of
gladness every summer night within hear
ing, and the merry brook never ceased its
humming, but for those children there was
nothing but firmness, no careless sports,
but constant life of repression.
Well, of course those children grew up,
and whole community of such people as
they make would never do the world any
good, because their characters, their whole
being, were stunted and one-sided. They
never had known what childhood is, and
they had no sympathy with it. Children
must have amusements and recreations.
There is world OF wise philosophy in the
old adage, "Ali work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy" Amusements are a
legitimate need of childhood, and pleasant
pastimes should neither be repressed or
ignored. Make your children happy at
home in the employment of harmless
pleasures, as we'll as in fultllment of simple
duties, and you lay broad and deep the
foundation for the life outside the home.
A happy childhood is the foundation from
which to draw in all after life-a green
spot to which we may turn if life grows
lonely in later years.
AN EXCELLENT GAME,
And which will stimulate children to
study, is called Century Count" 1t is
played by having one of the party leave
the room, when century is assigned to him,
such as sixth, eighth or nineteenth. On
his return he is charged with all the
crimes and abuses of his century, which he
must explain, excuse, or acknowledge ac-
cording to the best of his ability; the ex-
cellencies of his century are also attributed
to him, and its noble characters, all of
which he must politely accept, trying at
the same time to discover to what century
he belongs. When he succeeds in de-
termining which century he represents, he
selects the person whose last speech gave
him the hint, and says: "The eighteenth
Tor other) century begs leave to retire, in
Producing Mr.. - to the Court,n and the
new victim leaves the room while another
centary is selected. When he returns
some one says, for example: "Oh, how
could You assassinate one of the best men
that ever lived?' (William. the Silent. J
And another adds, well, if he did, he
produced one of the greatest poets"
(Shakespeare.) YES" says another, land
tried to Introduce the Inquisition into
Holland" But" eAclaims another, "that
was nothing compared to the massacre he
caused" (St. Bartholomew "He was a
good hand at sinking ships. too "Yes,n
chimes i'll another. and it made the most
gentlemanly duck imaginable crow for
joy" admiral Drake "Oh, YES, and
laid the foundation for roast goose on
Michaelmas Day." This gives CLEAN of
light 10 Mr.. Century if he is ''up' in his
history, and he exclaims:
Thank you. | see roast goose, sinking
ships and Michaelmas Day. That means
biAc anu queen N,
thus making me represent the sixteenth
century. Now will give place to you"
And so the game goes on. 1t is instruct
i've, and may be made fall of interest and
fun as well. l have seen PLAYERS so de-
lighted with it that it has employed almost
the whole evening.
There is another game which affords
splendid fun and is called
''JUsTICE Is BLIND"
Blindfold one PLAYER, who must take a
seat in the middle of the room, when the
leader takes up to her each one of the
company. Justice must then pass an
opinion upon each, and the leader must
decide whether or not the opinion is suffi-
ciently correct for Justice to transfer the
bandage TO the person described. Anus.
ing mistakes are oftentimes made on ac,
count of their being so wholly at variance
with the true character of the person de-
scribed.
The Russian Game of Gossip" will
afford much amusement, and is played in
this way: One of the company composes
and writes out striking but short nara
tive of about dozen lines or so. This he
reads carefully TO himself, then folds and
puts out of sight. Taking the person on
his left aside, he repeats to him, as accu-
rately as he can remember, what he has
written. Number two repeats this, and SO
it passes round until it reaches the last
player. This last person recites the story,
aud it is then compared with the original
When the story finally reaches home il
will never be recognized as the one which
was told by the first speaker.
But l will not suggest further in this
article the
SOURCES OF AMUSEMENT
Which may be found to enliveu an even
ing at home when guests are present or
otherwise, but in the future | will speak
of this again. For little children the old.
fashioned game of "Fox and Geese has a
charm that will hold them for hours and
Checkers" does not lose its charms even
over older children. "Chess," when once
fully mastered, is captivating to most
young people and "blind mans buff de-
lights the children of this generation even
as it did those of bygone days. / like the
ringing laugh that comes with these and
the shouts of careless gladness that reach
TO the very rafters of the old home 1t is
olt from the homes where such laughter
=. haarl tbot IL 4 u