The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-12
HOW TO ENTERTAIN.
Mrs. John Sherwood on Fun for
the Boys and Girls
PLAYING At BEING USEFUL.



Ganss Tor CAuArsn-A hoy wanss
Noise Above All.
In the life Of Nine. Snetchine We read the
following account Of the amusements Of q
clever child:
1.-The occupation of courtier did NOT
prevent Mons. Soymonof from bcstowine
the most assidnous care on the education
Of . daughter who for six years was his
only child. lie was struck by the progress
Of her young intellect. She showed an
aptitude for languages, music and draw
ms, while she developed firmness of char
acter. q rare quality in child.
t'She desired q watch with an ardor
which transpired in all her movements.
Her father had promised her one. The
watch came and was worn with the keen
est enjoyment, but suddenly new though.
seized upon the little Sophia. She reflected
that there was something better than a
watch. To relinquish it of her oUn accord
she hurried to her father and restored to
him the object of her passionate desires,
acknowledging the motive. Her father
looked at her, took the watch, shut it up
in bureau drawer and said no more
about it.
NJ Soymonofs rooms were adorned
with hronzes, medals and costly marbles.
Sophia was on terms of intimacy with
these personages of fable and history, but
she felt an uncomfortable repugnance to
a cabinet full of mummies. The poor
child blushed for her weakness, and one
day when alone opened the terrible door,
ran straight to the nearest mummy, took
1t up and embraced it till her strength and
courage gave way and she fell IN a swoon.
At the noise of her fail her father FASTENED
IN, raised her in his arms and obtained
from her, not without difficulty, an
avowal OF the terrors which she had
hitherto concealed from him. But this
supreme effort was as good for her as Q
victory. From that day the mumnnies
were to her only common objects of inter-
est and curiosity.
'.Studious as was her education, u.
Soymonof did not Danish dolls. His
daughter loved them as friends and pre-
served this taste beyond her childish years.
but elevated 1t by the admixtnre of an in
tellectual and often dramatic interest. Her
dolls we're generally of the largest size.
She gave them each name and part TO
act. established connected relations be-
tween the different individuals and kept
imagination wildly and became q means
OF instruction Playing dolls was for her
an introduction 10 ethics and knowledge
Of the world.
GATHERINGS. court was succession of
continual fetes. The fairy pantomimes
performed at the Hermitage were the
Ilrst to strike the Imagination of the
Child who, as yet.. could not relish the
tragedies of Voltaire. She composed a
ballet which she called 1.-THE Faithful
Shepherdess and the Tickle Shepherdess.
She writes in her Goth year: One of the
hvellest pleasures OF nv childhood was to
compose festive decorations which loved
70 light up and arrange upon the white
marble chimney piece of my school room.
The ardor which Ithrew into designing.
cutting out and painting transparencies
and finding emblems and notices for them
was something incredible. My heart beat
high while the preparations were in pro-
gress, but the moment my illumination be-
gan to fade. an inefiable devouring melan-
choly seized me. 81 This extract is invalu-
able not only for its historic importance.
but for the keynotelwhich it sounds to
The noble little Russian girl at the court
of Catherine of Russia only found those
pleasures lasting which came from herself
and when she could invest the fairy panto-
mime with her own personality.
fairy .pantomime is possible to the
poorest child if SOME supreme intelligence,
The fairies can all be of pasteboad with
strings as the motive power. There can
be no cheaper corps de ballet" nor any so
amusing.
And the story Of the watch is significant
as showing that the wish once gratitied
ceased to be wish. She desired With q
chiid's caprice to give it back to do some
thing else with it.
You have done much for your child, !"
we often hear. you have had nurse, a
nursery governess, a fine pony for your
boy, you take your children often to the
play and give them dancing parties, and
yet they are not happy"
This is the sincere regret of many .
mamma that she cannot make her child
rem happy. Yet in a large town in a
house shut up from our cold winter blasts
what can she do? A good dog and a kind
hearted set of servants will solve the prob
lem better than all the intellect in the
world. Grandmamma brings a doll to the
little girl, who looks it over and says:
1.-The dolly cannot be undressed. do not
want it," 1t is the dressing and the
undressing which are the delights of her
heart.
A boy wants to make noise first of
all things. Let him have large upper or
lower room, q drum, a tambourine, q
ball, and there he should be allowed to
kick out the efiervescence of early man
hood. Do not follow him with all man
ner OF prohibitions. Constant Anagging
and faultnnding is an otfense against a
child's paradise. Put him in a room for
certain hCars of the day where no one
need say: Get down, don't do that, don t
make so much noise" Let him roar and
shout and climb over chairs and tables and
tear his gown and work of his exuberance,
and then he will be very glad to have his
hands and face washed and listen to q
story or come down to meet papa with q
smiling countenance.
Children should be allowed to have pet
birds and kittens and dogs, as much live
their sympathies. And when bird dies
and the fioodgates of the poor little heart
are opened, synpathize with him. 1t is
cruel to laugh at childish woe. Never re-
fuse child sympathy in JOY or sorrow.
This lack of sympathy has made more
criminals than anything else.
Children should never be cheated. either
in the taking of medicine or the admins
trasion OF knowledge. One witty writer a
of good books. He declared that reading
''that Tommy was good boy and kept his
pinafore clean and rose to affluence, while
Harry flung stones and told fibs and was
carried OFT by robbers" developed his SYM
pathies for Harry, and that although he
was naturally good boy he went for pure
hatred of the virtuous Tommy TO the
rivers brim and helped bad boy TO
drown his aunt's cat, and then he went
home and wrote prize composition called
Frank, the Friendless, or Honesty is
Best.
All this was because the boy saw that
Tommy was q prfy. that his virtue was of