Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-10-17

important it is that the ideals children
hold up to themselves in play should u
pure and lofty ones, and what power
for evil there is in games which sug-
gest base thoughts or awaken prema-
ture emotions. What. therefore, must
be cur feeling when we think of the
hundreds and thousands of little child
rem who every day are play ing games
like the following:
Little Sa:lie Waters.
Sitting IN saucer,
Signing and crying
| For young man;
| Rise, Sailie, rise,
Wipe off your eyes,
Fly to the east,
Fly to the west.
| Fly to the one that you love best
Is it not time we should make a cru
SADIE against this aud similar street
games?
La addition to its Influence in stimu
lating originality Of thought, and fur
nishing ideals of lie and character.
play fulfills an important function in
forming the habit of association, and
thus preparing the child to act IN con-
cert with his fellows. In games such
as cricket and football the individual
works, not for himself, but for his side
or party, and common efforts aud
common successes react TO strengthen
suci.,l feeling. Since all worthy living
is corporate living, the merit of this
phase Of play can scarcely be exagger-
ated.
Finally, through play the individual
not only appr0prates alien experience,
evolves guiding ideals, and learns to
exercise corporate activity, but also
finds d measure of his own force
FITTING himself against rivals, he meas
ures his strength, dexterity, endurance,
and Intellect, Increases his love for
contest and victory, and, when he is
ready to put away childish things, Is
more likely TO become wrestler with
the problems OF thought and the duties
of life.
In the history of the world the Greeks
are pre- eminent as playing people.
They are also the people who fought
the first great battle for political lib
erty, who suDdued and transfgured
nature in their mythology and art,
and who discovered and announced
that universal and divine element in
the soul of man which furnishes the
Indictment to all genuine moral strug
gle, which is the final court of appeal
for conscience, and the final measure of
character.
Because he discovered in the human
mind those universal and absolute
ideas whose presence is witness Of
the Immortality Of the soul, the world
reveIes, and will always revere. the
memory of Socrates. The memory of
Socrates must, however, not be isolated
from the historic evolution of which it
was the consummate flower. In So
crates the Geek spirit learned to
know itself; but it had been creating
itself through the long struggle of its
history-a history which in the child
hood of this gifted people took the
form of national games, which, rising
out of play, mounted through foreign
conflict and civic strife into plastic and
dramatic art, and thence into the
wrestling of reason and the victory of
the spirit.
do not mean to imply that, because
the Greeks were pre-eminent in play.
they were also pre-eminent in art and
philosophy, but rather that the same
qualities of mind and character which
made them pre-eminent in art and
philosophy made them pre- eminent in
play. Ia the childhood either of an
individual or OF people, love of play,
zest, and persistence in play, are marks
of intellect and enthusiasm.
The true nurture of childhood de-
mands the evolution of ideal plays
plays which shall be to humanity all,
aud more than all, that the Greek
games were to the Greek; plays which
shall strengthen the body, feed the
emotions, discipline the will, and fire
the intellect with pure and lofty aspira-
tions.
AsHANTEE, AVON, n. Y.