Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-01-06

WEDNESDAY EVENING JAN. 6. IL :
LIFE IN GREAT CITIES.

Some of the Moral Dangers as Seen by
Professor Adler.
The Moral Dangers of Life In
Great City" formed the theme of
Professor Felix Adler's recent lee
ture in Carnegie hall Among other
things he said:
Among the difficulties of bringing
up children in the city is the get
ting of right associates for them.
The moral relation of neighborliness
is obliterated in a city. We don't
know our next door neighbor. We
don't know whether it is proper to
allow our children to associate with
others The most powerful educa-
tors of a child are his associates.
If you send your child to school
attended by children of the wealthy,
these children will probably have
the outward polish of politeness,
but to take that for good morals is
the worst mistake in the world. If
you send your child to public
school, you can have no idea as to
what associations he may form. A
remedy for this would be the estab
lishment of endowed schools, from
which the improper class could be
weeded out. The public school evils
could be mitigated by making the
classes smaller, by the establish
ment of disciplinary schools and by
paying more attention to develop
ment of character as the aim and
end of education.
Another evil of cities is the repres
sion of children in play, which is
the exercise of faculties for the
pleasure of exercising them. Re
preston of play Injuries the child
physically and morally. In the cities
he is forbidden to shout, to walk on
the grass in the parks or to pick
flowers, and the tenement house
children have no resource from
their two or three room homes but
the streets. The things they learn
there we all know Children should
have winter as well as summer eX-
cursions to the country. They should
have Fairgrounds in summer and
play halls in winter in the city.
My second point is the perversion
of the play instinct among adults.
We must all play. 1t is the preserv-
alive of the mature. We need this
if we would keep them fresh and
elastic. Bright conversation, music,
the drama and games are modes of
play. Chess, checkers, whist, are all
healthful methods of play, but you
pervert all this the moment you
play for stake, for the efficacy of
play is bringing the faculties into
disinterested exercise with no object
aimed at. Otherwise it becomes
something gambling, for in
stance.
Among the causes of gambling is
the love of excitement, which is one
Of the most prominent moral evils
of city life. This excitement causes
nervous diseases among women AID
nervous prostration among men. 1t
causes the craving for the newspa-
per. Many men of education never
read anything but newspaper.
There is a bubbling excitement of
the brain which the newspaper
feeds-it gives you something that
will fix your restless mind for mo-
ment. To check this excitement,
form the habit of solid, consecutive
reading of books.
Another cause of perversion of the
plav instinct is the desire to have
something for which we have rem
dered no equivalent. This is at the
bottom of many of the social evils
of the day. In gambling the winner
has no right to the winnings because
he has not earned them, and the
loser has no right to lose-he has
no right to squander wealth that he
or some one else has earned. Every
gentleman should object to dollar,
as a thievish dollar, that he has not
earned, or some one for him--New
York Tribune.