The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-07-02

one away, and to have our hours of
business so arranged that all. fathers
and mothers and children, might go
and enjoy themselves in lively and
way, and then go seasonably
home to prayers and to bed.
There are, in every town, as you
well know, a great many young men
who, for want of some respectable
place of good amusements, are! left
to spend their evenings-the long
winter evenings-in idleness, dull
ness, or else to seek recreetion and
amusement in places where they are
exposed to temptations,
intemperance and gambling. Why
not provide for them some place of
respectable resort where they can
have all eorts of innocent amuse-
ments under the guidance and sane
ton ofChrlstian people, and not be
driven to seek refuge from duliness
in grog shops and gambling hells,
the dens where the Evil One presides,
and where they are in danger of
forming tastes and falling into hab-
its that are good neither for the
body, mind or soul. 1t seems to me
that such an institution as / have
suggested, under such auspices,
might be a very great blessing to
great numbers of the young, not only
in protecting them from evil infiu-
ence, but in cultivating them and
elevating them. giving them the
means of joyous recreation without
dissipation, amusements which they
could enjoy with a good conscience
and thank God for, which, contend,
is point of the greatest Importance.
will say something more in ref
erence to two amusements, which
have included among the good ones.
] mean dancing and dramatic repre-
sentations.
Dancing seems to me to be one of
the most natural and innocent social
amusements in the world. It's foun-
dation lies in the very constitution
of our nature. We are made suscep-
tible to the melody of ftones, ,and we are
also made to keep time with music.
We cannot hear a march or a dane
ing tune without feeling an impulse
to keep time with corresponding
movements of the head, hands or
feet. This at least is the case with
most persons. 1t is spontaneous. 1t
IS owing to what the psychologists
call rhythm in US answering to the
movement of time in music. In
dancing there is brought together
the musical pleasure of melody and
time and graceful movements of the
body in harmony with it and sponta-
neously prompted by it. ltis, there
fore, in itself one of the most agree
able exercises, particularly to the
young, and as rational and innocent
in proper times and circumstances
and under due limitations as it, is
natural and exhiarating. Bear in
mind do not believe in carrying
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anything spoils the good of it.
Dramatic representation stands
still higher in the scale of amuse-
ments. A great, true drama, such as
Shakespeare's and other great au-
thors, is the highest of all products
of the creative Imagination, and the
worthy representation of such work
by persons capable of embodying it
in action, gives us at once the COM
bined delights of poetry, sculpture
and painting, or rather more than all
these, gives US the living reality of
the great conceptions of the poet and
author. OF all possible, all conceiva-
BILE intellectual entertainments there
is none of SO high an order.
Many good moral lesson has been
taught by the stage. Good plays,
good in taste and morals, can always
be selected, and the representation
ofathem may be made one of the
most innocent, agreeable and culti-
waiting entertainments for social as
sem blies.
1 trust~that no one Will imagine l
go for making life one continual
round OF amusements. The very
word itself means vacation from
work (vocare musis) and the man
who makes amusement the sole busi-
ness of life makes a sad mistake.
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amusements.
But there is,~on- the other hand, a
mistake of different sort. At the
outset of my remarks l said that
amusements, TO be good for us, must
be such as we believe to be good, SO