The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-05-26
Having Fun.


me for the last half hour, fairly bubbling
over with fun. They laugh as naturally
as birds sing; they are at what q disap-
proving old gentleman calls the gggling
age. l don't mind their laughing, it is
not illhumored, and if at sixteen one
doesn't see the fun that brightens the
days work, one will never see it. Aquick
perception of the ludicrous is as useful as
salt in porridge.
The girl WHO'S born without an appre-
citation of having fun is to be pitied. She
| will miss two-thirds of life's pleasure as
she journeys. Well did Shakespeare tell
us,
The merry heart goes all the way,
Your sad heart tires in 4 mile-oh.
And long before Shakespeare. Solomon
affirmed "The merry heart hath con-
tinual feast"
Having said this, may be pardoned if
l suggest that in girlhood's precious
hour, we must have certain projections
and boundaries about our fun? Suppose
our home daughter is going on a trip
across the continent She may travel
from New York to San Francisco, from
Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, in
absolute safety, without embarrassment,
without insult, if she simply behave like
"a lady," refrain from making acquaint-
ance with strangers, especially with men,
and preserve her dignity.
A party of young girls one day lately
which. l was seated. In effect they
swarmed over it like bees on a bough.
They laughed and talked loudly, men
tioning names freely; they were rude and
boisterous; they so possessed the car,
that the business man who was reading
the newspaper folded it up with sigh,
and the pallid woman who had head
ache looked as if undergoing torture
This was having fun at the wrong time
andin the wrong way. Such pretty girls,
too! l felt sorry to have them show so
little breeding, and so much selfish uncon-
Germ about other people.
When a company of young folk, girls
and boys, are going anywhere on an ex-
cursion or picnic, or wherever there may
be fun afoot, they should have chaperon
with them. Some older friend, married
woman, or a spiuster who has left her
giddy days behind a mother, or an aunt,
should accompany the young people, not
to hinder or repress their fun, but on oc-
casion to keep it from flowing into mis-
taken channels. A father, if he had time
to spare, is delightful chaperon. Should
sudden calamity occur, or an unforeseen
delay, as when a carriage breaks down,
or yacht is becalmed for hours, it is
pleasant for everyone to have an expert
enced friend at hand who will know what
to do, and by their very presence calm
the fears of the timid. Besides, though
young people sometimes overlook this,
the fathers and mothers at home are con-
cerned about them while they are absent,
are anxious if there be any postponement
of their return, and feel much more at
ease if some one be in the group who is
charged with its care, and to some extent
responsible. This is so generally under
stood and accepted now that on sleigh
ride and straw ride and mountain climb
and moonlight sail, girls and boys are,
as matter of course, provided with
suitable chaperon.
Having fun is right, but in the fun there
must be no malice. Need tell girls that
practical jokes of every kind are in very
bad taste, and are what we call bad
form Surprise parties are seldom in or
der. Never should a girl join one, unless
she is assured that at least one member
of the family to be visited has been taken
into the secret. One never knows how
inopportune a surprise party may be,
nor how unwelcome, so that the precau-
ton above mentioned should. never be
omitted, and the fun made free from all
objections before it begin.
In home life, the more fun, the more in
nocent hearty laughter, the more JOY
there is, the dearer will be the fellowship,
and the frmer the household bond. A
daughter who is in sympathy with her
parents, a sister who loves her brothers,
will help them not only to be cheerful,
but day by day to have fun, to have
what Rudyard Kipliug happily calls,
"Clean rnirth." One who has the gift of
amusing others is worth her weight in
gold. Hers is the timely jest, the bright
anecdote, the conundrum, the light touch
tina: starts the ball of CHEEKY talk.
Heaven bless her.