The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-08-17
CLOSING OF SUMNER SPORTS.

we nave reaCned the last month o
summer, and let us hope that people
are weary of recreating themselve;
and are ready to settle down cheer
fully to the more important duties o
life-which are often lighter and more
healthful than the amusements, anC
less expensive.
Nobody squite happy with an emp
ty pocket, but vast numbers 6nC
| themselves at the end of the vacation
in that stripped condition. They
have compassed sea and land in the
pursuit of pleasure, and now mus
find solid comfort of life, if they ever
find it, in a tussle for daily bread and
a renewal of the depleted bank &C
count.
How unhappy is that mortal who
has no worthy occupation which re-
quires the principal part of his time
Nothing truer than ''Satan finds mis-
chief for idle hands," and when one
goes into partnership with Satan there
is trouble ahead. All up and down
the land are countless idlers who
would not consider life worth living
if they had to work as hard as they
play. Sometimes the cash is not at
hand to carry them through all their
sporting proclivities, and it must be
borrowed, if possible; and so they
place a load of sorrow upon them
selves that will lead on from bad to
worse, until their characters are tar
nished, friends gone, and nobody can
predict the end.
Worthy men have not spent their
youth in constant pursuit of sports,
and it is reasonable to suppose that
they never will. Something helpful
and useful must occupy the hands
and the mind of that boy or girl who
is to take place among the worlds
benefactors. tits beyond understand
ing that so many people of sterling
worth and ability bring up their chill
dren in paths directly opposite to the
ones they travelled themselves.
Thus we have the spectacle Of fami-
lies degenerating, and the progeny of
excellent parents dying in drunken
brawls, becoming inmates of aims
houses, prisons or other institutions
that the public must support to pre-
vent the country from being overrun
with vagabonds. A sporting craze
has seized the people, and every sort
of device is invented to tempt them
from their homes. There are wo-
mems clubs and societies for every con-
ceivable subject, and each must have
its anniversary and picnic, with even
ing sociables galore, and perhaps ex-
cursions to meet similar organizations
in distant fields, so that the hG6itne of
these functions has no time for the
discharge of home duties. 1t is pitt
full to see a woman spending her time
attending and giving card parties,
teas, luncheons, musicales and such
thus trihing away, IS hard at It from
the beginning to the end of the year,
scarcely allowing himself a weeks
rest in midsummer.
These women are not farmers
wives, but their influence often creeps
into the country home and makes hav-
oc there. The farmers son, maybe,
is tempted to marry the daughter OF
a frivolous mother, and he finds when
too late that he has made a mistake
that a simple country life has no
attraction for her. and that there is
nothing in the city for him. Per-
haps, in efforts to please, he leaves
the farm to try his hand at something
he knows nothing about and for
which he has no fitness. Failure is
the result, and the family is wrecked.
Or some pretty farmers daughter may
attract the eye of man used to fash
ionable society. He takes his modest
country flower to adorn city home ;
she is out of her element there, and
and cannot enjoy the pace of the dew
otees of fashion. The constant round
of dressing, calling, receiving, &c,
wearies her; she wants to spend her
time quietly at home with her babies,
as her mother did before her. She
is like ship that has weighed anchor
and is left to drift at sea. Of course
happiness is not found among such
ill-assorted pairs, and the divorce
courts are often appealed to to set
matters right-but they will not be
set right; misery is the portion OF
those who have no higher aim in life
than amusement and personal gratih-
cation. They are not only unhappy
themselves, but their influence is det'
rimental to others.
It is a mistake in the bringing up
of children, constantly to be buying
playthings and getting up parties, en-
tertainments and diversions of all sorts
for them. It is encouraging the en-
ervating sporting spirit. Those who
are obliged to invent their amuse-
ments are more likely to develop en-
ergy and intellect than those who
have everything made easy for them.
The young take to sports naturally
and seldom need training in that line
to acquire all that is good for them to
have. No need for the homes and
schools to lead them into frivolity and
extravaganza. The training they
most need is away from those things
and parents and teachers might better
be found instructing them by exam
| pie and precept to live soberly ane
| righteously and wee bit economical
ly in this present world.
That mother is not showing hersel
to be a pattern of good works who i
having card parties and initiating he
children into the mysteries of euchr'
and bridge whist. She stands in tn
same relation to the lowest gamble
that the tippler does to the drunkar'
in the ditch. She is the most dan
gerous of examples. Young men d.
not take their first hand at cards, O
their first glass of wine, in the gam
bler's den or the low groggery: The