The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-17
Playing House
the Great Joys
of'Pretending'
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAXl

ESTERDAY I saw a picture that
carried me back a good many years
TO a little yellow haired girl playing
an back yard in a country town.
Such a sunny back yard. with chickens
in II, and a woOdpile, beside which there
was always an enchanting pile of sawdusi
and chips
In one corner a house made by plac-
ing layer of bricks, end to end, the lit
tie maid kept house. The furniture con-
sisted Of pieces Of board laid on blocks
of wood, which made very lottery chairs
continually falling to pieces and landing
the small housekeeper flat in the dirt
And the dishes were beautiful bits of
broken china, cups without handles, pitch
ers with the bottoms out, tins full OF
holes, etc.
But. oh the bliss of those days in the
sunny back yard.
Yesterday l saw two little girls engaged
in precisely the same occupation. The
brick house was there the lottery chairs.
the broken china. the WORKOUT brOom-it
was all the same, and the grown woman,
with a homesick thrill for the long ago,
envied the little maids with all her heart
Every woman that lives has PLAYED
house. Perhaps it was In a corner of a
gorgeously appointed city nursery; per-
haps on the steps of some house in city
tenement; perhaps in a sunny back yard
But in all cases, the thrill was exactly the
same.
Rich or poor, a little girls one idea OF
bliss is playing house.
Have you ever opened pretend" oven
door and gazed with housewifely concern
at batch of delicious mud pies? No real
pie can ever be more interesting than
those marvellous mud connections.
In the crowded city districts there are
many little girls whose opportunities for
play are all too few.
While more fortunate little girls are
playing, they are working.
When they should be playing with dolls
they are taking care of real babies, their
small brothers and sisters.
The playing house" spirit is simply
forerunner OF what, the little girls later
life will be-
1t proves more clearly than any argu-
nent could that woman's earliest, strong
est interest Is for home and children.
And tho play house" is conducted much
as the real house viii be later.
Some play houses are models of neat
ness; the broken dishes shine with clean
illness: the whole house is swept and gar
nished twenty times a day. Others are
uDtidy mixtures of odds and ends; there
is no attempt at decoration or neatness.
Those little girls will keep their real
homes, in the future, much as they do
their pretend ones.
Neatness can be taught. even in play,
and If the children are taught to be neat,
when they are young they will grow up
TO love neatneSs.
know myself that it is desperately
hard for some little girls 20 be neat 1t
is so easy 10 fling ribbons or boots on
the floor. when you know that a patient
mother or nurse, viii pick them up.
II you once form the habit of untidi-
ness Il is woefully hard to outgrOw it.
You simply stay untidy until you are
cid enough TO be ashamed Of it.
II mothers and big sisters will teach
the little sisters TO be tidy, they win be
doing the small people an inestimable
service.
Teach them TO keep their play houses
and playthings neat
Don't curtail them in their play. Life,
with all its responsibilities, will be serious
enough by and by.
Let the dear babies pretend just as long
as they can.
The 'land of pretend" is such a beau
tiful place, and we ''grown-ups" are shut
out of 1t.
But we have all been there. and now
we must do our best to make it a beauti-
full, happy place fer the wee people who
belong there. until they too shall ontgrow
its enchantment