The Newark journal. (Newark, Ark.) 1901-1959, 1910-07-22
Copyright. by Joseph B. Bowles.)

He Is a prodigious toiler-at play.
AS toiler he Is also at times a ter
ror. Davie lived, as lad, in southern
California One time his father sent
him to spend awhile with the lads
uncle in northern California because
down there they were expecting an
unexpected visit-to use a Hiberni-
cism-from an earthquake and wanted
the most precious things out OF the
reach of harm The next week came a
telegram from the uncle saying:
Come and get your boy and send me
the earthquake" And yet he was just
playing. 1t was pure fun, not bit OF
meanness in 1t. Playing is very
serious business with him and fun
ranks among the solemnities.
II Is not for a moment claimed
by him, or any one OF his anxious
friends. that play is not hard work.
Digging postholes or worming tobacco,
or carrying hod. or feeding thresh-
ing machine, or driving oxen, or sell
ing goods from a bargain counter is
light and lit2es0ma work as compared
with the labor of lad at play That
is where most of the fun comes from.
II he could be induced to put that
amount of physical activity and mental
absorption and emotional rapture and
undeflled conscience into some we'll
planned enterprise he could achieve
wonders and make fortunes. But there
would be no fun in that, and, besides,
1t would require him to give up his
Job of being a boy.
An outlet for his energies is neces-
sary, and to the innocent bystander
this is the most agreeable of all the
outlets. For his growing muscles and
bones and his unstable nerves give us
the only form OF perpetual motion that
students of mechanics can, as yet,
point to with confidence. This partic-
ular outlet is the one that nature ar
ranged for In advance and, in order to
make sure that he would utilize 1t,
gave him the play instinct. self-opera-
tive and irrepressible, SO that it is
play or perish. We can easily see then
that the more work required In play
the more nature is succeeding with
her nice little scheme of giving his
energies plenty to do and the boy gets
all the benefit of 1t. Going fishing is
no sinscure, with cutting poles and
digging bait and climbing over banks
and wading into the water at critical
moments and carrying home the heavy
catch of-colds and explanations of
the poor luck. Moving the yard is
nothing to 1t. but that is undisguised
work. At school the strenuous work
begins with the morning recess and
reaches the perspiring point during
the longer play hour at noon. And
that Is the most attractive part OF the
school to him, except when the teach
err has bone-felon or influenza and can
not come at all. The ordinary noon
meal Is not especially enticing, though
he is always ready for It. Yet pic
mic lunch, designed for the noon hour,
can not be kept on the outside of him
later than 80 a. m. He is anticipating
the time when, in his later boyhood,
play will gradually give way to the
encroachment of work and he will try
to nnd solace in special gastronomic
feats | recall it as If it We're yester-
day. Apples lasted In our cellar till
May or June and the lining of my coat
pockets was gone, SO that the coat and
its lining formed one mammoth peck
ct. AS went out to pillow in the morn
ing that pocket was full of apples and
on my return at noon | was full of the
apples, yet with no lack of room for