The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-03-02
St. Adams Can Think it over

ST. Adams Can Think it Over
The following from the Hartford,
Conn, Times is commended to the
thoughtful consideration of serious
minded people hereabouts as suggest
ing more or less directly sociOlOgic-
al problem that cOnfronts st. Adams
too, although some of our good inten-
toned brethren persistently ignore
ii:
Father William, Mclaughlin of st
Augustine's church, Union Hill, y. j.,
appeared at the New Jersey house
committee hearing Monday afternoon
in advocacy of Assemblyman Olwelfs
bill to remove the restrictions against
Sunday baseball He said he was
not speaking for the church or with
its sanction but was giving express
ion to his personal views based upon
nineteen years of church work.
Father Mclaughlin said he felt it
would be a good thing for the moral
ity of young men, and perhaps their
elders. if Sunday baseball were per
mitted. 1t would remove them from
many temptations and in numerous
instances would substitute clean,
manly sport for the influences of the
saloon. He concluded by saying that
il baseball is wrong on Sunday ii is
wrong every day in the week"
The burden of proof is upon the
opposition to show that this minis
ter is wrong,
st. Adams could do no more use
! full, no more uplifting thing for its
youth and young men than to set
aside a few acres of land IN a con
yeniently accessible location for a
public recreation park, equip ii with
facilities for the playing OF healthful
outdoor sports, lawn bowling, wrest
ling, boxing, and similar pastimes,
and then to set about the cultivation
of public policy that not only would
influence the young people to fire.
quent this park but that would move
! their elders to go there too ana by
| their presence oversee the fun. keep
il within due bounds and at the same
! time give sanction, encouragement
and stimulation 10 It. And let that
park be open in the faAorable sea
sons all the daylight hours seven
days in the week. saving perhaps the
/ provision that it should be closed dur
! ing the hours of church services Sun
day forenoon for reasons that will
suggest themselves to most folks as
at least expedient.
That would be way to help raise
generation OF strong limbed, strong
winded, strong hearted clear headed
/ bright eyed men TO take up the du.
ties of citizenship here; men that had
/ been taught to find their chief pleas
ure out in the pure air and the sun
shine during their years OF growth,
men that had been taught that the
building up of a 1.-THE and athletic
I body By healthful exercise and sport
Is just as much an act of Worship as
Notifying the body by abstinence
! and fast men that had been taught
the spirit of chiyalry and sense of
honor and fair play, the love of JUS
| tice and the contempt for cheating
and fouling that are bred in the some
times rude but always kindly give
and take of manly sports and con
/ tests. men that had been reared from
! youth to a grand and inspiring social
! intercourse with all the decent men
in their own generation in the same
community and whose early acqualn'
lance thus formed tended to prevent
forever the growth OF class or sec
tional distrust and jealousies because
the men did know and understand
each other and grew up together in
a noble atmosphere of genuine Amer
lean democracy.
If St Adams wants to do some
ting for her boys and young men, let
her begin by teaching them how to
play by encouraging them to play by
providing the means for play. Char
acter is formed in early youth on the
playground just as much as anywhere
else, and sometimes even more Wei
lington said the battle of Waterloo
was won on the cricket fields of Eng
land. Such public playground
where the youth OF the city learned
to frat nize and their fathers and
elders taught them how by doing the
same thing, themselves, might offset
some OF the temptations to young
men that are now providing the mis-
chief that is found for idle hands
everywhere.
Here is missionary work severa
miles this side of India that will cos
but very little money and yield price
less dividinds in healthy bodies anC
healthy minds.
Move on.-St Adams Messenger.
Notice.