The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-23
EVENING CHAT
BIZ RUTH CAMERON.

play with your children more,
mothers and fathers-bcth for their
sakes and your own"
This is the urgent plea running
through a book about games recently
published by the New York director of
physical training.
With all my heart I echo it.
For it seems to me that it is just as
much parents duty to his children to
play with them as to work for them;
just as much a parents duty to himself
to get happiness out of his children as
to get recreation elsewhere.
One of o. Henrys most powerful
stories is called The Guilty Party"
The scene of this story IS a home on
one of the most crowded streets of the
East Side, on which "as twilight falls
Satan sets up his recruiting office
" Papa, won't you play game of
checkers with me if you aren't too
tired?'
1.-The red-haired, unshaven, untidy
man sitting shoeless by the window,
answered with a frown
6 Checkers No, 1 won't Can't
man who works hard all day have a
little rest when he comes home? Why
don't you go out and play with the
other kids on the sidewalk
1.-The woman, who was cooking,
came to the door.
John she said. I don't like for
Lizzie to play in the street They learn
too much there that amt good for
them. She's been in the house all day
long. It seems that you might give up
little of your time to amuse her when
you come home
Let her go out and play like the
rest of 'em if she wants 20 be amused
said the red-haired, unshaven, untidy
man, and don't bother me. "
So ends the first part of the story.
Ten years later Lizzie, who has very
fully obeyed her fathers advice to play
in the street. kills her lover in a fit of
drunken jealousy and commits suicide.
Then o. Henry has one of his fav-
orite dreams"
He dreams he is in the next world
and sees Lizzie brought before the bar
of judgment for punishm ent.
And what is everyboGys astonish-
ment when the angel court officer says
to the angel policeman: NOW you quit
making these false arrests or you'll be
transferred. The guilty party you've
got to look for in this case is a. red
haired, unshaven, untidy man. sitting
by the window reading in his stocking
feet, while his children play in the
streets"
Now perhaps that's a 700 highly col
ored illustration of my thesis to appeal
to you.
Well, here's much simpler one.
One of the women who work for US
was telling me the other day about her
Ollly lllll6 RlTl WHO Q16u WnGn S4G WAS
ten years old.
"Oh, Miss Ruth she said. st think
so often how my little girl used to beg
me to come out after supper and play
croquet with her. And I'd say. Mercy,
no, I've got too much to do And now
how l wish I'd played the croquet and
had some fun with her some times, and
been sort of friends the way other
mothers are. I thought then that the
most important thing in the world was
to keep the house and her clothes spic
and span, but now I wish I'd known
enough to let things go more and some
times played with my little girl
OF course that's not so picturesque
as O. Henry's story. but it has the
merit of being absolutely true
One of the greatest safeguards
against evil a child can have is the
genuine friendship and comradeship of
its parents.
One of the greatest keep-young
tones father or mother can have is a
habit of playing and romping and be-
ing friends with the children.
Every home where there are child
rem has Ponce de Leon fountain right
within itself If the grown ups only
know enough to find it.
Everyone knows that children are so
bubbling over with Iightheartedness
and love of life that anyone who is
with them much can't help getting
some of the overflow.
If you don't play with your children,
fathers and mothers, you are neglect
ing one of the greatest Of life's oppor-
tunlties-both for them and for Won.
Everybody reads the State Journal