The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-27

A tiny embodiment of the spirit of
spring as il dwells in one part of our
city, ran up the steps of Neighborhood
House the other morning in the person
Of little boy with a scrap Of paper
clutched in his eager fingers. The scrap
was clipped from the advertising col
| umn of a newspaper. and it bore the
exciting announcement, "Overalls, 10
cents today. at Isl"
Now it is not that they have the
spring gardening fever down at 40 y
Street Southwest This small boy was
his mothers messenger, with an an
swer to a question which had been up
before the sewing circle at Neighbour
hood House the previous afternoon
namely, whether it was cheaper to buy
overalls or to make them. For over
alls must be had as costume for a
diminutive angler who will figure in one
of the children's plays which are to
be a part of the Eleventh Annual
Spring Festival at Neighborhood House,
beginning next Thursday afternoon.
So this overall question is not to be
laughed at as trivial. This children's
celebration of the return of spring is
an event not only for the children. but
for their parents, too. 1t is so much
an event that all the community, old
and young, is busy with prepare ton
for il, turning work into play by the
spirit and the purpose with which it
is done, and at the same time teach
ing itself new ideals of beauty, conduct
character, and citizenship. For the folk
festival is the contamination of the
ideal OF useful recreation. The pleas
ure it means to the participants is in
disputable by any Onlooker. That IL is
impossible to be participant without
mental and vocational profit would
never be gainsaid by the participant
Concerning Spring Festivals.
So far it is only in Southwest Wash
ington, and through Mr.. and Mrs. J. p.
S. Neigh. in charge of the Neighborhood
House. that the folk festival idea has
been carried out in completeness in Wash
ington. But If Washington people will
take this weeks opportunity 10 see what
they may see, We shall have more folk
festivals and bigger ones.
1t is with the perfect confidence of tried
experience that Neighborhood House de-
votes much of its energies to the an
nual spring festival. The first idea, ten
years ago. was merely of an exhibit of
work accomplished. and the sale of the
products of that work. When the value
of dramatics for teaching children began
to be more fully appreciated, new features
were added to the bazaar. and the annual
event became established in its present
form. with plays and dances and pageants,
to which the bazaar is now but an ad-
junct. 1t became established also in pop
ularity, for where once an afternoon suf
feed for the affair, three afternoons and
evenings must now be given TO permit
everybody who wishes to take part.
This settlement. like most others. has
it's boys clubs, girls clubs, kindergarten.
its nursery, its woman's club, and il also
has an industrial department. See. then,
how it turns all Of these into festival.
for the performers must all not only
learn what every play and dance and
song is about. but must make the more
material preparations of costumes and
properties. and build the stage and
scenery. And they must profit intel
lectually as no school book would ever
teach them. How teach legendary his
tory and the standards of knighthood so
well as by having your boys enact the
tales of the Round Table? How so safe
ly satisfy their wish for romantic ad-
venture as to stage them in Robin
Hood play or a Daniel Boone, or some
other vigorous scene in their own coun-
trys history? And the little girls who
reproduce the May Day ceremonials of
other times and other lands, they must
know why they wear those quaint little
bodiced dresses. some always this color
or always trimmed with that. and caps
worn SO, or so. While the grown young
men and young women who act out