Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1913-08-07
IARMLESS PLAY
IS NECESSARY
Pastor Says Home is Cure for
Questionable AmuSementS.

Uncle Tom," of Tracy City, sends
| us the following newspaper clipping
substantiating from the pulpit bis pos
ition:
DIR. J. F. F. Kay hoe, pastor of st,
PauPs Lutheran church, took for his
theme Sunday evening, Harmless
Amusements. I" His text was taken
from Second Samuel, 2:xiv: "And Alb
ber said to Joab, let the young men
now arise, and play before us. And
Joab said, let them rise" The pastor
said in part as follows
There are harmless amusements,
and by that we mean amusements for
recreation to meet felt want. This
play in the text between two parties
is natural. Play is natural to human
and animal nature. This play in the
text is a mere sham battle, yet ii
seems to be natural thing.
1T is natural for the kitten, the
colt, the pup and all young animals
and for those not so young. Grandma
will play with the baby. We have got
to play or there is something wrong
with the individual.
sit is our business to crafty this
natural desire or want. By hindering
it, we only would dwarf our minds
and morals as we'll as our muscles.
The home is the place for play. 1t
can be controlled there. Parents
should provide it. Where the home is
properly regulated there will be little
danger in social excesses and question
able play.
1.-The boy and girl properly brought
up will to be caught around question
able places. The questionable place
is SO because there is demand fot it,
and it feeds on what it demands.
"Being natural, play also has its
dangers, as | have implied. The men
in the text turned the sham battle into
disaster, in which nearly 800 men
were killed. The best Of games will
be prostituted into mere sport and
commercialism if not safeguarded.
Everything must be gauged by its
tendency. Does it lead to construction
or destruction AS the lawyers say,
judge it by its tendency.
NO FRAUD TO WIN.
HThe home must work against fraud
to win or commercialism working
into the games. When a price is put
on play, it ceases to be play, it be-
comes work. Whenever it absorbs
more than the ordinary time, it be-
comes dangerous The judgement of
the player is liable to lame and the
plans of the player become useless as
amusement.
''In applying any remedy there are
always two forces to be reckoned with
one that tends TO Legitimate benefit
and the other, which destroys the play
and the player The clown says that,
i am fool ard know it-for pay
ana YOU ale one and don't know it
II takes resolution to counteract folly. !
''Tbe home is to control play. There
are few homes which make proper pro
vision for this. The boarding house
problem of today aggravates the prob
lem of the popular, public, harmless
amusements. The Y. M. c. A. and
Y. w. G. A. are trying to make pro
vision for the young women aud men
of the day. They are not only trying
to kill the weeds, but are trying to
raise crop in place of the weeds So
cietv must make provision for hours of
recreation for the working girl and
the working boy. How to get them
together under proper conditions is
the question.
"Possibly nothing so puzzles the So
cial worker as the problem of safe
guarding recreation and the amuse-
nents of those out of the home and
wisDout homes. Someone may say this
Is Not Christian amusement, or that
II NAV be semi christian. But the
home wants music. games, library and
furnishes the hardest problem for the
parent. There should be
between Sunday and week
dav amusemerts. Sunday reading
hooks are good things. Some may say
that parents are too strict, but the
danger today is that they are possibly
too lax. We must always keep i'll mind
hat e Ia our duty to seek of the
,ho,ce for recreation, for ourselves and
FOR those to whom we are responsible.
at was the business of Joah and
Abner to stop the scene in the text be-
'ore Il became destructive. The old
mt allows her kittens to play until
here ia a squall and then she slaps
hem with her paw. Happy the home
n which the mother is the leader in
,armless amusements. The greatest
,toblsm of the church is to meet the
demand for recreation without Great
ng an appetite for harmful things
praer the News. soc cash only