The Washington herald., 1913-09-14

booth showing the guns cards. jlmmles.
daggers, &c, taken away from small
boys in the children's court. There was
also lurid collection OF dime novels
from the same source.
This booth and the explalners In
charge-the explainers seem TO have done
effective work In the Rochester exhibit
impressed the boys very seriously. Moses
states the case
when a child reads a novel he gets
Interested in them and likes TO buy more
of them After boy reads n great deal
Of these novels he gets so that he thinks
he is the things that he is reading about
And soon after that he starts TO MUIR
der"
Tabulation was made showing the dis
tribution OF references among the four
main types OF exhibit materials-enter-
tainments, models motion exhibits, and
photographs. maps, diagrams, charts,
etc.
Good Food and Had.
Most OF the children who attended the
exhibit have only a vague memory Of
tho photographs which lined the walls,
and every reference OF this kind Is
capped by three references TO the pro-
gram numbers. Models and motion ex-
hibits receive practically the same
amount OF attention in all the grades
The lower grades were more impressed
by the entertainments than the higher.
and the higher were more impressed by
the photographs than the lower. The per
cents for all the children rum Enter
tainmeut. IS; models. q; motion exhibits,
26, and Photographic. maps. etc. II.
The children speak frankly in their let
ters often telling more about themselves
than they realize. There IL something
pathetic in the following glimpse OF
home life which Maurice affords us:
THE good food and bad are almost
what take. but don't drink coffee any
more and will not take it. My brother
used to have coffee every meal, but since
my mother was there he drinks no cof-
fee. but all milk and bread. Bread is
about the only good food there is, and
l have had lately a good appetite for 1t.
One feels Il throb of sympathy for the
boy who says:
I'VE need something to make us
stronger mentally, and something TO abol-
ish the truant officer
The Plays the Thing"
Il is, of course. impossible to draw any
hard and fast rules as TO the effect OF
exhibit material upon an adult audience
from these letters OF school children.
Certain things, however. are OF enough
significance TO warrant attention on the
part of exhibitors. With the exception
Of the moving picture exhibit all these
different features were about as inter-
esting 10 the children of the seventh and
eighth grades as 20 those in the fourth,
fifth, and sixth. Difference in age seems
to have little to do with the strength
Of the impression received. The fact
that children acted in the entertainments
and motion exhibits probably accounts
in part for their interest in these two
forms of exhibit material, but it cannot
account for the high per cent OF atten-
tiOn paid to the tidy and untidy home
the moving pictures. the library, the
clean and dirty dairy. or the clean and
dirty market. Entertainments interested
them most. models next, then motiom
exhibits. and Photographic least Of all.
Difference in IEe becomes a factor when
considering tho type OF material rather
than the individual exhibit. and We find
interest in entertainments lesseEing. and
that in photographs and diagrams in
creasing toward the higher grades.
Through all the grades. however, models
and motion exhibits receive very nearly
the same amount of attention. and to-
gether receive more than half Of all the
references made. Among adults. II
seems safe to assume that the relative
order of interest would be the same.