The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-05-09

such matters as pageants. dance halls
and forms Of city administration. The
movement Ia going fast enough. One
hundred and eighteen cities have
started in Fairgrounds in the last
three years
what we are doing is to get to-
gether in one place the best expert
opinion there is to be had on each
! phase of play apd recreation. The
best experts in the country are serv-
ing O.. about twenty committees and
are giving us Individual opinion on
special questions We are also keep
ing in touch with the experience gain
ed by the different cities. Sometimes
as many as two hundred clippings
will come in a single day. We think
thing should be found out only
once; that it is enough for one town
to bang Its shins against an obstacle
and that others should be enabled to
profit by ;ts experience.
We have many ways of answering
the hundreds of inquiries that come
in. Wherever possible the answers to
typical questions are printed by the
hundred or thousand and sent out by
clerk. The expert speaks but once
and we max, his voice carry to all
who need his message. Besides send
ing out letters and printed matter
hundreds of personal interviews are
| held and we publish our magazine,
the Playground. send out lantern
slides, and hold Institutes and con-
ventions. Above all we last year sent
our field secretaries to sixty eight
cities who desired their advice and
help In short we tried to get the
! com bined wisdom and experience of
| the country together into one place
and make it available in all places.
An important thing the association
does lis to keep list Of persons fitted
! for playground direction and a much
| longer list of places wanting their
services
, The association has certain policies.
We believe that play and recreation
should reach all the people all the
time We want to reach the unath-
letic boy. the girls and the grown-ups,
we want to bring it about that Ameri-
can men and women shall have Rot
merely a living but a life. So we de-
sire to promote games suitable for diff
| ferent seasons and for dinernt ages
and tempcraments. We include skat-
| ing, coasting and swimming, home
gardens music. the drama. and the
development of social centers among
our interests. as we'll as plays and
games.
Another idea we think should be
introduced from Germany. We ought
to add to our American idea OF COM
petitiye sport. the German idea of
reaching a standard. and to put be-
hind this idea of a standard patriotic
motive. Do II for America. We want
every child to mean to make himself
the sort of stone of which the temple
can be built,
Seumas MacManus was at his best
and with his broghe and quaint stories
kept his audience in litter. whils me
{ a !. RAd
utmost the brilliant eptgrams or Or;
Cabot who talked along the general
line of the relation of serious lie TO
play. while il is not crime exactly
to be serious DR.. Cabot said, serious,
ness bare and unadorned is death. ana
he depiorea even the len, long a iaes at The RE
genet GENERAL fa hssdinF ne Of the policy Of give
and take presenting the ts ss'ml Normal
nature of the human being. These en-
braced baseball. football and so on,
w whlf h hse placed esd' eara PLAYING. swing
ing and similar amusemehts or
vicious type, have neither end nor forn,
encouraged. While the active game
may use rythm and repetition. rules
and limits. they are subordinated 70
Improvisation and adventure. full OF
give and take" loses the life to
find it, and ever knocks AT the door
OF the unexplored." The right games
are necessary to develop the good
winner and the good loser as train,
ing for character in politics ana ciVii
life
A Round of Activity.
Six sectional meetings were held
held Yesterday morning at the JEFF
ferson hotel with a general session
In the auditorium at 1880 O'Clock,
at which President Elect Joseph d.
EggIeston, Of V. r. l.. and Thomas
s. Settle, field secretary OF the con-
gress. were the chief speakers, Mr..
Eggleston discussed Rural Educa-
ton in the Schoolhouses of Virginia.
and Mr.. Settle. Athletics IN the
Country"
Mr.. Eggleston said in part.
I'm the making OF our cities and
homes the children have been for
gotten. The cfildren's care-the
playground-has -been filched from
them: and the value of land in terms
of money has SO obsessed the hearts
and minds Of our male citizenship
that the value Of land in terms of
healthy bodied and healthy-hearted
youth has been overlooked.
THE results of this violation of
the laws of child-nature are seen in
that fearful product OF the cities, the
apache, the embodiment of energies
suppressed where they should have
been directed, and run not in wrong
ways; in the gang: in weak
bodies; in physical and mental dull
ness: in moral stupidity or degen-
eracy.
The piayless child--the child who |
does not know how to PLAYS one of
the most pathetic of figures: and it Is
In line to be the father OF the weak |
minded and the mother Of the de-
pendent.
THE energies of the play-deprtved
and play denied child. IL there be in |
him the virility of the race. will be |