The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-04-24
WOMAN'S CLUB COLUMN
(Mrs. W. t. Gary. Editor.)


York City, in a paper on 1.-The Con-
servation of the Child writes in part
as follows:
1T has been stated that idleness is
the mother of mischief 1t may be
added that the absence of right
amusement is the mother of crime.
IF l were given an exceedingly
| large sum of money and told to spend
it to the very best of my Judgment for
! the uplift of mankind, I would spend
every cent of it in the cause of hui
through providing entertainment and
amusement, and by these means make
vigorous bodies and healthy minds.
You have got to accept certain fea-
lures of child's equipment as it is.
Force, pressure, punishment, and
Epleading, all useful measures when
rightly applied, have proved failures.
They do not cover the field. The
church and the school, each doing ad-
mirable work in its own way, are not
sufficient, and in saying this we judge
simply by the results. If, in all the
years these measures for the benefit
of humanity have been in operation,
they had been successful, this paper
and many others on similar topics
would not be necessary. The best
means of approaching the child is
through his demand for amusement,
which is inherent in him, and through
a further trait, the demand for almost
incessant occupation while awake.
Amusement an Entertainment may
be made just as educational as we
| like; in fact, play of the right kind
/ is always educational. Children must
be busy, and what is there to do in
Icity street or in country village that
will make boy or girl think and best
bring out that which is in him?
eff there are the right kind of pa
rents in the home, all may be well. If
not, the boy or girl in the city, village
or open country drifts. and often in
The way of least resistance, through
: :! current Of amusement.
j There should be in every city and
village, at least for certain number
of Inhabitants, non-sectarian club
house and play ground, and these are
equally as important, as a means OF
benefit to humanity, as the school or
church. Here, among others. illustra-
tive lectures demonstrating how to
live would be given, and this feature
could be made most attractive.
"In order to keep the young from
the saloon something must be sup
piled that is more attractive, and
which is not hedged in by sectarian-
ism. The club house, when possible,
should have spacious grounds for out
of door sports, under the direction of
play instructors and amusement di-
rectors, and these institutions must
be maintained by the state and be OPP
erative every day in the year. The
cities maintain jails, reformatories,
sanitoriums, asylums, and alcohol
farms, and they are operative every
day in the year. They do not work
only on Sundays or five 5-hour days in
the week Instead of telling a boy
that he must not play ball on Sun
days, develop him so that he will not
want to play ball on Sundays by CIV
ing him something better, provided,
of course, that he should not play ball
on Sundays.
1--WE maintain, at a great expense,
commissions and committees for rail-
roads, for labor, for charities, for the
insane, for the river and the harbor,
for trust Investigations, and so on in
definitely. A commission that we
need most of all is child protective
commission A commission, through
its subordinates, would be required to
know and to have authority over ev-
cry child in the state.
1T is only by such means that we
will ever solve many of the urgent
problems before us. Reform amounts
to little. Prophylaxis in medicine has
for many years been ardently advo-
Gated by our honored chairman in his
teachings and writings.
"Prophylactic measures against
crime, degeneracy and general worth
lessness are the means in the hands
Of the public for the signal betterment
of the. race.
"A close association and observa-
ton of many thousand children from
the various walks of life covering
many years tells me that in each lit
tie human soul there is a spark of the
divine, which may be sustained, nur-