The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-22
PLAY HUNGER IN
 UNCROWDED CITIES
Hazards To Youth Where Re-
 creation Is Scant.
CLARENCE A. PERRY
Department of Recreation, Rus sell Sage Foundation Author ssWider Use of the School Plant, ,,

c1OuSE yaTdeWnu6 a d3fOG0 COu06fysldSs l with entrancing woods and streams, was only a few minutes away, and somebody should suggest that you tax yourself to enlarge sons play oppor- tunities, you would probably turn away wondering what new foolish ness would come along next. When your daily difficulty is how to keep Johnny in the house long enough to fetch coal and water and get his les- sons. you are not raclSing your brains over the problem of teaching him new games When you and the family next door. and the family next to them people you have always known have each an individual parIor and the Sunday school gives an entertain ment every months your concern re- garding Suzy's social life does not extend much beyond the dress- beau departs.
 Experts Study Typical C1ty.
 Thfa is a perfectly natural state of mind for persons who have never seen a. p1ay-starved tenement child Also unless you have studied the su b.. | ject of recreation it is entirely natural /! to assume that boys and girls who have adequate room for their games need no further attention to their play activities. Indeed most people, on go-s ing to . healthy uncrowded city with ample home and school yards, expect.
 as a matter Of course. to find an elab-
 crate, vigorous and wholesome play
 right recreation are thick surely l wrong recreatton will be scarce. So
 Thought the people Of Springfield, H. S1inois. before they ascsrtained the l facts.
 When you are conscious of vague l ills but ore not flat on your back 1t
 takes courage to ask the doctor to give you a thorough overhauIing. | There Is always the possibility Of hid- I den disease Large cities always
 know that they are infected but in the smaller municipalities corruption often keeps beneath the surface for q l long time So it was really an act of I civic bravery when, last spring the
 cit11ens Of Springfield. voluntarily ar l ranged to expose their community life i to that searching x-ray machine, the social survey The task of making 5. the diagnosis was entrusted to the De-
 partment of Surveys and Exhibits Of
 the Russell Sage Foundation. For the actual probings several other depart I naents of the foundation and three ma
 tfona1 agencies were brought together.
 The staff of twenty experts thus mar
 shalIed thoroughly examined Spring field as to its schools, recreatfons;
 charities, public health work, housing
 and industrial conditions care Of in
 sane, and its correctional and finan-
 eial systems
 Hay Space Without Play.
 The report upon it's play life, which was made blythe Fspundadion's Depart
 ment of Recreation, Lee F. Tanner,
 director, has just been issued and fIle
 surprising fact is revealed that in this M uncongested city Of not quite 6O,0O0 sI inhabitants with its extraordinary E wealth of play spaces, the recreation
 naovement in it's modern form had l hardly appeared
 Sprfngfield's generosity in school
 yards is almost unparalleleds They
 average 2.3s acres per school for the
 city and furnish 2Sd square feet of free space for each pupil, But Che ! play at recesse time is rough. half
 hearted and unorganized and the yards are. little used after dismissal During the numerous rainy periods 1.-the mud is so unconquerable that the
 pupils are confined to the walks and small paved spaces near the en- . frances. There was no physical train ing department in the school system The chiIdrens s game resources were surprisingly meagre. The inyestfga-
 tors found that the only activities re. 2 ported by over 20 per cent of the boys were baseball. Inotion-pic icture shows reading and kite flying. while the ol6 standard games that American boys : have been brought up on, such al
 prisoners base. leap frog, blind mans
 buff. bull in the ring. hare and hound
 and duck on the rock are reported as played by, less than half of 1 per cent i. Of the grammar school boys. Mos of these standard games were men toned by only one-tenth of pel cent, or about one boy in 1,e00s 2 Tn the case of the girls, motion r picture shows, jumping the rope. rol f Ter skating, and hide and seek ar,
 the four most popular means of recre : ation. The standard games Whicl :, should bring girls together in safe ! ! happy co operative play, sueh as 4 spy, London bridge fox and geese button button and blind mans buff g are at the bottom Of the list indi e I eating that they are played by com 6 paratively few girls
 q Movies Crowded-Sehools Hsnlpt. ' Evenings. r The high school has an impressiv, e situation but it's students have n, e gymnasium or athletic field. Thei : club and society meetings may be hel. :, in the high school lbuilding but dane : ing parties therein are forbidden S that for all function which include.so
 ciaI dances the boys and girls ar
 forced to resort to public halls an,
 hotels Over 40 per cent. of the boy
 land 30 per cent. of the girls atten D the movies seven or more times i. month Tn 61 per cent. of the boys k homes and in 48 per cent. of the girls : homes parties for young people ar z not often held, but over 80 per cenr z of the young people attend the thea. ire once a week, and in the najorit of instances with persons outside o e their respective fanniIfes.
 e Most of the 20 public school build ], ings have accommodations wher e evening entertainments are feasible l. but they are used for such purpose 2. only once every nine or ten week. There are no social centers in Spring . 1 field. The ten movies on the othe
 hand, are filled twice a day and thei z amusements cost the people over $2 Y 900 a week. The churches provid