South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-10-30
Don't Forget the Date
NEXT WEDNESDAY.
Music by a Fine Band.
DANCING. etc.

DANOlNGs etc
Inquiry at a store in the neigh
borhOod elected the fact that these
forthcoming festivities had naught
OF that Revolutionary import the
signs seemed to indicate. but were
20 take the form of a Block Party
on Seventy-sixth Street between two
of the Easterly Avenues intersect-
ing that thoroughfare.
1 am unable TO say where, or how.
this latest popular function Of Metro
politan life-the Block Party
originated. but if it has had such
general adoption in other cities. as
it has had in Greater New York.
the number of Block Parties held
in the United States during the past
summer. must have run we'll up into
the thousands.
Date of this particular Party, so
ingeniously and eloquently adver-
tised. has passed. L regret not having
been able TO attend, because the
designated block presents TO view at
all times, by day and late into the
evening. such a multitude Of juve-
nile inhabitants, it is interesting -
know how there could have been
room for any guests. and without
guests from beyond its geographical
limits, no block can be said 10 have
given a successful Party.
At first blush the name would
appear TO indicate a function having
as its object the formation of a
better and closer intimacy among
the residents of any particular To-
cality. 1t suggests sociability. It
hints at the development of bonds
.of friendship from mere bowling ac-
quaintance. But as a matter of fact
no such purpose is involved.
The Block Party is CONNER
cially patriotic or periodically COM
mercial function. 1t is a success or
failure only in proportion 20 the
money taken in for some form OF
Red Cross or other War benefit.
Nevertheless it has another and less
obvious significance to which, it
seems TO me, attention may proper
~ be called. It breathes as far as
possible "a bucolic spirit into urban
life. It makes appeal to the unsophis-
ticated instinct of mankind The
Block, for an evening, becomes the
Village Green. and beckons allur-
ingly 10 the pent-up house-dweller.
Fringed on both sides by Japan
csc lanterns, and with its asphalt
surface swept and gdrnished, the
Block assumes an aspect so totally
at variance with all the neighbor-
ing locality, that 1t no longer iden-
titles itself with any part of city
life. 1t is in masquerade. and the
spirit Of masquerade-of freedom
from conventional shackles-be-
comes contagious.
Were the edibles and knicH -knacks
which are exposed on little tables
beneath the swaying lanterns. Of
fered for sale in any public hall,
they would although none the less
worthy OF purchase, be only so much
merchandise. Here, they gain
gypsy-like flavor To MUNICH the ice
cream cone, or imbibe sarsaparilla
from the bottles neck. in public
view on a city thOrOughfare, was
hitherto the sole prerogative Of in
dependent Youth, but at a Block
Party it is a JOY limited 70 no de-
gree Of age or dignified response
bnity.
BY no streach Of imagination can
fiag-stone and asphalt. become moss
and green-sward, therefore we see
no groups Of picnickers recumbent
at their feats, but the stars look
down on throngs Of dancers, and
music nils the air. A rural. rollick-
ing spirit, strange 10 observe, has
taken possession OF territory or
dinarily restricted within the bounds
of Municipal propriety. So strange
indeed is the transformation, that
never a city-bred ca or dog ventures
20 understand II or is known 20 fore
sake the security afforded by the
most remote rooms OF dwellings
fronting on this scene OF animation,
until the last good-byes are spoken