The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-30
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
WashIngton, d. c.
THE BOYS SUMNER.


thousand boys this summer. instead of
staying in cities to carry on their
ancient feud with the policemen, or
going to summer resort hotels where
restrictions against noise in the halls,
bare feet and bean-shooters tend to
make life meaningless, will journey
into the wilderness and spend two to
three months in camps organized for
their special benefit and amusement.
And nearly as many girls as boys will
enjoy similar advantages in camps
| specially designed for them.
| The summer camp is an effort to
solve the problem of environment for
| the growing boy, which has developed
so rapidly and seems so successful that
1t deserves more attention from par
| ents than it is receiving. Fifteen
! years ago such camps were a novelty.
| Now there are about four hundred
private camps for boys and girls in
New England alone, while others are
| springing up in all sections of coun-
! try which are suitable as summer re-
sorts. The Rocky Mountain section
has a few such camps where boys
learn to ride and rope and take long
pack trips in the wild country, and in
| the Great Lakes sections there are
| others. Everywhere the camps are
growing both in size and in num-
bers.
So far most of the camps are small,
| the great majority taking less than
| hundred boys, many only dozen or
so, while few of the private camps
| take more than two hundred. The
camps organized by the Y. NJ. c. A,
the Boy Scouts and other such organ
| izations are larger. To enter one OF
the private camps costs from $3.50 to
/ S400 for the season, and the best OF
these camps provide the most elab-
4 Ia
| camps offer the boys less Individual
attention, but furnish an opportunity
for those of smaller means.
The conducting of camps for boys is
one activity in which large scale cor
porate enterprise has not yet entered.
If the demand for them continues to
grow we Will no doubt in time see
| enormous camps, organized on strict
business principles, and these will
probably grow into chains of camps.
But so far little business is supreme
in this field, and the field is probably
better off for that fact. Most of the
camps are conducted by men who fol-
low other occupations in the winter.
One of them, for example, is conducted
Lby a high school professor, and
another by a New York business man
| who regards his camp as his hobby,
and all of his boy customers as per-
sonal friends. He adopts an extremely
Independent attitude toward interior
ing parents.
The Boys Problem.
The problem of life for a boy of four
teen or Whereabouts is a difficult one,
| as anyone must realize who has been
a boy and can remember that far back,
| OF who has such a boy under sympa-
thetic observation. Full of expanding
energies and curiosities, plastic as a
piece of wet clay the boy is receiving
every day impressions and influences,
mental and physical, that become an
indelible part of him. Some parents
are chiefly impressed with the i'm
portance of home influence" for a
boy at this age, and they are doubtless
right. But the thing can be overdone.
An overdose of home Influence at this
age produces the type of boy who is
afraid of snakes, gets along with
women better than with men and boys
and believes that mortal man is
doomed if he goes abroad ON damp
day without rubbers and a raincoat
Mother is apt to stand out for the
| home-influenc theory, while father is
apt to think that now little Jimmy
should be thrown upon life and al
lowed to mix with his fellows and
learn how to get along with them II
this paternal theory prevails, Jimmy
probably spends all his time in various
boarding schools where he learns how
to get along with his fellows all right
out Is very apt also to become a past
master of all the petty vices that beset
boys of his age, and some of which
| undoubtedly have an adverse effect
on health and character. The problem
Is to hit happy medium between
protection from outside influences and
ruthless exposure to them. This
problem is difficult enough when il
comes to choosing a school for the
winter, but in summer it is more diff
ficult still. Until the rise of the sum-
mer camp In its various forms there
was practically no organized effort tc
take care of the boys during this pc
riod of heat and idleness. And mean
: time the growing cities have offered
steadily less and less to the boy. The
natural tendency of boys at this age is
to band together like savages choose
, a leader, more or less definitely rec
ognized, and go forth In search of ad-
T venture. This quest in a city usually
leads to the breaking of windows, tc
swims in forbidden waters to raids or
the ice cream freezers of gard r
parties and pienics. and to inevitable
conflict with police and parental au-
! thority, impressing upon the boy the
idea that the enjoyment of life is es.
sentially a problem in breaking Of
rules and laws.
Summer Resort No Place for Him
Around the summer resort hotel
t where Jimmy goes with mother if HI
u, does not stay at home in the city, hi
lot is even less happy. Resort hotels
| are organized almost without exeep
4 tien for the entertainment of adults
v Few of them welcome children will
enthusiasm, and some bar them
Nearly all request that they be KEEP
y quiet. Jimmy takes no interest what
: ever in sitting on the front porch ant
: gossiping, in tanning himself with
palm leaf. in dressing fer dinner H,
4 probably does not play golf He ma
y fiirt, the other great summer sport o
e America, but it is just as well, not t
say better, if he postpones his inevita
. Bile conflict with the fair sex for a fe-
= years. At summer resort Jimmy |
t pretty much up against it, and prett
G sure to come in conflict with oreGE
lied society in his efforts to get som
fun out of life.
: Life in Camp.
: The summer camp. which is his on