Year: 1877

leave them free TO rest i'm those faculties


which are weary.


On the other hand, the young, who
are brimming with animal life, and who


fail to exhaust it in study, call for active
amusements, and they must have them.


And here the parent is in danger of max.
ing a great mistake. Unless boy is a


milk-sop. he must do something or die.


lfhe cannot do something in his home,
or in the homes Of his companions, he
will do something elsewhere. 1t is only
within few years that parents have
begun TO be sensible upon this matter.


The billiard-table, which a few years ago
was only associated with dissipation, now
has an honOred place and the largest
room in every rich mans house. The
card table, that once was synonym OF
wickedness, is a part Of the rich mans
furniture, which his children may use
at will, in the pursuit of a harmless
game. A good many manufactured sins
have been dethrOmed from their fictitious
life and eminence, and put 10 benefcent
family service on behalf of the young.
Athletic sports, such as skating, boating,
shooting, ball playing, running and leap
ing, have sprung into great prominence
within the past few years-amusements
of just the character for working off the
excessive vitality Of young men, and
developing their physical power. This is
all well-a reform in the right direction.
Much of this is done before the public
eye, and in the presence Of young women,
which helps to restrain all tendencies TO
excesses and dissipation.


The activities Of young women take
another direction, and nothing seems to
us more hopeful than the pursuits in
which they engage. The rich young
woman in these days, who does not mar
ry, busies herself in tasteful and intel
lectual pursuits. The reading.club, the
Shakespeare club, the drawing class,
and kindred associations, employ her
spare time; and now there is hardly
more busy person living than the rich
woman who is through with her board
ing-school. The poor, who suppose that
the rich young woman leads an idle life,
are very much mistaken. The habits of
voluntary industry now adopted and
practiced by the young women of Amer
lea, in good circumstances, are most
gratefully surprising. One of them who
is not so busy during the winter that she
really needs recuperating summer, is
an exception, Our old ideas of the lazy,
fashionable girl must be set aside. They
are all at work at something. 1t may
not bring them money, but it brings
what is much better to them-thc con.
tent that comes of an earnest and fruit
full pursuit, 1t may take the form of
amusement but it results in training
for self-helpfulness and industry.


So, while not much can be done for
the adult in this matter of amusement,
much is done for the young, and much
that will help to give us generation OF
older men and women, who will not be
content with the poor business of killing
time. For it must be remembered that
while the young women assist at the
athletic games of the young men, the
young men are indispensable to the in
tellectual associations of the young wo-
men. They meet together, and stimu-
late and help each other; and it does
not seem possible that either party
should ever subside into those time
killers who haunt the clubs established
for men, or those faded women who drag
themselves around to dinners and
lunches and thronged assemblies.