THE CHURCH AND THE 
 PEOPLE'S PLAY
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE 
 PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY A. ATKINSON 
 
 Social Service Secretary for the Congregational 
 Churches of the United States 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 WASHINGTON GLADDEN 
 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
 
 COPYRIGHT 1915 
 BT HENRY A. ATKINSON 
 
 THE PILOBIM PBE88 
 BOSTON
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 TO THAT LARGE AND GROWING GROUP OF MEN 
 
 AND WOMEN BOTH WITHIN AND WITHOUT 
 
 THE CHURCH WHO GIVE FIRST 
 
 PLACE TO THE NEEDS 
 
 OF HUMANITY
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS book is written for the purpose of 
 showing the importance of play in the life 
 of individuals and the community and the 
 relation of the church to the question, espe- 
 cially in its democratic aspects. I feel that 
 much of what I have said is familiar to those 
 interested in the play and recreation move- 
 ments. My interest in the philosophy of 
 play and the various theories advanced is 
 incidental to my main purpose. It has not 
 been my intention to break new ground so 
 much as to bring facts to the attention of the 
 churches and church people and point out 
 tendencies that are well known; and by 
 presenting a constructive program, if possi- 
 ble, help the churches to meet the new and 
 pressing problems. 
 
 I have used quotations freely and have 
 tried to give credit to writers and investi- 
 gators. As most of the material on this sub- 
 
 [vii]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 ject is printed in pamphlets and periodical 
 literature, I have not attempted by the use 
 of foot-notes to record pages on which quo- 
 tations may be found. Acknowledgment is 
 made to all those whose material I have used 
 and especially to those to whom I am con- 
 scious of an indebtedness for reports, facts 
 and statements, and of whose exact source 
 I am not certain. 
 
 A full bibliography is given in the back 
 of the book in which are listed all the books, 
 articles and reports to which reference has 
 been made. I also acknowledge my indebt- 
 edness to my wife, Grace O. Atkinson, for 
 her efficient and untiring labor in research, 
 in collecting, reading and making notes on 
 the literature dealing with this subject, as 
 well as her constructive criticism. 
 
 The churches have never faced their task 
 with a more hopeful spirit and the promises 
 for the future were never better than they 
 are today. If this book helps in any small 
 way I shall be glad. 
 
 HENRY A. ATKINSON. 
 
 [viii]
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 PREFACE ...... vii 
 
 INTRODUCTION ..... xi 
 
 I. THE CASE STATED .... 3 
 
 II. ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH PAST AND 
 
 PRESENT . . . . . .15 
 
 III. PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE ... 39 
 IV. DANGERS AND DISASTERS ... 77 
 V. DANCING, CARD PLAYING, THEATER 
 
 GOING . . . . . .111 
 
 VI. RECONSTRUCTING THE PLAY LIFE OF 
 
 THE PEOPLE ..... 143 
 
 VII. A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH . . 179 
 
 VIII. RESULTS ATTAINED AND ATTAINABLE . 207 
 
 IX. THE CHURCH A SOCIAL CENTER . . 237 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 253 
 
 [ix]
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Pageant at Thetford, Vt. . . Frontispiece 
 
 OPPOSITE PAGE 
 
 Playing at War ...... 6 
 
 Play According to Opportunities Offered . 20 
 
 The Democracy of Play .... 33 
 
 Play Arouses New Interests . . .41 
 
 A Country Home and a Country Road . . 53 
 
 School Athletics Play 71 
 
 A Base-Ball Crowd 85 
 
 Volley Ball 96 
 
 The Weaving Dance . . . . .115 
 
 The Fisherman and His Wife . . .115 
 
 Russell Sage Foundation Building . .143 
 
 Chicago's First Municipal Dance Hall . .162 
 
 Lincoln Park Regatta Chicago . . .168 
 
 Prairie Walking Club on a Hike, Chicago . 197 
 Carding Contest . . . . .212 
 
 Church and Social Center in Wibaux, Minn. . 231 
 Gymnasium in Community House, Winnetka, 
 
 111. 250
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 MR. ATKINSON grapples, in this discus- 
 sion, with a question which has been beaten 
 to a frazzle by the controversialists of many 
 generations. There are few subjects on 
 which so many foolish things have been 
 written and spoken; on which counsel has 
 been more effectually darkened by words 
 without knowledge. 
 
 Yet the interest of play is one upon which 
 there is great need of wisdom. It is a vital 
 interest ; every year it is becoming more so. 
 One of the most thoughtful books of recent 
 months makes this suggestion, to which 
 serious minds may well give heed: "The 
 way in which people spend their lives after 
 the day's journey is over the way in which 
 they play offers them the best chance of 
 contributing to the enhancement of one an- 
 other's lives. If the time ever comes when 
 poverty is comparatively negligible and 
 when human impoverishment can no longer 
 
 [xi]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 be charged up to gross economic maladjust- 
 ment, if such a time ever comes, as it well 
 may, the rule of live-and-help-live will as- 
 sume a better meaning than it has at present 
 and will challenge the development of a 
 better quality of human nature. Only then, 
 when the end of the day's journey leaves the 
 travellers lively, will the brethren and the 
 sisters be so situated that they can make 
 life very interesting and remunerative for 
 one another."* 
 
 That the day is coming when there will 
 be larger leisure for all is one thing to hope 
 for, and no need will be more imperative 
 than the power to use that leisure wisely. 
 How to make play recreative, wholesome, 
 productive, is a great part of wisdom. The 
 church which has not learned how to use 
 this great resource is poorly equipped for 
 the service of the present age. 
 
 Mr. Atkinson offers no novelties of social 
 philosophy and prescribes no panaceas, but 
 he has been living in this generation and 
 
 * "Progressive Democracy," by Herbert Croly p. 429. 
 [xii]
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 he knows the conditions, and his rational 
 and practicable counsels are likely to have 
 weight with intelligent readers. 
 
 WASHINGTON GLADDEN. 
 
 Columbus, Ohio. 
 Aug. 5, 1915.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE CASE STATED 
 
 EVERYBODY, of course, knows that it is 
 natural for children to play and that play 
 has a marked influence upon the physical 
 growth and moral character of individuals; 
 but only the few realize that play is essential 
 to every normal life and at every period of 
 life. 
 
 Play is defined as "any exercise or series 
 of actions intended for amusement, diver- 
 sion, or relaxation from work." Exercise 
 may be physical, mental, or a combination 
 of both. Play is a general term. Diversion 
 suggests "that which pleasantly distracts the 
 mind from cares or business." Amusement 
 means any "form of pleasurable excitement 
 or interest." Recreation is "diversion for 
 the sake of refreshment or relaxation." It 
 really recreates body and mind. A game 
 is play under the form of a contest, "usually 
 1*1
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 in accord with fixed rules." The term sport 
 applies especially to out-door games. In 
 the use of the word "play" all of these dif- 
 ferent meanings are to be kept in mind. 
 
 Play is an end in itself. It is doing a 
 thing for the sake of the doing. Work has 
 reference to the result to be attained ; hence 
 work is doing a thing for a reward. The 
 same process may be employed in both work 
 and play. For instance when one plays 
 for the sake of the game it is play, but 
 when the interest centers in the stake or 
 the prize the same action ceases to be play 
 and becomes work. Men who are making 
 strenuous mental effort, such as that re- 
 quired of the railway mail clerk in mem- 
 orizing thousands of names of post-offices 
 and railway-lines, the times of trains and 
 their connections, find the best way to gain 
 the result is through some form of play. 
 The mail-clerk finds it helpful to write the 
 names of stations, the trains and the con- 
 nections on cards and thus invents a game. 
 In this way his work becomes a game to be
 
 THE CASE STATED 
 
 played, and the play is work. One man who 
 has been remarkably successful in this work 
 says that he best rests himself from his ardu- 
 ous task by playing solitaire, and often uses 
 two packs of cards, working out different 
 forms of the game. This is play, although 
 it is practically the same activity as that 
 demanded by his work. 
 
 The play of the people is determined by 
 the dispositions and demands of individuals 
 and the opportunities offered for meeting 
 these demands. Two girls and a little boy 
 were busy one afternoon sailing shingle boats 
 in a flooded gutter in the city of Baltimore. 
 At one point they had gathered together a 
 pile of stones and pieces of sticks. These 
 were loaded upon their boats which were set 
 adrift. Stopping at intervals down the gut- 
 ter a portion of their cargo was discharged. 
 When they reached the end of the run the 
 boats were unloaded and carried back up 
 stream where the process was repeated. This 
 part of Baltimore is near the docks, in the 
 city's most congested district. Within five
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 blocks of their homes boats were being 
 loaded and unloaded every day. In all 
 probability their parents were connected in 
 some way with the shipping industry. At 
 any rate they were thoroughly familiar with 
 boats and water transportation. In Chey- 
 enne a similar group of children would be 
 throwing a rope, building corrals, or imi- 
 tating some of the other operations sug- 
 gested by frontier civilization. Last summer 
 the children at the sea side resorts were 
 building forts on the beaches and arming 
 them with wooden cannons. It is a common 
 complaint against the boys who play in the 
 streets of our larger cities that they make 
 themselves a nuisance to the police and the 
 neighbors by climbing poles, window fronts, 
 or any thing else that is climbable, and by 
 swinging on the awnings. Those who have 
 philosophized over this tendency of boys to 
 climb and hang by their arms say that it 
 is a reversion to type and proves that man 
 once lived in trees and was accustomed 
 to swing himself from branch to branch.
 
 THE CASE STATED 
 
 Whatever is to be said for this theory, 
 one thing is surely true: the only rea- 
 son the city boy does not climb a tree is 
 because there is no tree at hand. He does 
 the next best thing and uses the only oppor- 
 tunities for play that fortune has thrown 
 in his pathway. Men gather in saloons, 
 in clubs, play golf, hunt, fish, attend ball 
 games, theaters and dances because of the 
 desire for play and for social intercourse, 
 desires that are universal. This instinct for 
 play is not easily destroyed and while it 
 develops more readily under cheerful and 
 happy conditions, it is not killed even by 
 the dull grind of poverty and hardship. 
 
 The deadly monotony of the common life 
 of today with its incessant toil, its planning 
 for the future, its carrying of heavy burdens, 
 makes a demand upon us to study the ques- 
 tion of play and its relationship to life. 
 Even if the work that we do be agreeable 
 there is need for occasional change. It is 
 a psychological as well as a physiological 
 fact that some form of amusement is neces-
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 sary to enable men and women to maintain 
 a healthy equilibrium of mind and body. 
 The desire for play and the need of play 
 continues with us; but under the changed 
 conditions and the artificial circumstances 
 in which most people live today the question 
 is forced upon us, how are we to play? Jane 
 Addams illustrates the great change that is 
 brought about by our modern city and its 
 demands, by utilizing the old illustration of 
 the kitten and says: "Suppose that after the 
 kitten has practised and become a proficient 
 mouse-catcher it suddenly finds itself a 
 grown-up cat in a city, where there are no 
 mice to catch and where it has to live on 
 canned mouse meat. To such a cat, living 
 in a mouseless factory or office, nothing 
 could give so much pleasure as the occasional 
 use of its muscles along the traditional lines 
 of mouse catching, or in a game where skill 
 stimulated mouse catching and which there- 
 fore made the same demand upon his alert- 
 ness of eye and readiness of spring which 
 mouse catching had made upon his long line 
 [8]
 
 THE CASE STATED 
 
 of ancestors. Such a game would give to 
 the city cat a sense of rest, of recreation, of 
 restored well being, of mental stimulation 
 which nothing else in the world could pos- 
 sibly afford him." The actual fact is that 
 most people live under conditions that are 
 just about as strange and to which they are 
 as little accustomed as this cat would be if 
 made to live in a mouseless city. 
 
 The play spirit has often been the cause 
 of disaster. But trouble arises and play 
 becomes a danger only when it is denied a 
 legitimate form of expression. Childhood 
 is repressed and men and women turned into 
 machines by our modern industrial system. 
 Success and failure are measured by pro- 
 duction. Life is all drab and its music turns 
 to humdrum. After the hours of exertion 
 real recreation is denied. The people de- 
 manding some form of play are exploited 
 by those whose only interest is dollars and 
 cents, and who see an opportunity for coin- 
 ing money at the expense of their fellows. 
 The commercial results of play are their
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 only consideration, and the dance hall, the 
 saloon, the cheap theater are offered as the 
 only means by which the people can express 
 themselves. 
 
 The church that is to meet the needs of 
 the people must appeal to the whole round 
 of human interests; must care for all that 
 has to do with life. It must take into ac- 
 count this very necessary element the de- 
 mand for play and the craving for amuse- 
 ment. On the other hand it is difficult for 
 the modern man to appreciate the necessity 
 of taking care of his physical condition and 
 at the same time give to recreation only its 
 proper place in the program of life. 
 
 The attitude of the church toward the 
 problem of the people's play forms a serious 
 hindrance to the work of the church. In 
 every community those who are seeking 
 pleasure are apt to feel that the church is 
 largely out of sympathy with them. It is 
 estimated that in this country about seven 
 million people attend the moving picture 
 shows every day. The dance halls in our 
 
 [10]
 
 THE CASE STATED 
 
 cities are crowded ; the pool-rooms are filled 
 with boys and young men. The saloons are 
 uniformly successful, not because people 
 naturally desire to drink, but because they 
 crave friendship, amusement, pleasure and 
 these the saloon provides. The saloon is 
 especially dangerous and is the most unso- 
 cial of institutions because of its opportuni- 
 ties for sociability. 
 
 The church for a long time contented 
 itself with protesting against the popular 
 forms of amusement. It pointed out the 
 evils but failed to show the people the better 
 way. Very often it opposed those who at- 
 tempted to meet the demand for recreation. 
 This attitude is changing. With a new ap- 
 preciation of the place play has in human 
 life we are coming to recognize more and 
 more that the church must help to provide 
 forms of recreation and opportunities for 
 play that will be safe and sufficient for the 
 needs of all. Only thus can the church ful- 
 fill its function of inspiring, educating and 
 helping.
 
 II 
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 PAST AND PRESENT
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
 THE church is the most important factor 
 in developing the character of individuals 
 and up-building the moral forces of the com- 
 munity. Those who are interested in rural 
 reconstruction have come to recognize that 
 the church must be enlisted in the task if 
 there is to be any great success in working 
 out the plans that are being formed. There 
 would always be religion in the world if 
 there were no church, but without strong 
 churches religion would be so vague in its 
 character as to be of little practical value in 
 bettering human conditions. A common 
 worship tends to keep alive the religious 
 impulse in the hearts of men. Charles E. 
 Jefferson says: "Young ministers some- 
 times look upon the church as a necessary 
 evil, an inherited incumbrance, a sort of 
 
 [15]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 device by which preachers are handicapped 
 in their movements and held back from the 
 largest usefulness. Men of this type are 
 eager to get at what they call the world. 
 Their desire is to reconstruct the social or- 
 der. They want to do things on a broad 
 scale. It is a blunder to ignore the church 
 in an effort to reach the masses. It is a more 
 serious blunder to slight the church in one's 
 direct dealings with it." 
 
 Granting the significance of the church 
 and the importance of its position in the 
 community life, it is of the greatest interest 
 to know its attitude in this matter of the 
 people's play. The community is the field 
 of the church's endeavor, and only as the 
 community is made the Kingdom of God 
 wherein transformed lives are to be devel- 
 oped, can the church be said to succeed. 
 "Character," says Graham Taylor, "is relig- 
 ion's greatest achievement and the instru- 
 mentality of all of its accomplishments." 
 Character is helped or hindered in its devel- 
 opment by the economic conditions surround- 
 
 [16]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 ing the common life of today. "The quest 
 of the best," writes William De Witt Hyde, 
 "is the ethical equivalent of the gospel doc- 
 trine of regeneration by the spirit." Most 
 of us will agree with Washington Gladden 
 when he says: "The historical relation of 
 Christianity to popular amusements is one 
 of antagonism." We must think clearly on 
 this subject. The church was not con- 
 sciously cruel in depriving people of the 
 things they enjoyed, nor did it fail to appre- 
 ciate the need of rest and relaxation. Its 
 doctrine was this: Granted a person needs 
 rest and relaxation, let him take it as a sick 
 man takes a pill, or a dose of bitter medicine. 
 The wry face and the nasty taste will help 
 the cure. Recreation as a means of restor- 
 ing life to its normal state of being was 
 allowable and recognized as being good, but 
 the kind of recreation was very strictly de- 
 fined. It might be sleep, a change of labor 
 or a slackening of the pace. It was to be 
 simply for the restoring of the waste caused 
 by toil. If recreation had in it any element 
 
 [17]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 of pleasure or amusement, just in that pro- 
 portion it became sinful. The distinction is 
 thus made very clear between recreation and 
 amusement. Amusement was looked upon 
 as simply a pursuit of pleasure for pleas- 
 ure's sake, or "a plunging into pleasurable 
 courses for the sake of personal enjoyment." 
 Everything that ministered to the "joy of 
 living" was looked upon as sinful. Not 
 only were amusements thus looked upon as 
 sinful, but their tendencies were believed to 
 be evil and only evil. It was believed that 
 if we can take our recreations soberly and 
 without getting any pleasure out of them, 
 they are good; but amusements prompted 
 by any other motive bear ill fruit. "The 
 effect of amusements upon the spiritual in- 
 terests of those who engage in them is to 
 be taken into account. They withdraw the 
 thought from God and from things divine, 
 dissipating serious impressions, unfitting the 
 soul for devotional exercises, and grieving 
 away the Holy Spirit." 
 
 In this wholesale condemnation of amuse- 
 
 [18]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 ments, no discrimination was made between 
 what is good and what is bad. The prize 
 fight and the parlor dance were put in the 
 same category. Reading a novel, attend- 
 ing the theater or the bull fight and playing 
 cards were classed as sins and compared to 
 the gladiatorial contests and drunken orgies 
 of Nero's Rome. In this attitude of the 
 church it was not only the thing done that 
 was condemned, but the joy of the doing. 
 A writer who strongly insists upon the es- 
 sential evil of all the play and amusement 
 out of which people get pleasure on the 
 ground that it conduces to selfishness fails 
 to see the superlative selfishness of this con- 
 cluding statement of his impassioned article : 
 "We came into the world not for sport. We 
 were sent here on a higher and nobler 
 charge. Let us not then forget this charge. 
 Let us live and act in accordance with it, 
 so that when summoned to meet our final 
 judge we may hope to hear Him say 'Well 
 done, good and faithful servant: thou hast 
 been faithful over a few things, I will make 
 
 [19]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 thee ruler over many things; enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord.' ' I think it is 
 fair to say that this represents the historical 
 attitude of the church in general regarding 
 the people's play. A popular evangelist 
 said recently: "If you sow the card party 
 you will reap the blackleg gambler. Eighty 
 per cent, of the gamblers that have been 
 wrecked and ruined acquired the habit in 
 so-called Christian homes. If you sow the 
 dance, you reap prostitutes. The dance is 
 the hot-bed of iniquity, and I denounce it 
 as one of the rottenest, most hellish vice- 
 producing institutions that ever wriggled 
 from the depths of perdition. It is not an 
 innocent amusement; it is the very worst 
 amusement. It has caused the downfall of 
 more girls than anything else." In a revival 
 held in a large city about one-fourth of the 
 total population was reported as being con- 
 verted. This meant that some eleven or 
 twelve thousand people had quit going to 
 the theaters, had burned their cards and had 
 given up dancing. At the ensuing election 
 
 [20]
 
 Courtesy of Youth's Companion 
 
 PLAY ACCORDING TO OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED 
 
 1. Seesaw (Ardonia School) 
 
 2. Teeter (South Keene) 
 
 3. The Sandpile
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 the worst crowd that ever held office in the 
 city's history was elected. Before the win- 
 ter was over the theaters began to draw the 
 crowds again, new cards were bought and 
 the same round of dances and parties were 
 attended by the same people. There can be 
 no question of the fact that the revival did 
 stir impulses and do good of a kind in the 
 community; but this question is a fair one, 
 and we may raise it with propriety: Was 
 the standard of conversion which took away 
 from the mass of the people their means of 
 amusement a proper standard? Sober sec- 
 ond thought seemed to lead the people of 
 the community to believe that they had 
 made a mistake in giving up these things. 
 It would seem that nothing essential was 
 lost, and that they could be good Christians 
 and at the same time take part in the pleas- 
 ures that they enjoyed, providing, of course, 
 that they did not allow these things to crowd 
 out the more serious affairs of life. 
 
 There was a good reason for the church's 
 historic attitude on the question of amuse- 
 
 [21]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 ments. Washington Gladden is undoubt- 
 edly correct in saying that it was survival 
 of that wholesome horror and righteous 
 enmity with which the first Christians re- 
 sisted the amusements in vogue throughout 
 the Roman Empire. The frightful debauch- 
 eries and cruelties which constituted the 
 sports of the Romans merited the holy indig- 
 nation with which the disciples denounced 
 them. The conflict of Christianity with 
 heathenism began in the arena of the peo- 
 ple's play. One of the broad lines of dis- 
 tinction which the Christians drew between 
 themselves and their pagan neighbors was 
 their refusal to attend the Roman games. 
 The theater was utterly bad, for the most 
 popular actor was he who could behave most 
 obscenely. The circus had a seating capac- 
 ity for nearly four hundred thousand peo- 
 ple. Here the chariot races drew immense 
 throngs, and the race was considered most 
 successful when horses and men were killed 
 in the contest. The gladiatorial scenes 
 where men, sometimes hundreds of them, 
 
 [22]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 fought with wild beasts and with one an- 
 other, while their blood dyed the sand of 
 the arena and the people cheered and 
 "turned their thumbs up or down," indicat- 
 ing whether the human being should live or 
 die; the social life of the time, the scenes 
 in the magnificent baths, the drunkenness 
 and lust, the greed, the inexcusable cruelty ; 
 if Christianity had not protested against all 
 these things, it would have missed its high 
 and holy calling. It was only that austere 
 group of men who were willing to forego all 
 earthly pleasure, to suffer, to fast, to pray 
 and work for the coming of God's Kingdom 
 and for the honor of Jesus Christ, who could 
 have saved the society of that time. Against 
 the mad debauchery, the indolence and the 
 savage, fun-loving spirit of the people about 
 them, this company of holy men and women 
 in the name of Jesus of Nazareth lifted up 
 an ideal of industry and sobriety. What a 
 great battle had to be fought, and how 
 bravely the fight went on! If any one feels 
 inclined to criticize the church for its atti-
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 tude, just let him read the story of "The 
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;" 
 then let him turn the pages of church his- 
 tory and see how this earnest band which 
 was willing to forego all earthly pleasures 
 saved civilization and gave to the world its 
 best gifts. In this fight there was no chance 
 for compromise. All amusements and play 
 of the people were so bad that discrimina- 
 tion and the power of choice were out of the 
 question. The unfortunate thing is that the 
 spirit which grew out of this struggle has 
 dominated so much of the church life from 
 that day to this. Conditions have changed, 
 but we have been making the same com- 
 plaint. The Puritans in England were as 
 bitter aginst popular amusements as were 
 the early Christians. They had undoubt- 
 edly good reason for some protest, but their 
 judgments against men and their distorted 
 ideas of human nature were carried so far 
 that they denounced every form of play. 
 The children were brought up to believe that 
 anything that is pleasant is of Satan, and 
 
 [24]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 every amusement, no matter how harmless 
 it may be in and of itself, is sinful. Having 
 the power of the State back of them they 
 were able to enforce the decisions of their 
 consciences upon others. 
 
 The church has said more against amuse- 
 ments than against almost any other activ- 
 ity and has made great efforts to get people 
 to give up their forms of play. The more 
 nearly one was able to obliterate the sense 
 of enjoyment from his life, and the more 
 asceticism one brought into his existence, the 
 more nearly like a saint he was thought to 
 be, for the only joy of a saint is "to think 
 upon holy things." This scorn of the world 
 has unfortunately made good people remiss 
 in their efforts to better human conditions. 
 If the world is a bad place, and the Chris- 
 tian's duty is to pass through it as rapidly 
 and by as little contact with it as possible, 
 why should he try to make it any better? 
 The only wise thing to do with a worthless 
 garment is to throw it away. It is folly to 
 attempt to patch it. Thomas a Kempis ad- 
 
 [25]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 vises: Keep thyself as a stranger and a 
 pilgrim upon the earth who hath nothing to 
 do with the affairs of this world." 
 
 How much time we have spent in discuss- 
 ing whether baseball, or billiards, or danc- 
 ing, or theater going or card playing are in 
 and of themselves sinful! The question is 
 not to be settled by arguing for or against 
 these specific things. The question is, what 
 ought to be the attitude of the church in 
 regard to this important question of the 
 people's play? The ill results of misdirected 
 or undirected play are apparent. Our daily 
 observations lead us to the conviction that 
 something is wrong. We contend that it is 
 not the pleasures themselves, but the way in 
 which they are used and the conditions under 
 which people must use them. Whether or 
 not dancing in and of itself is an evil must 
 be debated solely on its own ground, and 
 not from the standpoint of what is often 
 involved therein. A dance in a public hall 
 where liquor is served is another considera- 
 tion, and because dancing under such condi- 
 
 x o 
 261
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 tions results in disaster, it is hardly fair to 
 condemn entirely this popular form of the 
 people's play. The very fact that we have 
 certain appetites and desires is an argument 
 for their development and satisfaction. 
 These appetites may lead us astray. This 
 danger has been recognized, and two meth- 
 ods of safeguarding against such ruin are 
 tried; one is to destroy tendencies by sup- 
 pressing them; the other is to control them 
 by discipline and careful discrimination. 
 Hugh Black calls these two methods self- 
 repression and self-expression. The former 
 is the ascetic ideal. All that does not tend 
 to this ideal we have too often classified as 
 sin. But instead of the hard alternative of 
 being forced to choose one or the other, of 
 giving full sway to our desire for pleasure 
 or amusement, or of repressing these natural 
 desires, may we not take a middle course 
 and determine what things are good, what 
 things are beautiful, what things will amuse 
 or instruct, and then use as much or as little 
 of them as seems good for one's welfare?
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 This would seem to be the highest form of 
 self-control; to be able to discriminate be- 
 tween the things of life and to choose the 
 best. 
 
 The weakness in the prevailing attitude 
 of the church is that it fails to recognize the 
 insistence of the social demands. Its ethics 
 have been interpreted too entirely from a 
 personal standpoint. "If eating meat" 
 said St. Paul "makes my brother to offend, 
 I will eat no meat while the world stands." 
 This position was heroic and splendid in 
 Paul's day; interpreted today, it might be 
 put in these words as expressive of the ideal 
 attitude of each church member: "If failure 
 to provide for the play of the people by 
 means of playgrounds, social centers and 
 other recreational facilities makes my 
 brother to offend, I will exert myself td 
 favor and to work for the establishment of 
 these things." 
 
 The prime task for the church is to help 
 establish a standard of recreation for the 
 community, and then help the community to 
 
 [28]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 find and maintain a proper balance between 
 work and play. No one can fail to recog- 
 nize the danger that grows out of an exces- 
 sive love of pleasure. In the midst of so 
 much that is good and bad it is the duty of 
 the church to help the people to determine 
 what proportion of time shall be put into 
 play that is good, and what proportion into 
 work that is worth while. The craze for 
 pleasure too often exercises itself, not in 
 wholesome relaxation from work, but in 
 excitement growing out of the whirl 
 of senseless amusements, which leaves a 
 person bankrupt physically, mentally and 
 morally. 
 
 One difficulty is that our play is not dem- 
 ocratic enough. One part of the people play 
 too much and another part have no oppor- 
 tunity for play. For the wealthy, money 
 provides the means of pleasure. The auto- 
 mobile and the yacht give them every road 
 and every ocean for a playground. At home 
 the best in the theater, music and art are at 
 their command. With these people the 
 
 [29]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 question is merely one of choice. To the 
 great masses of the people, however, there 
 is not much range of choice. Because play 
 is thus restricted, it has become largely an 
 expression of individualism. People are 
 forced to work together. Means must now 
 be provided for all to play and all to play 
 together. That such provision is appreci- 
 ated, witness the playgrounds and the mo- 
 tion picture shows. 
 
 Again, those who do play, play out of all 
 proportion while they play and then work 
 out of all proportion while they work. A 
 man going on a vacation after a hard year 
 in business put so much of his time and 
 energy into his holiday that he came back 
 to his ordinary tasks completely worn out, 
 and had to take a rest from pleasure before 
 he was fit to start in on his work! It is the 
 duty of the church to educate with a view 
 to proper proportions ; to help make it pos- 
 sible for all people to play and to inculcate 
 those principles that will lead to a right 
 balance between work and play. It is much 
 
 [30]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 more important that the church should do 
 these things than that it should cry out 
 continually against the people's pleasures. 
 Hugh Black raises the question, "Is renun- 
 ciation the keynote of faith and the accred- 
 ited method of entering into the fullest 
 Christian life?" The individualist will an- 
 swer this question in the affirmative. Puri- 
 tanism produced some wonderful characters ; 
 men who were giants. But in producing its 
 ideal Christian man or woman and present- 
 ing him, the sordid pitiful story of the mil- 
 lions who failed and went down in the strug- 
 gle is not told. Democracy is interested not 
 so much in the ideal man as in ideal men. 
 It seeks the advancement of all, and its suc- 
 cess must be measured by the general stand- 
 ard of attainment of the many rather than 
 by the exceptional position reached by the 
 few. Instead of putting so much emphasis 
 upon the ascetic ideal, would it not be pos- 
 sible to give it a new definition? Suppose 
 we call it for want of a better name the 
 higher asceticism. Asceticism means pri- 
 
 [81]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 marily that method of living which is neces- 
 sary for an athlete, to develop him to the 
 highest efficiency. Asceticism in the Chris- 
 tian church has meant the giving up of 
 certain things in order that the individual 
 soul might attain to its fullest perfection of 
 godliness as measured by mediaeval mystical 
 conceptions. The higher asceticism would 
 demand that the necessary sacrifices be made 
 perhaps sacrifices of personal opinion, 
 preconceived notions in order that the 
 whole of society might be developed. Thus 
 the higher asceticism would put a new em- 
 phasis on the forces of democracy. Graham 
 Taylor says: "Only in our own times have 
 our religious ideals been held close enough 
 to earth to be applicable to the local com- 
 munity. The community cannot fail to 
 profit by being faced by the religious ideal 
 of what it ought to be, and the church can- 
 not fail to gain by having and proclaiming 
 an ideal for its community. The final test 
 of the capacity and right of the churches to 
 fulfill their high function in the community 
 
 [32]
 
 fr 5 
 o g 
 
 * 
 
 o a 
 
 I! 
 
 3 & 
 w >> 
 
 Q ! 
 
 H t 
 W ^ 
 
 H 3
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 is not the attitude of the people toward the 
 church, but the willingness and capacity of 
 the church to serve the real interest of all 
 the people. Democracy coming to its own 
 in local self-government, especially in the 
 city, challenges our time with no more cate- 
 gorical imperative. Will the church be- 
 come democratic?" 
 
 Nowhere has the church a better oppor- 
 tunity for constructive service than through 
 interesting itself in the people's play. It 
 is not enough simply to cry out against the 
 apparent evils. More is demanded. The 
 church must set the standard and then help 
 the people to live according to that standard. 
 This will mean that it must be more tolerant, 
 more sympathetic, more appreciative of the 
 reasons which lead the people to do the 
 things they do in seeking amusement. 
 
 The church also faces the fact that our 
 modern commercial system allows childhood 
 to work for profit and play for profit, and 
 against these conditions it must needs fight. 
 The churches of any one district can and 
 
 [88]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 should lead the community in an effort to 
 form and adopt a play program that shall 
 be adequate and constructive, and that shall 
 meet the needs of its entire neighborhood. 
 This raises the question as to whether or not 
 the church itself should provide the amuse- 
 ments. Such a thing ought to be done only 
 as a protest because the community has 
 failed to fulfil its responsibilities. Commer- 
 cial amusements can be made serviceable but 
 in order to make them so there must be a 
 strict regulation of all dance halls, theaters, 
 pool rooms and other places of a similar 
 type. The best results will come from the 
 churches in cooperation with the other forces 
 of the community. A passive attitude is 
 worse than an active propaganda against 
 the evils of play without any further effort. 
 But to be sympathetic toward the people, 
 to appreciate their needs, to oppose those 
 things which lower tastes and morals, and 
 then to cooperate heartily with all the forces 
 in the community that are helping to pro- 
 vide play facilities for the people this is 
 
 [84]
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH 
 
 the program which grows out of the nature 
 of the gospel itself, and which cannot fail 
 to appeal to every lover of mankind. 
 
 [MJ
 
 Ill 
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE
 
 CHAPTER III 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 THE deep-seated propensity of men and 
 women to play proves its worth. This appe- 
 tite is not less fundamental or valuable than 
 the appetite for daily food. Man's body is 
 neither an enemy to be fought nor an instru- 
 ment to be used simply for pleasure, but 
 is the engine by means of which the real pur- 
 poses of life are to accomplished. To ne- 
 glect the body is foolish, for mental ability 
 is largely dependent upon physical condi- 
 tion. So much depends upon having a body 
 fit for its tasks that it is important that we 
 should know what to do in order to keep 
 always up to the mark in physical efficiency. 
 Through the medium of play this result can 
 be best secured. Nature insists, and we 
 grasp at every opportunity to meet its 
 demands. 
 
 By the play of children the bodily frame 
 
 [39]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 is strengthened and fitted for use. The law 
 of the child's growth demands exercise, and 
 this its love of play secures. Every bone 
 and muscle in the body is made strong, re- 
 sponsive and fitted for its task by play. 
 Emerson, discussing the requisites for a gen- 
 tleman, pointed out that first of all he must 
 be a good animal. We might go about our 
 play with gloomy faces if conscious of hav- 
 ing to play in order to be healthy, but such 
 compulsory exercise is of less value than that 
 in which we are thoroughly interested and 
 amused; thus, it has been said "The great 
 thing is to gild the pill of needful exercise 
 with the gold of amusement." Or, as an- 
 other puts it, "To play one game of tiddle- 
 dee-winks with zest will do a man more good 
 than to push up a five-pound dumb-bell a 
 thousand times." 
 
 Experimentation through play also trains 
 the senses and brings the growing boys and 
 girls into actual touch with the world in 
 which they are to live. Even a kitten play- 
 ing with a ball is going through motions that 
 
 [40]
 
 PLAY AROUSES NEW INTERESTS 
 
 1. Feeding the birds 
 
 2. Bird Club
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 will be required later in life in catching mice. 
 Through these exercises it is becoming 
 strong physically and the natural organs of 
 sense are being strengthened and trained. It 
 has been said that the sports of childhood 
 do more to train the eyes, ears and fingers 
 than any other means of education. Most 
 boys find it difficult to define what they 
 mean by their right arm other than that it 
 is the one they use in throwing. Without 
 the play of childhood most of our organs of 
 sense would remain undeveloped or only 
 partially developed. 
 
 Play also serves the needs of the intellect. 
 It arouses new interests, recreates strained 
 nerves, restores the mental balance, for after 
 hours of hard and exacting mental effort 
 brain relaxation is essential. The new sci- 
 ence of mental health which has taken for its 
 motto "Why worry?" bases its whole philos- 
 ophy upon the principles that are involved 
 in play. He who loses the power to lay 
 down his work and turn aside to some light 
 and amusing occupation is getting J>eri-
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 lously near the limit of mental sanity. A 
 story is told by John Cassian, the founder 
 of monasticism in the West, concerning the 
 Apostle John. Tradition has it that this old 
 apostle moved to Ephesus and spent his 
 declining years in solitude. One day a 
 young man returning from the chase found 
 the Apostle sitting on a bench in the shade 
 stroking the head of a partridge which he 
 was holding on his knee. "Is this John?" 
 asked the young man in surprise. In reply 
 John said, "What do you carry in your 
 hand?" "A bow," answered the young man. 
 "Why is it unbent?" asked John. "So that 
 it will not lose its strength," answered the 
 hunter. "Why then should you be sur- 
 prised," said John, "if I relax?" Herbert 
 Spencer, visiting our country in 1883, at a 
 farewell banquet made some criticisms on 
 American life in the course of which he 
 pointed out the effects of overwork on char- 
 acter. He said: "What I have seen and 
 heard during my stay among you has forced 
 me to the belief that the slow change from 
 I* 2 ).
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 habitual inertness to persistent activity has 
 reached an extreme from which there must 
 begin a counter-change and reaction. Every- 
 where I have been struck with the number 
 of faces which have told in strong lines of 
 the burdens which have had to be borne. I 
 have been struck, too, with the large pro- 
 portion of grey haired men, and inquiries 
 have brought out the fact that with you 
 commonly the hair begins to turn some ten 
 years earlier than with us. Moreover, in 
 every circle I have met with men who have 
 suffered from nervous collapse due to stress 
 of business, or they have named friends who 
 have either killed themselves by overwork, 
 been prematurely incapacitated, or wasted 
 long periods in the endeavor to recover 
 health. I do but echo the opinions of all 
 observant persons to whom I have spoken 
 that immense injury is being done by this 
 high pressure life the physique is being 
 undermined." 
 
 The fight for better social conditions is 
 taking hundreds of thousands of children 
 
 [43]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 out of the mills; granting to men of all 
 industries shorter hours and more pay; is 
 safeguarding life and making it more diffi- 
 cult to exploit womanhood; these changes 
 are giving millions of people a chance for 
 leisure and offering the opportunity for 
 good that may come with leisure. The 
 experience of Raymond Robins is significant 
 as illustrating how leisure properly spent 
 will bring hope and moral courage. When 
 he was nineteen years old he worked in a 
 mine in the South twelve hours a day for 
 a dollar a day. "When the day's work was 
 done," he says, "I used to go to my little 
 cabin, eat, get into my bunk and sleep until 
 the whistle blew in the morning, at six- 
 thirty. Then I went to the pit's mouth and 
 down into the shaft and I picked day after 
 day, most of the time on my knees because 
 the drift was narrow. Along about Friday, 
 I, a young eager-hearted boy would begin 
 to be so tired, to feel the weariness of that 
 labor so that I wanted a chance of escape. 
 How was I to get it? It was a little, com-
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 mon dirty mining town; just one place 
 where there was even light and music and 
 that was in the crowded saloon. I had never 
 drunk before I came to this mining camp; 
 had been raised on a farm ; did not know the 
 taste of liquor. I went into that saloon; 
 I listened to the music ; I threw two or three 
 beers under my belt, and I thought I was 
 happy. But I was not. The next morning 
 I had a head that told me I hadn't been 
 happy and still I would go the next week 
 and do the same thing, not because I was 
 bad but under the condition of things it took 
 possession of me. Now I found myself 
 going back physically ; becoming heavy and 
 logy. There was no sort of opportunity. 
 Finally I went on the brake-beam to Colo- 
 rado and got a job in a mine. I worked 
 eight hours a day, got four dollars a day and 
 worked only six days in the week. Life 
 changed for me. I had leisure." 
 
 With more leisure there is a better oppor- 
 tunity for decent, clean and wholesome play. 
 This had fully as much to do with the change 
 
 [46]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 in this man's life, fitting him for his useful 
 and far-reaching work, as his studies. The 
 pastor of one of the Atlanta churches was 
 called to officiate at a funeral in the mill 
 district. Looking into the face of the dead 
 man with the deep marks, the weazened fea- 
 tures and the emaciated body, the pastor 
 judged that he must have been forty or 
 forty-five years of age, and was greatly sur- 
 prised to learn, after the service was over, 
 that he had officiated at the funeral of a boy 
 hardly eighteen years old. This young fel- 
 low was the victim of the mills : an old man 
 before his time, dead at the very threshold 
 of manhood. He had gone into the mills 
 when he was nine years old and the long 
 hours and tedious work had made play 
 impossible. 
 
 Play is essential in developing the dispo- 
 sition. A morose, sour, too serious-minded 
 person is likely to be one who was robbed 
 of play-time as a child. Play brings a 
 sparkle into the eyes, color into the cheeks, 
 joy into the disposition. It is intended that 
 
 [46]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 the impulse in children to play shall so 
 quicken pleasurable emotions as to make all 
 of life glad and fill the days with joy. Spon- 
 taneity and enthusiasm are essential to the 
 highest intellectual development. Without 
 these qualities a person may be good, but 
 he can hardly attain the highest reaches of 
 character. A cheerful spirit and a sympa- 
 thetic interest in men and affairs will carry 
 a person far. Play cultivates these happy 
 qualities. It tends to drive out a petty fault- 
 finding spirit and creates a disposition to be 
 companionable and easily pleased. 
 
 One of the shallow criticisms of our times 
 is that "we have gone pleasure mad." This 
 is only a half truth. Some people are spend- 
 ing too much time in seeking amusement, 
 but the millions are forced to take life too 
 seriously. Our extreme devotion to busi- 
 ness, under the dictates of a false standard 
 of success, makes it easy to run into excess 
 in everything we undertake. It is said of 
 that all-influential individual known as "the 
 tired business man" that at night he chases 
 
 [47]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 his pleasures with the same zeal as his dol- 
 lars by day, and it might be added he is often 
 as selfish and relentless in the pursuit of the 
 one as of the other. The successful man or 
 woman, however, is frequently one who has 
 allowed the more serious side of existence to 
 crowd out all that is bright and cheerful. 
 The criticism made on our American life 
 that we take our pleasures too seriously has 
 an element of truth in it. This disposition 
 led De Tocqueville to say: "I thought that 
 the English constituted the most serious na- 
 tion on the face of the earth but I have since 
 seen the American and have changed my 
 opinion. An American instead of going in 
 a leisure hour to dance merrily at some place 
 of public resort as the fellows of our calling 
 continue to do throughout the great part of 
 Europe, shuts himself up at home to drink. 
 He thus enjoys two pleasures: He can go 
 on thinking of his business and he can get 
 drunk by his own fireside." 
 
 A disposition to please and be pleased is 
 one of the greatest possible assets for char- 
 
 [48]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 acter as well as for success. Play enables 
 one "to make a life," without play it is 
 conceivable that one might make a living. 
 
 The new psychology teaches us that man 
 is a unit. Body and mind are inter-depen- 
 dent. Instead of body and mind both being 
 of questionable value, and the soul the only 
 thing worth while, we have learned that a 
 man's character is determined largely by the 
 quality of his mental and physical powers. 
 Just as play develops physical and mental 
 strength and gives the right turn to the dis- 
 position, so it stimulates moral growth. 
 School athletics have played an important 
 part in recreating the so-called bad boys and 
 making them good. The athletic badge test 
 instituted in many of the schools has had 
 a wonderful effect in bettering discipline. 
 This test is a form of athletics that gives 
 every boy an opportunity to win and bring 
 himself up to the prescribed physical stand- 
 ard, nor is it necessary for him to defeat 
 other boys in order to win. A New York 
 school where these standards were adopted 
 
 [49]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 had previously gained a bad reputation be- 
 cause of disorder and lack of discipline. The 
 effort to win the badges and the necessary 
 physical training transformed the school and 
 brought about an astonishing revolution. A 
 story is told of one boy who was an invet- 
 erate cigarette smoker. No teaching or 
 warning could induce him to give up the 
 habit which was undermining his health and 
 destroying his mind and character. After 
 his third trial to gain the coveted button the 
 director of play casually asked "By the 
 way, Joe, do you use cigarettes?" "Of course 
 I do," he replied, "but that's got nothing 
 to do with me not getting the badge." "Per- 
 haps not," said the director, "I was just ask- 
 ing for information." The boy tried in the 
 next test and failed. Crestfallen he sought 
 the director and asked him if he really 
 thought that cigarettes had any thing to do 
 with his failure. "I am sure I can not say," 
 said the director. "I have known them to 
 interfere with the success of athletes. If 
 you could give them up it might be worth 
 
 [50]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 trying, but of course you are so addicted to 
 the habit that you could not stop even if 
 you wanted to." "Who said I can't give 
 them up ?" was the angry retort. "Nobody," 
 replied the director, "but having smoked so 
 long I just imagined you couldn't." "You 
 will see," was the reply and sure enough he 
 stopped smoking and at the next trial, six 
 months later, won his badge. 
 
 Again it is play that develops the finer 
 qualities such as justice and fair play. A 
 boy who learns in early life to take defeat 
 gracefully, who assumes the sportsman's at- 
 titude toward a vanquished contestant and 
 who scorns to strike below the belt, is almost 
 certain later to bring these admirable char- 
 acteristics into the more serious affairs of 
 life. Play has been called "the recruiting 
 office, the drill master, of all the physical, 
 mental and moral powers." Nature has an 
 effective way in her school of securing the 
 exercise which is needed to develop the men- 
 tal and bodily powers. "She crowds the 
 activity full of enjoyment" and then gives 
 
 [51]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 her children freedom for the widest choice 
 in selecting the play that will best meet and 
 fill the needs. 
 
 Warren H. Wilson says of the untoward 
 conditions of country life: "It is the com- 
 mon opinion of rural leaders that country 
 life in America has fallen out of repair. 
 The household, the church, the school and 
 the store in the country show the effect of 
 change. They are not what they were one 
 hundred years ago. These changes are seen 
 all over the United States with slight local 
 variations. They are uniform from Maine 
 to the Mississippi. Young people are leav- 
 ing the country for the city. Teachers of 
 country schools move almost every year, and 
 many ministers have despaired of the coun- 
 try church." Our age is being dominated 
 in a great degree by the social spirit. We 
 have learned to do things in cooperation. 
 The cities have been developed by coopera- 
 tive effort. Commerce, business education, 
 in fact all the interests of life have felt the 
 impulse of the growing sense of solidarity. 
 
 [52]
 
 COUNTRY HOME 
 
 A COUNTRY ROAD
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 The individualist is at a disadvantage. 
 Hence when we come to a rural district and 
 find individualism still strong and flourish- 
 ing we are not surprised to find also its ill 
 effects. The farmer is proud of his inde- 
 pendence : he stands by himself and for him- 
 self ; he will not readily cooperate, and it 
 is very difficult to get him to follow a leader. 
 This individualism partially accounts for the 
 decay in rural America. The strongest and 
 ablest men and women in the older commu- 
 nities have moved out and peopled the new 
 frontier. The boy finishing school looks for 
 his opportunity not on the farm but in the 
 city. He is thinking of himself and his 
 future and rarely considers what will be the 
 result if all the brightest and best men and 
 the most capable young people leave the 
 country districts. Quoting Wilson again: 
 "American life is still affected by pioneer 
 days. The pioneer was lonely in his way 
 of life and he was lonely in his thoughts; 
 he had to work and fight for himself so he 
 prayed for himself. Self protection was his 
 
 [53]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 battle all day long and soul salvation was 
 his thought at night. He wrought and 
 fought all the week that he might survive, 
 and on Sunday he craved only to hear how 
 he might survive death. Other men have the 
 same thought hut the pioneer had it to the 
 exclusion of nearly all social feelings. The 
 individualist has this exclusive care of his 
 own soul, his own children, his own property, 
 his own pleasures. So deep seated is this 
 evil in American rural life that it is the foe 
 to the progress of people in the open 
 country." 
 
 The pleasures of the country are largely 
 individual. Hunting, fishing and most of 
 the other pleasures and games are founded 
 upon the ideal of individualism. Over 
 against the country we have the city with 
 its socialized life ; its offer of pleasure. The 
 glare of the lights makes life in the city 
 appear a happy state of existence to the boy 
 and the girl of the rural district living mo- 
 notonous routine lives without much com- 
 panionship or many chances of pleasure. In 
 
 [54]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 the decade from 1900 to 1910 the popula- 
 tion of the United States increased 21 per 
 cent., and during the same period the in- 
 crease in rural districts was only 11.2 per 
 cent. The decrease, or slow increase, in the 
 rural population throughout large sections 
 of the country is due to social rather than 
 economic conditions. No great improve- 
 ment will be made in rural conditions until 
 the people are taught to play together. 
 Under the new conditions which face the 
 country, with the lure of the city always 
 before the eyes, there must be more interest 
 in organized play. This is fundamental to 
 the reconstruction of rural life, and is abso- 
 lutely essential to the growth and develop- 
 ment of moral conditions. Fiske thinks the 
 reason that farmers can not cooperate more 
 successfully is because they have never 
 learned team work in play as boys. Mc- 
 Nutt tells of his experience in a rural dis- 
 trict where he went to serve as pastor for 
 a summer. One of the young lads he met 
 said to him: "This neighborhood is so dry 
 
 [65]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 socially that if you should touch a match to 
 it it would burn up quickly." This boy's 
 busy week of thirteen hours a day and the 
 necessary work that he had on Sunday is 
 typical of the average conditions in farm 
 life. During the busy season there is so 
 much work to be done that the people find 
 no time for pleasure. Then during the win- 
 ter time they are so shut in and there is so 
 little to do that life is equally monotonous. 
 Thus the whole year becomes a succession of 
 days with the same tasks to perform, the 
 same interests, until gradually the outlook 
 narrows and the interest in life becomes 
 small. In some of the western states the 
 majority of the inmates in the insane asy- 
 lums are farmers' wives, brought there by 
 the very monotony of the life they are forced 
 to lead. In the new conditions under which 
 we are living today with the telephone, the 
 telegraph, and the daily papers brought by 
 the rural carriers even to the most out-of- 
 the-way places, people learn of what is going 
 on in the world. These blessings of civiliza- 
 
 [56]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 tion ought to relieve the monotony of coun- 
 try life and in many places this result is 
 being secured ; but this is not always true 
 in many localities this touch with the outside 
 world only accentuates the monotony and 
 breeds a spirit of restlessness. Warren 
 Wilson in making a survey of the rural 
 districts of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Missouri and Kentucky found everywhere 
 the same need of recreative activities. "Gen- 
 erally throughout the farming population it 
 was discovered that no common occasion or 
 common experience fell to the country com- 
 munity. In the course of the year there is 
 in thousands of farming communities no 
 single meeting that brings all of the people 
 together. The small town has its fireman's 
 parade ; to the small city comes once a year 
 the circus and to the larger city comes the 
 exposition. Every year there is some com- 
 mon experience that welds the population, 
 increases acquaintance and intensifies social 
 unity. The tillage of the soil in these farm- 
 ing communities is very lonely." 
 
 [57]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 It is important for every moral considera- 
 tion that people living in the country dis- 
 tricts should be contented and have a chance 
 to live normal lives. The present isolation 
 and hardships of life in the open country 
 when compared to the opportunities for eco- 
 nomic advancement and pleasure in the city 
 cause a revulsion of feeling, especially in the 
 life of the young, which leads them to aban- 
 don the farm just as soon as they have an 
 opportunity. "I hope I shall never see that 
 dreary old ranch again," was the comment 
 of a young girl who was spending her first 
 year in the city. From a material stand- 
 point she and her family were better off in 
 the country; but the cramped quarters, the 
 sense of nearness to people, together with 
 the recreational opportunities and amuse- 
 ments offered by the city gave her a touch 
 of life that she had craved for years. She 
 is typical of thousands of wide-awake young 
 boys and girls to whom present conditions 
 of rural life are simply unbearable. A New 
 England farmer has three boys who have 
 
 [58]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 amazed their neighbors by staying on the 
 farm. One of them has married and put 
 up his house on an adjoining farm. The 
 father some years ago called his boys into 
 counsel, telling them that the farm was a 
 family business, and suggested that they 
 consider themselves as partners in the enter- 
 prise. By mutual consent they decided that 
 eight hours should constitute a day's work. 
 They borrowed money, put in up-to-date 
 machinery, fixed up the house, making it 
 modern, then they bought an automobile 
 and on Saturday afternoons and frequently 
 during the week they drove twelve miles to 
 the near-by city. The boys became the 
 active spirits in organizing sports among the 
 boys and men of the surrounding farms. 
 
 Contrast the wisdom and sanity of this 
 plan with that of another farmer who re- 
 fused to let his boy have Saturday afternoon 
 off to join other boys in the neighborhood 
 in forming a baseball club. "Baseball," 
 he shouted, "what in tarnation do you want 
 to play baseball for? Don't you get enough
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 exercise during the week?" The country 
 life of America will never become what it 
 ought to be until the people are made more 
 democratic by learning to play together. 
 "The great asset of recreation in the coun- 
 try is the opportunity to meet and talk. 
 The problem is purely one of play, not of 
 exercise. Recreation is essential to the 
 moral life of any people. It is the construc- 
 tive method of making individuals into good 
 citizens. Especially valuable is it as a means 
 of educating the young people of the work- 
 ing people of the community. The craving 
 for this social training and ethical experience 
 drives many out of the rural districts. Con- 
 versely training in social morality is to be 
 undertaken especially by the Church which 
 possesses the conscience of the country com- 
 munity. This training is expressed in the 
 one phrase: the promotion of recreation." 
 If we note great changes in the rural dis- 
 tricts how much greater are the changes in 
 the city. The modern city is the product 
 of the steam-driven machine, and is the re- 
 
 [60]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 flex of the country. The cities have grown 
 large just in proportion to the size of their 
 factories. About these huge buildings used 
 for commercial purposes the people have 
 come in hordes to work in the factories and 
 to live in the adjacent tenements. The city 
 furnishes light, water, pavements, rules and 
 regulations governing life and gives very 
 little opportunity for the individual to 
 choose for himself what he will do. Most 
 of his choices are settled for him by the 
 statutes and laws governing the city. The 
 one thing that the city has not been careful 
 about is providing opportunities and facili- 
 ties for the people's play. Shrewd men, 
 often without any moral scruples, have seen 
 this opportunity created by the city's neglect 
 and have entered the field offering people 
 all sorts of opportunities for pleasure of 
 kinds and at prices that will suit the taste, 
 the curiosity and the pocketbook of all. A 
 quaint old back-woods preacher in Illinois 
 stated it about right when he preached a 
 sermon occasioned by the going away of 
 
 [61]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 two of the young people of the commu- 
 nity, who were starting East to school. In 
 the course of his sermon he said: "Beware 
 of the city. I tell you it is simply one 
 of Satan's hooks baited with tempting mor- 
 sels at which young fools are very apt to 
 nibble." Life in the city is regulated by the 
 factory and the rules of the factory. Mod- 
 ern industry settles the most important ques- 
 tions, such as, the house we must live in ; the 
 conditions under which we live; the hours 
 we shall work; where we shall spend our 
 leisure. The only thing it ignores is the ques- 
 tion of how we shall spend our leisure. Here 
 it shirks its responsibility ; and this is by all 
 odds one of the most important questions 
 that we have to face. Instead of the home 
 being the center of activity most working 
 people live in the factory. They rest and 
 eat at home so that they may be fit for the 
 demands of the factory. Michael M. Davis, 
 writing of the exploitation of pleasure in 
 New York says of the city: "The home 
 shrinks to a nest of boxes tucked four stories 
 
 [62]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 in the air, or the half of a duplex house hud- 
 dled among its neighbors. There is space 
 to sleep and eat but not to live. The habi- 
 tation becomes a sleeping box, an eating 
 den. Too often no more. Specialized in- 
 dustry, the basis of the modern city, makes 
 it possible for large numbers of people to 
 live and support themselves within a re- 
 stricted area. This crowding of population 
 creates a human pressure under which most 
 of the normal tendencies of life must find 
 new forms, or at least new modes of mani- 
 festation. This is a result of the mere fact 
 that the physical limits of space fall so far 
 beneath the minimum of human demands for 
 self-expression." 
 
 System is the one essential of success in 
 industry. There are certain definite proc- 
 esses that must be done in a definite way. A 
 fixed number of hours are devoted to the 
 same task, day after day, year in and year 
 out. Go into any factory and see the proc- 
 ess ; get acquainted with those who are do- 
 ing the work and you will find how inevi-
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 tably the worker comes to think of himself 
 as a part of the machine. 
 
 Jane Addams, pointing out the strain of 
 changed conditions brought about by the 
 city, says: "Industrialism has gathered to- 
 gether multitudes of eager young creatures 
 from all quarters of the earth as the labor 
 supply for the countless work-shops upon 
 which the present industrial city is based. 
 Never before in civilization have such num- 
 bers of young girls been suddenly released 
 from the protection of the home, and per- 
 mitted to walk unattended on city streets, 
 and to work under alien roofs ; for the first 
 time they are being prized more for their 
 labor powers than for their innocence, their 
 tender beauty and ephemeral gaiety. So- 
 ciety cares more for the products they man- 
 ufacture than for their immemorial ability 
 to reaffirm the charm of existence. Never 
 before have such numbers of young boys 
 earned money independently of the family 
 life and felt themselves free to spend it as 
 they choose. The stupid experiment of 
 
 [64]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 organizing work and failing to organize play 
 has of course brought about a fine revenge." 
 Industrialism, with its system, pays a 
 premium on monotony. The same process 
 carried on for nine or ten hours a day, espe- 
 cially if it be a process as simple as pasting 
 labels, tending a machine, or doing any one 
 of a thousand things that are demanded in 
 the modern factory, is so deadening that 
 immediately when the worker is released he 
 seeks some excitement. Formerly work had 
 in it an element of recreation. An old gen- 
 tleman, past eighty years of age, boasted 
 before a state committee investigating child 
 labor that when he was a boy twelve years 
 old he went to work, therefore, he thought 
 it was nonsense to take the children under 
 fourteen out of the modern factory. There 
 is all the difference in the world between a 
 boy working with his father in America sev- 
 enty years ago and the modern boy working 
 ten hours a day in a factory. Our close 
 attention to business and the monotony of 
 the industrial life makes its imperative de- 
 
 [65]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 mands. After the day's toil when the thou- 
 sands of workers are released and have their 
 few hours of leisure, what are they to do? 
 We are saying today that our country has 
 gone mad on the subject of amusements. 
 Rather say we have been mad for years on 
 the subject of work and the efforts of the 
 people to find amusement is simply the in- 
 evitable reaction. 
 
 How are the people to play? That is the 
 problem that faces us whenever we think of 
 the changed conditions under which we are 
 living. The city street is the play-ground. 
 Released from the factory the crowds drift 
 down the street seeking their pleasure. The 
 boys and girls play their games here because 
 very often it is the only place they can play. 
 Their games are such as can be developed 
 under the cramped conditions that they find 
 in the street. A game of ball would be much 
 more enjoyable played in a vacant lot, or in 
 a large back yard, but as these places are not 
 available the street is the chosen place. The 
 policeman on his beat is looked upon as the 
 
 [66]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 natural enemy of all sport and an eye must 
 be kept open for the "cop" at all times. 
 Harmless sports because they are forbidden 
 easily give place to more vicious practices. 
 Later the street becomes the highway to 
 other places of pleasure. The saloon, the 
 pool-room, the theater, the dance hall, the 
 moving picture show, the candy shop, the 
 penny arcade, all of these are a part of the 
 people's play opportunities. Most of them 
 are bad, some of them are of questionable 
 value, a few of them may be good, but they 
 are all provided because it is profitable to 
 cater to the people's love of play. If the 
 dollars fail, the saloon closes and the lights 
 are dimmed in the pool-room. 
 
 The people's play in all of our cities is in 
 the hands of men who are interested only in 
 profits and who are for the most part indif- 
 ferent, careless and morally callous in regard 
 to the moral and social effect of the amuse- 
 ments offered. The gaudy, the cheap, the 
 loud, the noisy, the subdued and the elegant 
 every type of play facility is offered and 
 
 [67]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 people seek out these to escape the crowded 
 turmoil of the street, to get away from the 
 humdrum existence of factory and shop and 
 to escape the discomforts of home for a few 
 hours of leisure. Commercial enterprise and 
 good business sense are thus doing what the 
 city has failed to do. The business that pro- 
 vides for the people's pleasures is big busi- 
 ness. Lindsay in "The Beast" shows how 
 other big business is closely affiliated with 
 commercialized recreation. Our success in 
 organizing work and at the same time leav- 
 ing unscrupulous money grabbers to provide 
 for the people's recreation is creating havoc. 
 To quote from Jane Addams: "The love of 
 pleasure will not be denied and when no ade- 
 quate provision is made for its expression 
 it turns into all sorts of malignant vicious 
 appetites. Seeing these things the middle 
 aged become quite distracted and resort to 
 all sorts of restrictive measures. We often 
 seek to dam up the sweet fountain itself 
 because we are affrighted by these turgid 
 streams, but although we vex ourselves with 
 
 [68]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 restrictive measures and complain of their 
 futility we do not see that the city itself has 
 failed in its object in the matter and that the 
 root of the difficulty is due to the fact that 
 the modern city has turned over to com- 
 mercialism practically all the provisions for 
 public recreation." To quote again from 
 Davis' report on exploitation of pleasure in 
 New York : "Modern industry and its prod- 
 uct, the modern city, create home conditions 
 which for the mass of the people are too 
 crowded and too ill arranged to permit the 
 enjoyable spending of time within the home. 
 Recreation for the most part must be sought 
 elsewhere. Commercial enterprise taking 
 advantage of the opening thus created has 
 developed recreation provisions to a wonder- 
 ful extent, furnishing opportunities adapted 
 to every age and to every grade of intellect 
 artistic and moral development." 
 
 The saloons offer an easy and conven- 
 ient opportunity for recreation. The liquor 
 interests have built up a mighty system 
 and in most of our large cities the best 
 1*1
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 street corners are preempted by the saloon. 
 Men do not go to the saloon solely for 
 the pleasure of drinking. Liquor drinking 
 of course is one reason for their going, 
 but it is the social life and the opportunity 
 for recreation that the saloon offers that 
 makes it so popular. Alcohol develops good 
 feeling, gives men a desire to talk, and 
 when taken moderately, the ability to con- 
 verse pleasingly, hence from the earliest 
 times some kind of liquor has been used in 
 connection with social gatherings. In mod- 
 ern times the saloon has capitalized this age- 
 long custom and has surrounded the mere 
 drinking of liquor with the means for enjoy- 
 ing sociability and fellowship. Jack Lon- 
 don says: "The news-boys on the streets, 
 the sailor, the miner and the wanderer in 
 far lands, always where men came together 
 to counsel, it was always to laugh and boast 
 and dare, to relax, to forget the dull tire- 
 some nights and days, and always they came 
 together over alcohol. The saloon was the 
 place of congregation." To the poor man 
 
 [70]
 
 SS 
 
 II 
 u 

 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 the saloon is his club, his social center. 
 "Here he finds relaxation after the long day 
 in the dust and roar of the factory such as 
 the crowded and slouchy rooms he calls home 
 will not furnish. Here he can escape the 
 crying children and get the companionship 
 of men interested in the same things he is. 
 There are games, cards, pool, reports from 
 the baseball games, races and prize fights, 
 sometimes music, and a warm place in which 
 to enjoy them. There is no feeling of con- 
 straint, on the contrary the manager is glad 
 to have him remain so long as he is spending 
 money. All these enjoyments may be pur- 
 chased for an evening at the exceedingly 
 small price of a few beers, or even a single 
 glass, with a free lunch thrown in. The 
 saloon is a democratic institution open 
 freely to every one and criticising no 
 one." 
 
 The dance hall is usually controlled by the 
 same type of men who control the saloon. 
 Surveys in New York, Kansas City, Chi- 
 cago, Cleveland and other large cities show 
 
 [71]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 that there is a very close relationship be- 
 tween the dance halls and the saloons. It 
 is this fact that makes dancing so danger- 
 ous. Thousands of young people who enjoy 
 dancing and to whom there is no other op- 
 portunity open for recreation and amuse- 
 ment find their way into the public dance 
 hall, going there with the best intentions in 
 the world, after the long day at pasting 
 labels, dipping candy, wrapping bundles, or 
 some such occupation fatiguing to the body 
 and which starves the imagination. It is 
 natural for them to crave the kind of excite- 
 ment that the dance offers. The Juvenile 
 Protective Association in Chicago found 
 "the conditions existing in the dance halls 
 and in adjacent saloons transform the en- 
 tirely innocent desire for the dance and for 
 social enjoyment into drunkenness, vice and 
 debauchery. Saloon-keepers and prosti- 
 tutes are in many cases the only chaperons 
 and in a majority of the places even the 
 young girls and boys fresh from school are 
 plied with alcohol and with suggestions of 
 
 [72]
 
 PLAY AND NORMAL LIFE 
 
 vice until dancing ceases to be recreation and 
 becomes flagrant immorality." 
 
 Next to the dance halls in interest are the 
 theaters and moving picture shows, pool- 
 rooms, candy shops and cigar stores. They 
 are also offering the chance for the people 
 to play. There is no opportunity for choice, 
 and few people in the community have the 
 money, the leisure and the good taste neces- 
 sary to provide themselves and their fam- 
 ilies with the right kind of play facilities. 
 
 Commercialized play facilities are not 
 necessarily bad in and of themselves. Most 
 people prefer to pay their way and there 
 is no complaint because of the cost. Nor 
 should we judge a group of men harshly 
 simply because they have made a good busi- 
 ness venture. The point is that the play 
 facilities should be in the hands of all the 
 people. When people danced at home the 
 problem of dancing was individual. Under 
 present conditions dancing is a social prob- 
 lem. So with every feature connected with 
 this problem. Our cities have been stupid 
 
 [73]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 in organizing industry and not organizing 
 play. When they come to interest them- 
 selves primarily in the welfare of men, 
 women and children, when they put the 
 needs of humanity first, then great changes 
 will be seen. But so long as a city is con- 
 tent to leave provision for the people's play 
 in the hands of private enterprise it should 
 at least see that these hands are clean, and 
 that the forms of recreation are safe. 
 
 [74]
 
 IV 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 THE pastor of a church located in the 
 midst of a city's most congested part was 
 called out of bed early one morning by the 
 police and requested to come to the station 
 where they had locked up a seventeen-year- 
 old girl who was taken in a raid made upon 
 a neighboring lodging house. Her home 
 was in a well-to-do suburb and her people 
 had known the minister, hence when she got 
 into trouble she asked the police officers to 
 send for him. He was able to secure her 
 release and send her home. Her people 
 were very religious and lived a quiet life. 
 There was little for her to do each day after 
 returning home from work in the city where 
 she had been employed since her graduation 
 from high school the year before. She fre- 
 quently attended parties at a dance hall in 
 the village against the wishes of her parents, 
 
 [77J
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 who were very much opposed to dancing, 
 card playing and theater going. At this 
 dance hall she met a man who became atten- 
 tive to her and at last at his suggestion she 
 ran away with him and came to the city to 
 be married. They had been living in a lodg- 
 ing house for nearly a week and every day 
 the marriage had been put off. The police 
 raided the place, and thus her pitiful story 
 was made public. 
 
 This girl had lived a repressed life and 
 repression is often disastrous. "How could 
 my daughter go to these public dances ? She 
 has deceived us all. It seems impossible that 
 she should have become acquainted with such 
 a man. Who is he? I never heard of him." 
 Such was the naive protest of the mother. 
 "The repressed girl, if she is not of the lan- 
 guishing type," says Jane Addams, "is very 
 apt to take things into her own hands." In 
 this case the young woman found her pleas- 
 ure in illicit ways and came to harm because 
 she was denied an opportunity, for sane, 
 reasonable amusement. 
 
 [78]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 A lesson may be drawn from this incident 
 to show that the city is to blame for allow- 
 ing places to exist where a young girl could 
 be betrayed with such ease. The city does 
 come in for a share of blame for its care- 
 lessness. Another lesson, and that most fre- 
 quently drawn, is that the dance is a bad 
 thing and that young people should be urged 
 to refrain from dancing, for, unless they do 
 so, they are in immediate danger of being 
 lost. Both these lessons are important. A 
 city is often criminally neglectful about car- 
 ing for its children and there are dangers 
 which grow up in a ball room. But neither 
 a disreputable part of the city, nor dancing, 
 is to be held wholly accountable for this dis- 
 aster. It is folly to assume that in the quiet 
 monotony of a God-fearing neighborhood 
 young people will be satisfied to spend their 
 evenings at home doing nothing, or at most 
 reading, or will find sufficient pleasure in 
 attending church services. In a study made 
 of a suburban community it was found that 
 the people were cordial, well educated and 
 
 [79]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 refined ; they were of the upper middle class, 
 most of the men working in the city and 
 earning good salaries; their homes were 
 comfortable and many of them elaborate in 
 architecture and arrangement. The com- 
 munity was well supplied with churches and 
 school-houses : and altogether life there was 
 said to be pleasant. The investigator made 
 his first visit on a Saturday evening. As 
 he alighted from the train another train 
 pulled out for the city. It was loaded with 
 young men and women going to the thea- 
 ters and other places of amusement. In 
 twenty minutes they would find light, music 
 and all the attractions that the city had to 
 offer. They had left behind them a rather 
 gloomy suburban town where the lights were 
 totally inadequate to dispel the darkness and 
 where at nine o'clock almost every light was 
 extinguished. When the policeman was 
 asked why the town was not better lighted, 
 he replied: "What's the use? Everybody 
 stays at home or goes to the city at night, 
 those who go to the city don't need the lights 
 
 [80]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 and those who stay at home go to bed." 
 The few stores on the main street were 
 mostly deserted. In the corner drug store 
 a group of half a dozen boys were talking; 
 on the opposite corner was a similar group 
 who had stopped for a moment on their way 
 to the near-by pool-room. As they entered 
 they were greeted by a dozen boys already 
 in the place playing at the two battered 
 tables. The room was long and narrow, the 
 floor filthy, looking as if it had never been 
 cleaned. There were four electric lights 
 burning, but the globes were so dirty that 
 the lights were yellow and feeble. The 
 evening was cold and raw; the only means 
 of heating was a stove which had had a fire 
 in it early in the day, but the fire was out! 
 Nearly everyone in the room wore his over- 
 coat. Two of the boys had hung up their 
 coats but the minute they finished the game 
 they put them on again. The two pool 
 tables had evidently seen hard service and 
 did not set level. The small price charged 
 by the manager was promptly paid, and as 
 
 [81]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 one game was finished another began. Al- 
 most all the boys played, or had a chance 
 to play, during the evening. An especially 
 attractive fellow said that he was a senior 
 in the local high school. His father had a 
 position in the city. When asked why he 
 came to spend the evening in such a place 
 he replied: "There is no other chance for a 
 fellow to have any fun, except at the bowl- 
 ing alley." The bowling alley was across 
 the street in the basement of a rather pre- 
 tentious building. It was a very attractive 
 place, clean, well ventilated, with fine lights 
 and the alleys in good condition for playing. 
 There were three groups here ; six or eight 
 older men; ten or twelve high school boys; 
 five or six lads from twelve to fourteen years 
 of age. Boys younger than twelve years 
 were not allowed to enter. At the back 
 window three eager faces were pressed 
 against the glass. These were boys who 
 had just been denied admittance because 
 "You kids ain't twelve years old." The 
 older men were doing the playing and were
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 crack members of a local bowling club. 
 Bowling is a favorite sport in the commu- 
 nity and these men were practising so that 
 the prestige of their club might be main- 
 tained. The others in the room were merely 
 onlookers. There was a dance hall on the 
 main street, but it was only occasionally 
 used. One of the high school boys, a spokes- 
 man for the group, said that he did not often 
 come to these places ; Friday and Saturday 
 nights being the only times he could go dur- 
 ing the school year. When asked if he came 
 to the pool room and the bowling alley be- 
 cause he liked them he replied: "No. But 
 what can a fellow do? My old man comes 
 home tired and cross and sits around the 
 house smoking or reading the papers and 
 wants everybody to go to bed at nine o'clock. 
 After I graduate from High it is me for 
 a job in the city, then good-night to such 
 slow joints as these." Here was a boy with 
 the best possible stuff in him, yet the monot- 
 ony of the place was crushing to death his 
 best impulses, and as a reaction against it 
 
 [83]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 he hugged to his heart the vision of the city 
 with its opportunities for fun, and was just 
 counting the days until he would be eman- 
 cipated from the deadly round of suburban 
 existence and could have his chance for "real 
 life." His was a wrong perspective of 
 course, but who gave it to him? This boy 
 with all his good blood and training is in 
 more danger from the evils which beset 
 youth's pathway than a boy who is equally 
 well brought up in the city. This ought not 
 to be so, but our respectable suburban com- 
 munities furnish more of the world's moral 
 failures than would be generally imagined. 
 It is reasonable to assume that a large num- 
 ber of such failures could be averted if the 
 people of these otherwise ideal communities 
 put as much thought on the boys' and girls' 
 pleasures as they do on the questions of 
 bread and butter and buildings. 
 
 The failure to provide opportunities for 
 play, and then the failure to direct youth in 
 its play, are not the worst phases of the 
 situation, for in some places there is a real 
 
 [84]
 
 1 2
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 antagonism to the spirit of play and the 
 desire for pleasure when an expression of 
 these has been attempted by young people. 
 More than one church has been divided by 
 a clash between the older and the younger 
 people over the question of the use of the 
 church building for social purposes. Good 
 people have persistently taken a negative 
 position on the question of play. If the 
 popular forms of amusement are bad and 
 we strive to remove them it is only fair that 
 something should be put in their place. Ten 
 boys, ranging in age from twelve to fifteen, 
 rented two rooms in the basement of a house 
 on a respectable street of a little "satellite" 
 city. They paid two dollars a month for 
 the use of the rooms and each boy brought 
 some article of furniture, found by rummag- 
 ing in the family attic, and thus furnished 
 the club rooms. They organized with a 
 president and secretary and charged a small 
 sum for dues. They played dominoes, 
 checkers and such card games as they knew, 
 old maid and casino being very popular. 
 
 [85]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 Most of the boys drew books from the local 
 library and would bring these to the club, 
 to read and discuss the stories. The group 
 was not always on its good behavior. Some- 
 times there was "rough house," but on the 
 whole it was as orderly and well conducted 
 a club as could be expected under the cir- 
 cumstances. Instead of the neighbors see- 
 ing the possibilities for good and helping the 
 boys to develop along right lines they began 
 to complain of and exaggerate the things 
 that happened. All that the boys were at- 
 tempting to do was to ape their fathers and 
 grown-up brothers who belonged to regular 
 clubs in the city. At their luncheons the 
 staples in the way of good things to eat were 
 candies and pickles purchased at the corner 
 store, with ginger ale and champagne cider 
 for drinks. The gossips in the neighborhood 
 finally formed a committee and went to the 
 lady who owned the house, and to please 
 public opinion she had to turn out the boys. 
 This town has never had a saloon. It is the 
 home of much temperance agitation and sev- 
 
 [86]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 eral members of this club were the sons of 
 the strongest temperance advocates in the 
 community. A few years later most of them 
 were working in the city and they began 
 to get together at restaurants and saloons 
 to talk over old times. There was now no 
 formal effort to form a club but the old gang 
 spirit asserted itself unconsciously, and in 
 groups they went from place to place, drink- 
 ing more or less and having a gay time. 
 The results have been tragic and show the 
 danger of shutting out an opportunity 
 for clean, decent, normal play, and then 
 leaving wide open the varied mischievous 
 city opportunities for eager boys and 
 girls. 
 
 Another club of boys in a suburban com- 
 munity of much the same character called 
 itself the Picayune Club. One of the boys 
 having heard of sour mash brought a bottle 
 of butter milk and assured the others that 
 it was the real thing and they all drank it, 
 with the feeling, that they were indeed, 
 doing something bad, but men drank sour 
 
 [87]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 mash and why not be as much like men as 
 possible ? 
 
 These fine communities express that which 
 is best in our church life today but the 
 monotony of the lives of many persons in 
 the community is unrealized and is intensi- 
 fied by the community's poverty in recrea- 
 tional resources. The men for the most part 
 find, during their work day in the city, cer- 
 tain pleasures and interests. The business 
 man has his club, his group of friends. The 
 city, with its roar and its hustle, adds to the 
 excitement of his life. In one of the restau- 
 rants of Chicago there is a round table where 
 for ten years the same group of business 
 men have met for luncheon every day. 
 Sometimes they shake dice. Some days 
 they play a game with cubes of sugar. Each 
 man puts a cube in front of his plate ; then 
 they make a pool of five or ten cents each 
 and the man upon whose cube of sugar a fly 
 first settles takes the pool. They are as 
 interested in watching to see who is going 
 to win this simple little game as they would 
 
 [88]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 be over some big turn in their business af- 
 fairs. They appear to be substantial, con- 
 servative, sedate middle-aged gentlemen, 
 who might live in Evanston, Oak Park or 
 any one of the dozen other suburban towns 
 and they want their boys to be just like 
 themselves when at home. The boys, how- 
 ever, have been in an unnatural atmosphere 
 most of the day and they prefer during their 
 leisure time in the evening to be more like 
 what their fathers were at luncheon time, 
 and with the city only a few miles distant, 
 they soon "learn the ropes," as they say, and 
 find their pleasures. 
 
 In justice to the suburban community it 
 must be said that in many places the need 
 for more attention to play and amusement 
 is being felt and in a large number of subur- 
 ban towns splendid playgrounds are be- 
 ing provided, churches are building parish 
 houses, money is being appropriated and a 
 play program worked out, adopted and 
 made effective. 
 
 If such a picture of the suburban com- 
 
 [89]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 munity, the village and small town is not 
 over drawn, what shall we say of the city? 
 The dangers here are two-fold: that from 
 the wrong sort of amusement, and that from 
 a lack of supervision of the people's play. 
 It is an easy thing to lose yourself in the 
 city. Nobody knows you and few people 
 care anything about you. You can do as 
 you please and no one is the wiser. The 
 city is made up of newcomers. People come 
 and people go. The city serves all and each 
 finds the things which are congenial to him 
 and his kind. The larger cities have a 
 larger percentage of growth in the major- 
 ity of cases than the smaller cities, because 
 people love the crowd and enjoy losing 
 themselves in the midst of it. The city 
 makes communication between individuals 
 easy, but at the same time it lessens the 
 necessity for such communication. While 
 there are more people to be known there 
 are fewer that can be known. It is esti- 
 mated that in one section of Chicago about 
 twelve thousand students rent rooms every
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 autumn and begin their studies in the med- 
 ical and dental colleges and other schools. 
 In the same neighborhood thousands of 
 clerks, stenographers, book-keepers and 
 other young people who have just come to 
 the city find their homes. Thousands of 
 young married people each year begin 
 house-keeping in this district. It is within 
 walking distance of the business center; 
 only a few blocks from the lake and is 
 a most desirable location for people of 
 limited means. Large numbers of these 
 people get their meals at restaurants. 
 The dance hall, the theatre and the mov- 
 ing picture shows in the neighborhood are 
 crowded night after night. One young 
 man at a dance confided to a casual friend 
 that he was in the habit of attending the 
 dance hall three nights a week in the hope 
 of getting acquainted with some girl, so that 
 he might have "some one to run around 
 with." He lived in a rooming house, took 
 his meals at an adjacent restaurant and 
 spent his leisure time reading, dropping into 
 
 [91]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 an occasional picture show, until he hap- 
 pened to hear of this dance hall, where, he 
 understood, "the bunch of girls who came 
 were most of them straight." Jane Addams 
 speaking of these places says: "One of the 
 most pathetic sights in the public dance halls 
 of Chicago is the number of young men, 
 obviously honest young fellows from the 
 country, who stand about vainly hoping to 
 make the acquaintance of some 'nice girl.' 
 They look eagerly up and down the rows 
 of girls, many of whom are drawn to the 
 hall by the same keen desire for pleasure 
 and wholesome intercourse which the lonely 
 young men themselves feel." The difficulty 
 in the situation is that mingled with the 
 crowd of "decent young fellows" are boys 
 and men who have come here for the worst 
 possible reasons, and among the girls, the 
 majority of whom are honest and are simply 
 seeking and finding pleasure, there are num- 
 bers of the bad sort. It is these who make 
 the dance hall a positive danger to both boys 
 and girls. The cities of our country spend 
 
 rtti
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 a hundred times as much for juvenile re- 
 form as they do for providing recreational 
 opportunities. 
 
 The boy's love of adventure leads him into 
 trouble. It has been shown that most of the 
 crimes for which boys are arrested may be 
 traced to this spirit which prompts them to 
 seek excitement. The boy who plays truant 
 from school often finds that he does not 
 know what to do with his time. He is 
 simply defying custom and is pitting his 
 wits against those of the truant officer. 
 Jumping on and off trains and street cars, 
 flagging trains, beating his way from one 
 place to another on trains, these things the 
 boy attempts just for the fun of the doing 
 and the going and to see if he can do them 
 without being caught. Jane Addams shows 
 how this spirit runs through the whole 
 gamut of youthful exploits. She thinks that 
 the love of excitement and the desire to get 
 rid of the humdrum experiences of life in- 
 duce boys to experiment with drinks and 
 drugs. The difficulty of securing cocaine, 
 
 [93]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the subterfuges to which the seller has to 
 resort to deliver the goods, the system of sig- 
 nals, the hiding places, the method of spend- 
 ing the money, all of these appeal to the 
 boy's love of adventure. When a person 
 becomes addicted to the use of a drug its 
 demands are so insistent and it so enslaves 
 the will that the victim will go to any lengths 
 to get it. An investigation made by resi- 
 dents of Hull House regarding the condition 
 of a gang of boys who lived in a neighboring 
 street revealed the following: there were 
 eight of them, the oldest being seventeen 
 years of age, the youngest thirteen. They 
 all lived vagrant lives. It was found that 
 cocaine had one day been offered to them 
 by a colored man who was acting as agent 
 for a drug store. He urged them to try it. 
 In three of four months they became hope- 
 lessly addicted to its use, and at the end of 
 six months, when they were discovered by 
 their Hull House friends, they were found 
 to be in a sad state physically, mentally and 
 morally. Not one of them was going to 
 
 [94]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 school or working. They stole, pawned their 
 clothes, or did any other desperate thing in 
 order to "get the dope." They had to have 
 it. It was the spirit of adventure, which 
 under proper conditions might have ex- 
 pressed itself in normal play, that brought 
 their downfall. 
 
 In every great city there are hundreds of 
 gangs of boys, the total membership of 
 which would run into the thousands. Most 
 of the members of these gangs are from ten 
 to eighteen years of age. Many of the mem- 
 bers sooner or later come into clash with the 
 police and find their way into the juvenile 
 court. Most people know about the gangs 
 but they fail to recognize the spirit which is 
 operating them, and either attempt to break 
 them up or to restrict their operations, in- 
 stead of trying to utilize the spirit which 
 brings the boys together and direct it into 
 proper channels. One illustration out of 
 many may be given : Webb was a young and 
 desperate criminal in Chicago. He and his 
 companions killed a policeman and carried 
 
 [95]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 on a regular campaign of robbery, terror- 
 ism and murder. When he was arrested his 
 mother could not believe that her boy was 
 the one for whom the whole police force 
 of the city had been searching. He was the 
 product of a Chicago gang. He, with other 
 boys, had met in alleys, in barns or in holes 
 that they dug in the sand banks near the 
 city. Out of the innocent club with which 
 they started they developed into criminals. 
 It has been found that the most danger- 
 ous period for a boy is the time when he is 
 approaching twelve years of age. Up to 
 that time he plays in the house; his hours 
 can be made interesting and his mind occu- 
 pied. At about the age of twelve his tastes 
 change; he needs different kinds of amuse- 
 ments and better opportunities for play. In 
 the congested districts of a city he cannot 
 find what he needs. Outside of his home 
 is a vacant lot, an alley, a deserted shop or 
 ware-house and here he meets others like 
 himself. Coming together, the desire to 
 organize expresses itself, and the gang be- 
 
 [96]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 comes a compact body, ready for adventure. 
 What shall they do ? The boys of the newly 
 formed club thrown on their own resources 
 for play let their imaginations run wild and 
 the first opportunity that presents itself for 
 fun is eagerly followed up. They plan 
 expeditions and start out for some wonder- 
 ful adventure. Here is an unoccupied house ; 
 its windows make a good target for stones; 
 its doors can be broken down ; its lead pipes 
 and trimmings find a ready sale at the junk 
 shop which one of the members of the gang 
 knows about on the next block; the sale of 
 this junk gives them ready money and they 
 begin hunting for unoccupied houses for the 
 purpose of raiding them. With this money 
 they can buy cigarettes and learn to smoke. 
 They have the means now so that they can 
 "shoot craps," and so the spirit of the gang 
 expresses itself and the boys are led on from 
 one step to another, often in conflict with the 
 law. The policeman becomes the deadly 
 enemy of the gang and its pranks. A mem- 
 ber of one of these gangs who arrives at the 
 
 [97]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 age of twenty without becoming a hardened 
 criminal is fortunate indeed. The gang may 
 be broken up by the police, but the spirit 
 which creates the gang must be considered 
 by others than the police. The community 
 is responsible and the church is responsible 
 for the education of the community spirit so 
 that men and women will learn that it is not 
 a bad thing for boys to have their clubs. In 
 fact organization among them is advisable, 
 and boys and girls should be encouraged in 
 forming their clubs. The thing to do is to 
 keep close watch of the club, provide the 
 right kind of supervision for it and see that 
 the spirit of the young people expresses 
 itself along normal lines. If you give ade- 
 quate opportunities for play the children of 
 the street will learn to use their brains and 
 will expend the same amount of energy 
 along helpful constructive lines as they are 
 now giving to the harmful adventures of the 
 gang. The danger of unorganized play in 
 the city streets is great, and the disasters 
 from misdirected play can scarcely be exag- 
 
 [98]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 gerated. The desperate car-barn bandits of 
 Chicago robbed and murdered just for the 
 excitement of the thing. Their crimes were 
 the result of their misdirected play. During 
 the year 1913 there were 9,019 children ar- 
 raigned in the County Children's Court of 
 New York. The report of this court during 
 this period, with its charts and statistical 
 tables, shows the principal reasons why boys 
 and girls go wrong; 25 per cent, were 
 brought into court for trifling offenses; 38 
 per cent, because of improper guardianship. 
 This leaves only 37 per cent, who were 
 charged with really serious offenses. It was 
 the spirit of adventure ruled by a gang that 
 made most of these juvenile delinquents. 
 Over 54 per cent, of the children were shown 
 to have done the thing that brought them 
 into conflict with the law through their 
 associations. The residential distribution 
 shows that much of the trouble was due to 
 bad housing and community conditions. 
 Another point of interest made clear by this 
 report is that the years between thirteen and 
 
 [99]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 fifteen are the years when most of the boys 
 and girls get into trouble. 
 
 The Juvenile Protective Association of 
 Chicago made a study of the conditions of 
 the colored people of that city and in their 
 report stated that there are and have been 
 in the county jail a disproportionate num- 
 ber of colored boys and young men as com- 
 pared with the number of white boys and 
 men. The colored people of Chicago ap- 
 proximate only one-fortieth of the entire 
 population, and yet one-eight of the boys 
 and young men and nearly one-third of the 
 girls and young women who are confined in 
 the county jail are found to be negroes. 
 While the morality of every young person 
 is closely bound up with that of his family 
 and his immediate environment, this is espe- 
 cially true of the sons and daughters of col- 
 ored families, who, finding the door of op- 
 portunity continually shut in their faces, are 
 more easily forced back into their early 
 environments however vicious and disas- 
 trous to morals they may be. In a study 
 
 [100]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 of one hundred colored families it was found 
 that eighty-six of the mothers went out to 
 work. This left no adequate provision for 
 the care of the children during the day. 
 The older children were kept at home from 
 school to care for the younger ones and in 
 many cases the whole family was locked out 
 of the house to play in the street until the 
 mother returned in the evening. Naturally 
 these children, being denied better oppor- 
 tunities, are soon contaminated by the worst 
 influences of the street. The doors to the 
 best forms of recreation and play are closed 
 to the members of this race. The love of 
 music so strong among the colored people 
 finds opportunity for satisfaction only in the 
 cheaper vaudeville shows, amusement parks 
 and the lowest type of theaters. That which 
 should be the greatest source of inspiration 
 tends to pull them down, for their love of 
 pleasure, lacking innocent expression, draws 
 many of them to the vice district. An 
 effort was made by some worthy colored 
 people on the south side of the city to estab- 
 
 [101]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 lish a modern dance hall. The white people 
 of the district, assuming that it would be 
 an objectionable place, successfully opposed 
 it as a public nuisance and this effort toward 
 better recreational facilities was abandoned. 
 There is no bathing beach in the city where 
 the colored children can enjoy the waters 
 of Lake Michigan. The white children do 
 not welcome them at their beaches. The 
 report tells of a little colored boy who at- 
 tempted to bathe at the Thirty-ninth Street 
 beach and was mobbed and treated so 
 roughly that the police had to send in a riot 
 call. The commercial amusements in the 
 neighborhoods where the colored people live 
 are of the lowest type, including pool rooms, 
 saloons and disreputable dance halls. In 
 concluding this report the investigators state 
 that there are two reasons for the large pro- 
 portion of colored boys in the county jail: 
 bad conditions under which the people live, 
 and the lack of opportunity for regular 
 organized normal play. 
 
 The annual report of the Seattle Juve- 
 
 [102]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 nile Court for 1912, in discussing the causes 
 of juvenile delinquency, states: "The first 
 cause was not the fault of the child, but 
 more likely that of the city or society in 
 general for failing to properly supervise and 
 assist these helpless children, carelessly per- 
 mitting them to drift into bad environments 
 and thus become delinquents, or absolute 
 dependents." Judge Lindsay of Denver 
 thinks it is impossible to keep street boys 
 from shooting craps. "It is as natural for 
 them to gamble as for other boys to play 
 marbles." This is obviously true because 
 this game is the easiest to learn and the one 
 that can be played in the smallest space 
 and with the least equipment. Given the 
 opportunity and the privilege of playing 
 legitimate games craps and other gambling 
 devices would lose much of their attraction. 
 The report of the Massachusetts Commis- 
 sion on Immigration deals extensively with 
 the question of the people's play and its 
 relation to immorality. This Commission 
 reports the dangerous situation which faces 
 
 [103]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the men and women who are forced to live 
 in crowded conditions, who work hard for 
 long hours and who have no opportunity for 
 play. It tells of a Lithuanian girl who was 
 eighteen years of age when she arrived in 
 this country. She worked for the first two 
 months in a stocking factory for two dollars 
 per week and for the next three years 
 was in a brush factory earning seven dol- 
 lars a week. She has lived in three dif- 
 ferent places since coming to this country. 
 In the first place there were five rooms and 
 in them a family of four, and in addition 
 three men and two women lodgers. In the 
 second place there were four rooms, three 
 in the family and with them two men and 
 two women lodgers. At the time the report 
 was made she was living in a tenement of 
 five rooms with a family of three who have 
 three men and one woman lodger. "A 
 Polish girl of nineteen, who has been in 
 America two years working in a restaurant 
 in Boston, lodges in an apartment of four 
 rooms where the Polish man and his wife 
 
 [104]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 have four men and nine girl lodgers. She 
 came from Europe alone expecting to be 
 with her father, but he had gone to Canada 
 and she was obliged to find a lodging place 
 and begin work immediately. She has an 
 illegitimate child by a man who was a 
 lodger in the house and who came from 
 the same village in Poland." So many 
 incidents of this kind are quoted in the 
 report as to make it evident that the prob- 
 lems of recreation and housing are closely 
 bound together. The enforcement of hous- 
 ing regulations will reduce the overcrowd- 
 ing and make conditions better, but even 
 such improvements will still leave the im- 
 migrant boy and girl open to temptations 
 and dangers to which no young person 
 should be exposed. The facts brought to 
 light by this report prove that the lack of 
 proper recreation and provision for social 
 intercourse tend to result in immorality 
 among young men and women of all nation- 
 alities. The danger is especially serious 
 among non-family groups of young foreign 
 
 [105]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 men and women whose needs an American 
 community cannot fully appreciate. The 
 freedom from old forms of social control 
 without proper social life causes much delin- 
 quency among such men and women. In 
 studying the problem of the illegitimate 
 child an eminent authority says: "It is felt 
 that the failure of the ethical standards of 
 these unfortunates is due in large measure 
 to society itself. Society has not seen to it 
 that adequate training in sex hygiene and 
 sex morality be insisted upon as a public 
 obligation, neither has society provided for 
 the social recreation of our young people 
 amid conditions conducive to development 
 and conservation of the best manhood and 
 womanhood." 
 
 Eighty-five public dances given in forty- 
 seven dance halls in Manhattan, New York, 
 were investigated by the agents of the Bu- 
 reau of Social Hygiene from January 24th 
 to June 24th, 1912. Ninety-six reports 
 were made of conditions in these halls by 
 three investigators. Only five out of sev- 
 
 [ 106 J (
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 enty-five dances seen during this time were 
 characterized as decent; eleven were more 
 or less objectionable; fifty-five were wholly 
 objectionable; at all the dances but three 
 intoxicating liquors were sold; at sixty-one 
 minors were present, and the investigators 
 conclude that excepting those at two halls, 
 the attendants were mostly disreputable. 
 What was shown to be true in New York 
 is proportionately true elsewhere. The re- 
 port of the Chicago Vice Commission rec- 
 ommends that municipal dance halls should 
 be established and that they should be prop- 
 erly policed and supervised; that city ordi- 
 nances regarding moving picture shows 
 should be revised so as to provide for the 
 presentation of good pictures in well lighted 
 halls; that the school yards be opened for 
 children to play, and always under careful 
 supervision ; that the parks should be made 
 more available and safer for the people; 
 that the churches should endeavor to coun- 
 teract evil influences in the community by 
 opening buildings attached to churches for
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 social centers during week-day evenings; 
 and that better supervision be given both by 
 public officials and parents of children and 
 young people in their play. 
 
 To sum up then, play is a natural instinct. 
 The nature of the individual demands play. 
 Many people are living under new condi- 
 tions and facing new problems. The oppor- 
 tunities to play are not adequate. Decent 
 amusements being denied, the people turn 
 to those agencies that provide the opportu- 
 nities they are seeking, and in using these 
 facilities they are faced with grave dangers 
 that often result in disaster. In our short- 
 sightedness we have condemned play. The 
 danger does not lie in the play itself, but 
 in the conditions and surroundings under 
 which people are forced to play, 
 
 [108]
 
 DANCING, CARD PLAYING, 
 THEATER GOING
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 DANCING, CARD PLAYING, 
 THEATER GOING 
 
 SPTJRGEON preached a direct sermon to the 
 careless in his day, and in the course of it 
 said: "Call your sins sins, but do not call 
 them pleasures, and learn that the pleasures 
 of sin, which are but for a season, are but 
 Satan's bait by which he takes souls upon 
 his hook to their destruction. You shall lose 
 no pleasure but that which is unhealthy, 
 unfit for your soul, unsatisfactory in itself 
 and unworthy of your nature." This is good 
 advice and as worthy of being heeded in our 
 day as it was in the day it was preached. 
 The question is, what constitutes sinful 
 pleasures ? Many persons will answer, danc- 
 ing, card playing and theater going. Other 
 things are included sometimes ; for instance, 
 in certain advice given to young Christians 
 we find among the forbidden things, "play- 
 [iii]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 ing at games of chance, attending theaters, 
 horse races, circuses, dancing parties, or pat- 
 ronizing dancing schools or taking part in 
 such other amusements as are obviously mis- 
 leading or of questionable moral tendency." 
 We have quibbled a great deal about this 
 question. Those who favor these forms of 
 amusement are often just as intolerant of 
 any one who disagrees with them as the 
 strictest, most Puritanical church members. 
 Others who have been able to see both sides 
 of the question thought that the three forms 
 of amusement mentioned above were espe- 
 cially evil, and have allowed substitutes 
 which have engrossed time and have proven 
 to be much like the forbidden forms of 
 amusement. Certain social games that are 
 played by young people who would not 
 dance are really imitations of the dance. 
 In a church where frequent sermons were 
 preached against dancing, the young people 
 played "Miller" to the shouts of "Happy 
 is the miller who lives by the mill; the mill 
 goes round with a right good will." In 
 
 [112]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 another church the rule against cards was 
 strictly enforced, but during three consec- 
 utive winters practically one-half the mem- 
 bers in the church belonged to one or the 
 other of half a dozen flinch clubs, and this 
 game, which is most like the old card games 
 of any that has been invented, was played 
 with a zeal and devotion that would put to 
 shame the average whist player! When a 
 missionary exhibit was given in one of our 
 western cities, a drama covering a portion 
 of the life of David Livingstone was to be 
 played at a local theater as a part of the 
 affair. A debate took place among church 
 people as to the propriety of supporting 
 any thing that apparently endorsed the the- 
 ater. The play was given but it was known 
 as a "missionary pageant." Most of our 
 judgments as to what is right and what is 
 wrong are developed from small premises. 
 There is no reason why the grand march 
 should be admitted and the dance itself con- 
 demned; or why a drama under the name 
 of pageant should be recognized as morally 
 
 118]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 allowable and under the name of play be 
 condemned. That these things are so forces 
 us to the conviction that what we need more 
 than any thing else is a serious study of 
 these most popular forms of amusement in 
 order to determine, if possible, what is good 
 and what is bad. 
 
 The love of dancing is natural to almost 
 every individual. It is the one art that 
 everybody can learn and can practice with 
 more or less success. Nearly every art to- 
 day has developed out of the dance in one 
 or another of its forms. Hence it has been 
 called the "mother of arts." 
 
 The inherent love of rhythm is the fun- 
 damental element in dancing. This ex- 
 presses itself in the unconscious movements 
 of children. A little girl when she is happy 
 will hop up and down or skip about in 
 a circle clapping her hands, tossing her 
 head, all in perfect rhythm. When a person 
 is ill he loses the rhythm of life. As long 
 as it can be maintained we are comfortable 
 and happy. In our formal dances we have 
 
 [114]
 
 THE WEAVING DANCE 
 
 Coorteiy of A. T. Boinen 
 
 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE 
 Presented at the Louisville, Kansas, Convocation
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 amplified the simple movements of child- 
 hood, repeating them in definite form of 
 rotation, with definite changes and varia- 
 tions, often with a childlike expression of 
 joy. G. Stanley Hall says that the cultiva- 
 tion of an appreciation of the beautiful has 
 an effect on the working power of the brain, 
 and influences its output to a degree that is 
 little realized. He thinks that the dance 
 develops the sense of the beautiful better 
 than any other form of exercise or play. 
 "I would have dancing taught in every 
 school," he says, "even if the school had to 
 be opened evenings for that purpose. The 
 dances chosen should be simply rhythmic, 
 allowing great freedom, such as the Morris 
 dances now being revived; and sometimes 
 songs and dancing. We should also teach 
 the old folk and national dances after a very 
 careful selection from a wide repertoire. 
 The object aimed at should be the cultiva- 
 tion primarily of the sense of rhythm ; next 
 the ease and economy of motion, for grace 
 is only the natural term for ease. Dancing 
 
 [115]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 originated in the religious instincts, and was 
 a form of religious service ; and is still capa- 
 ble of teaching awe, reverence, worship. The 
 love of God is just as capable of motor 
 expression as is romantic love." 
 
 Dancing is a very ancient practice, but 
 the older forms of the dance were altogether 
 different from the modern ; in fact, the style 
 of dancing changes with each generation. 
 The Jews, as well as other nations, had their 
 sacred dances which were performed at holi- 
 day seasons and on solemn occasions. Danc- 
 ing is defined as "an expression of the feel- 
 ings by movements of the body more or less 
 controlled by the sense of rhythm." Even 
 before it became an art it was practiced. 
 Millar, writing in Hasting's Bible Diction- 
 ary, says that the ancient dance had three 
 forms of development in the practice of the 
 ancient nations: first, its rudest and most 
 studied form, the outward expression of 
 exuberant feeling; second, the pantomime 
 dance ; and third, the dance pure and simple, 
 the exhibition of the poetry of motion, of 
 
 [116]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 all the grace of attitude and all the flexibil- 
 ity of which it is possible. Social dancing 
 as we now understand it was almost un- 
 known in ancient times. In the Bible the 
 references to dancing lead us to conclude 
 that any occasion might be celebrated with 
 a dance the Prodigal's return; the success 
 of the armies; the commemoration of some 
 great event in the national history ; the wel- 
 coming of a hero as he comes in triumph 
 from a battle; the reception of a stranger 
 into the tribe. The Hebrew religion was 
 especially a joyful religion, and the dance 
 had its place and significance among the 
 people. On the occasion of the passage of 
 the Red Sea, Miriam, the sister of Moses, 
 "took a timbrel in her hand; and all the 
 women went out after her with timbrels and 
 with dancing." With some variation this 
 same form of dancing is common in oriental 
 countries today. Among primitive people 
 the dance is connected with the ceremonials 
 of the tribes. Among the Indians there is 
 the snake dance, the medicine dance, the 
 
 [117]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 witch dance and various other dances, each 
 of which has a definite purpose in propiti- 
 ating the spirits of the tribe and bring- 
 ing prosperity upon the people. In most 
 of the ancient dancing the sexes danced 
 separately. This was especially true among 
 the Jews. 
 
 The dance is a favorite amusement with 
 Americans. Just at present it is in vogue 
 to a tremendous extent. The dance halls are 
 crowded; during the summer season the 
 bathers dance on the beach; it forms the 
 diversion between the courses of the meals 
 in many popular restaurants. The after- 
 noon dance is a common feature offered 
 the patrons of the principal hotels in our 
 larger cities. Dancing schools and acade- 
 mies are doing the best business in their 
 history. 
 
 Commercialism has seen its opportunity, 
 and in every city young men and women are 
 being exploited to their ruin because it is 
 profitable for a, group of men to furnish the 
 opportunity for dancing, and because the 
 
 [118]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 good people of the community have with- 
 held their guiding hand and the protecting 
 influence so sorely needed. 
 
 The experience in Kansas City, in Cleve- 
 land and other cities where attempts have 
 been made to regulate the public dance halls, 
 as well as the experiments that have been 
 tried in Milwaukee and Chicago in establish- 
 ing municipal dance halls, have shown how 
 very difficult it is to regulate the dance. At 
 the same time no one need doubt that it can 
 be done. We must think clearly and act 
 wisely. To do this will mean that we will 
 have to discriminate between dancing itself 
 and the evils that grow out of it. Dancing 
 has been called "the elixir of life." It is 
 the most healthful and recreative of all 
 plays. Even those who are most opposed 
 to dancing on moral grounds are willing to 
 admit its value as an exercise. The favorite 
 argument of such people is that if we could 
 separate the sexes and have a dance hall for 
 men and one for women, they would have 
 no objection to the dance, and would see in 
 
 [119]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 it only good. The modern dances are espe- 
 cially valuable as forms of exercise, for they 
 bring into action every muscle of the body. 
 Men and women who live lazy lives with 
 very little exercise are urged by their physi- 
 cians to find something that will interest 
 them, and then devote themselves strenu- 
 ously to it. Such people formerly took 
 their exercise with dumb-bells and indian- 
 clubs, or calisthenics. The profit from these 
 exercises was limited for the reason that 
 they were carried out in a perfunctory way, 
 or because, having to perform the exercises 
 alone and for the sake of their health, the 
 morbid introspection thus produced caused 
 fully as much evil as the exercise did good. 
 A noted physician says that the modern 
 dance offers everything for which the old 
 physicians recommended the use of dumb- 
 bells. In dancing the muscles are exercised, 
 and through the exhilaration of the music 
 and the joy of companionship the health 
 values are greatly increased. 
 
 The latest dances have a doubtful repu- 
 
 [120]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 tation, largely because of the places and 
 conditions where they first became popular, 
 and because, as they are difficult to learn, 
 their bad features rather than their best are 
 made prominent. The great danger in danc- 
 ing arises from the fact that with the dance 
 there is the sex appeal. These new forms of 
 the dance allow greater liberty, and as ordi- 
 narily danced are not so artistic as their older 
 and more stately relations. To make the 
 difference clear one needs only to witness a 
 crowd dancing the tango and the same 
 crowd dancing a quadrille. Because the new 
 dance steps are more difficult to learn, only 
 a few people dance correctly. In the halls 
 where the one-step is allowed, hardly a 
 couple really dances ; for the most part, they 
 merely slip, slide, dip and walk about over 
 the floor; thus is given a greater opportu- 
 nity for familiarity than was possible with 
 the older dances, and this familiarity too 
 often degenerates into coarse and even inde- 
 cent conduct. But it is interesting to note 
 that when danced under proper auspices the 
 
 [121]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 objectionable features of these dances have 
 been dropped. 
 
 There is no inherent reason why these 
 steps, if properly executed, should be more 
 dangerous to morals than the old forms of 
 dancing. It is all a matter of education, 
 training and regulation. Go to any well 
 regulated dance hall, one for instance, in 
 Minneapolis or Seattle, where possibly a 
 thousand couples may be dancing at once; 
 study the eager faces of the young people 
 gathered about the dance floor; mingle with 
 the crowd and get acquainted with some of 
 these boys and girls ; note them in the midst 
 of the dance ; there are some who are bad 
 no one doubts this and some who have 
 come for vile purposes ; but the observer will 
 find that the vast majority of these eager 
 young people have come to this place of 
 amusement impelled by the "spirit of 
 youth," because of their love of music and 
 because in their lives there is so little oppor- 
 tunity for enjoyment. As they dance the 
 new dances there is shown an intelligent 
 
 [122]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 respect for that which is pure and good. 
 Ask almost any boy who is in the habit of 
 attending dances in a certain dance hall, and 
 he will tell you the names of and point out 
 the girls of questionable morality, if there 
 are any such present, and at the same time, 
 with all the vigor of his nature, he will 
 defend against insult or even slur the girls 
 whom he knows to be pure and decent. The 
 pity of it all is that these right impulses can- 
 not be conserved and made of service in the 
 community life. 
 
 Dancing is the expression of feeling by 
 means of motion. The moral danger lies 
 in the thought behind the motion and the 
 conditions under which feeling is given ex- 
 pression. In determining the value of the 
 dance and the consequent attitude of the 
 church regarding it, it would be wise, as 
 Washington Gladden points out, to consider 
 a few general principles: 
 
 "Amusement is not an end, but the means 
 to an end. When it begins to be the prin- 
 cipal thing for which one lives, or when in 
 
 [123]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 pursuing it the mental powers are enfeebled 
 and the bodily health impaired, it falls under 
 just condemnation. 
 
 "Amusements which consume the hours 
 which ought to be sacred to sleep are 
 censurable. 
 
 "Amusements that call us away from 
 work that we are bound to do are pernicious 
 just to the extent to which they cause us to 
 be neglectful or unfaithful. 
 
 "Amusements that arouse or stimulate 
 morbid apprehensions or unlawful passions, 
 or cause us to be restless or discontented are 
 to be avoided. 
 
 "Any indulgence in amusement which has 
 a tendency to weaken our respect for the 
 great interests of life or to loosen our 
 hold on the eternal verities of the spiritual 
 realm is so far fraught with danger to 
 us." 
 
 These principles apply to all kinds of amuse- 
 ments, and by them we can judge of the 
 moral value of every form of play. The 
 dance, instead of being the great evil it has 
 
 [124]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 been so often pictured, might easily be made 
 an adjunct in the development of the truest 
 and best type of life. This means that the 
 love of the dance must be given a chance to 
 express itself under better conditions than 
 are now possible to the average individual. 
 In such books as "From the Ballroom to 
 Hell," and in a great deal of the preaching 
 "against amusements" that fortunately was 
 more common a few years ago than it is 
 today, statements such as these were made: 
 "Of the 500,000 lost women in our country, 
 370,000 went to hell through the dance." It 
 is easy to see that such statements are not 
 based upon definitely ascertained facts, and 
 that they cast a heavy reproach upon the 
 moral natures of young people. Undoubt- 
 edly, the dance has contributed its share to 
 the destruction of thousands of young men 
 and women, but it was the dance under the 
 worst possible conditions. Christian judg- 
 ment will demand that before tabooing the 
 whole subject and relegating to outer dark- 
 ness all young people who love to dance, we 
 
 [125]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 examine the motives, take stock of the kind 
 of opportunities for dancing and then make 
 an effort to meet whatever problem is raised 
 by our study. 
 
 It is argued that when people begin to 
 dance everything else has to take second 
 place. This brings up another question. 
 Dancing makes its strongest appeal at a 
 certain stage in the life of a girl and boy. 
 It is an attack, like measles, through which 
 every youth has to pass. Older people dance 
 and enjoy it; to them dancing is simply 
 an incident, while many boys and girls in 
 their teens make dancing the end of life. 
 How are we to inculcate the principles that 
 will bring about the proper balance? The 
 common way has been to say "No, don't 
 dance." The young people have gone ahead 
 and danced just the same, and having 
 danced against the wishes of the church, 
 they have lost their interest in the church. 
 "Dancing and piety very seldom go to- 
 gether" is a common saying, but it was piety 
 that first sought a separation from the 
 
 [126]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 dance. When the more serious things of life 
 come in and other interests intrude them- 
 selves, dancing, like all other forms of play, 
 naturally falls into its proper place. The 
 attitude for the church to take in regard 
 to dancing is one of sympathetic interest ; it 
 should speak plainly and boldly concerning 
 its dangers ; point out how easily this inno- 
 cent amusement may become evil; and pro- 
 claim the proper balance between work and 
 play. The church ought not to condemn 
 dancing as such, but it is well within its 
 province to show that there are more than 
 one or two ways for the people to play. 
 When this has been done, instead of hold- 
 ing aloof, it is the duty of the church in 
 every place to see that good laws are enacted 
 regulating the dance and the dance halls; 
 that the legislation is rigidly enforced, and 
 that the public dance halls and other places 
 of amusement are honestly inspected by 
 order of the municipal government. This 
 done, many of the abuses growing out of the 
 dance will be eliminated. Then it remains 
 
 [127]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 for the church to help provide other and 
 more wholesome forms of play which will 
 appeal to all classes of the people. 
 
 Card playing is another form of popular 
 amusement that has come definitely under 
 the taboo of the church. The fascination 
 that attaches itself to this form of play is 
 as strong as civilization is wide, and the num- 
 ber and styles of games are so varied that 
 a whole literature has grown up around the 
 subject. All that we know of the beginning 
 of cards is that they are of eastern origin. 
 In the Chinese Empire and among the 
 Hindus the pictures on the cards had a sym- 
 bolic significance, and it is probable that 
 among the latter they were in some way con- 
 nected with religious worship. Cards were 
 introduced into Europe late in the four- 
 teenth century. From the records of the 
 royal treasurer it appears that the first cards 
 painted in France were invented to amuse 
 the King, who had lost his reason and suf- 
 fered from prolonged fits of melancholy. 
 Early in the fifteenth century card making 
 
 [128]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 became an important industry and a regular 
 trade in Germany. Cards lend themselves 
 readily to gambling, and in 1420 the vice of 
 gambling had so developed that St. Ber- 
 nardin preached a sermon against the evil 
 at Bologna. As a result of this sermon all 
 his hearers gathered their cards together and 
 burned them in the public square. Many 
 attempts through the years have been made 
 to put down card playing by the strong hand 
 of the law, exercised at various times and for 
 varying interests. 
 
 Card playing forms a simple means of 
 amusing people. In discussing the moral 
 values involved in cards, it is necessary to 
 distinguish between the game played for 
 amusement and the game played for money. 
 In most of our states we now have strict 
 laws against gambling, and in most places 
 these laws are rather rigidly enforced. 
 There can be no question as to the effect 
 of card playing for money, and this means 
 not only gambling in a public place, but 
 playing for a prize of any kind. Just 
 
 [129]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 so long as cards are played for a prize, 
 so long the practice will be positively evil. 
 The size and value of the stake does not alter 
 the principle. In the matter of card playing 
 just for pleasure, if any one finds it divert- 
 ing, if it does not detract from more impor- 
 tant things, if it rests the mind after hours 
 of serious toil, there can be no possible 
 objection to it. To put such card playing 
 in the same category with gambling is sheer 
 nonsense. Let the church pronounce un- 
 qualifiedly against gambling, which is posi- 
 tively wrong, and at the same time educate 
 the people to make choice between the things 
 that are right and those that are wrong. 
 But someone says that if you teach the peo- 
 ple to play cards, unconsciously you create 
 within them the desire to gamble, and so 
 gamblers are made in the home. We are 
 all familiar with the lurid story of the man 
 who on his death bed charged his old, feeble, 
 grey-haired mother with being the cause of 
 his downfall, simply because she taught him 
 to play casino when he was a boy. This has 
 
 [130]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 been told over and over again, with almost 
 infinite variations, but with one purpose. 
 Such an argument and such an attitude is 
 as belittling to our conceptions of religion 
 and the functions of the church as it is a 
 travesty on humanity. If it were worth 
 while to argue the question, we could match 
 every such story by dozens of others of men 
 who had not been allowed to play cards, but 
 who, just as soon as they got away from 
 home influence, learned the game, and, fas- 
 cinated by the new freedom, went to the bad. 
 Cards as a game have very little to do with 
 the moral downfall in either instance. The 
 church should so educate the taste that the 
 individual will unerringly choose the best 
 things, not the worst. Cardinal Gibbons, 
 discussing this question, wisely remarked 
 that in "indulging in amusement, much de- 
 pends upon the way in which the persons 
 themselves seek recreation. Diversion which 
 is itself harmless may have such associations 
 as to produce evil results. In considering 
 the tendency of card playing for good or 
 
 [131]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 evil, three points should be noted: the sur- 
 roundings of the player; the object of the 
 game; and to what extent the player in- 
 dulges in them." 
 
 The third most common form of popular 
 amusement is the theater. The love of the 
 drama is as much a part of human nature 
 as that of dancing, and primarily it appeals 
 to the same set of instincts. The presenta- 
 tion of a story by means of pantomime, or 
 acting together with the spoken dialogue, is 
 of very ancient origin. The ruins of thea- 
 ters have been found in every ancient Greek 
 city. Some of them are in good preserva- 
 tion today, and others have been partially 
 restored. The Romans also had their the- 
 aters. In the middle ages the place of the 
 theater was taken by the cathedral, and such 
 dramatic performances as were given were 
 in the nature of mysteries connected with 
 religion and were performed in the cathe- 
 drals. When the revival of classical litera- 
 ture brought art and music and literature 
 to the attention of the people, it also resur- 
 
 [132]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 reeled the theater, and really gave the im- 
 pulse that produced the modern play and 
 the theater as we know it. The art of dra- 
 matic representation has passed through 
 many changes. In Greece the costumes 
 and the acting were very formal and 
 stereotyped, and consequently artificial to 
 the last degree. Dramatic representation in 
 which eloquence and "good acting," judged 
 from our standpoint, played a part did not 
 appear until about the time of the Restora- 
 tion in England. From that time on the 
 evident desire of the theater has been to be 
 true to nature. The theater holds up to our 
 view an ideal condition of affairs, but must 
 as far as possible base its presentation upon 
 scenes and customs that are contemporane- 
 ous with the events portrayed. In develop- 
 ing the modern drama the art of the actor 
 has come to be recognized as giving him 
 right to a place of honor and recognition. 
 Women were not employed to take part in 
 the theaters as actresses until the latter part 
 of the 17th century. They were seen first 
 
 [188]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 in France. Before this the female parts 
 were performed by youths. In the argu- 
 ments for and against the theater we again 
 see the effect of a lack of discrimination. 
 The Puritans attacked the players, but in 
 England they were not alone in their war 
 on the stage. As early as the latter half of 
 the 16th century the leading officials of the 
 church were bitterly denouncing the stage 
 and its evils. Oxford University in 1584 
 passed a statute forbidding plays and play- 
 ers in the university on the same grounds 
 that the Puritans had taken the generation 
 before. The play house was considered "a 
 trap for young gentlemen and others." 
 Players were put out of the city, and thea- 
 ters were destroyed. In France Voltaire's 
 soul was troubled when he saw the body of 
 Adrienne Lecouvreur thrown into the ditch 
 outside of the city. She was a popular 
 actress who had been ministering to the joy 
 of the people, yet who was not considered 
 worthy of a Christian burial. In the ancient 
 phraseology of our law books, the players 
 
 [184]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 were classified with the "rogues and other 
 dissolute fellows." 
 
 For centuries we have recognized the evil 
 side of the theater and its possibility of 
 appealing to the lowest, and strenuous ef- 
 forts have been made to reform it. The 
 ideal theater has not been built, and ideal 
 conditions do not obtain in the theatrical 
 profession. Because of its tremendous 
 power over people and its possible educa- 
 tive value, the church must take a more 
 constructive attitude toward it than it has 
 done for the most part in the past. Plays 
 are good, bad and indifferent. There are 
 theaters of all grades and all descriptions. 
 If a good play is offered to the people at a 
 reasonable price, it will become more pop- 
 ular and have a better patronage than the 
 salacious or openly immoral production. 
 The plays that have lasted and have become 
 known to successive generations of play- 
 goers are the plays that have a strong moral 
 appeal, and are clean and amusing. Such 
 plays as Rip Van Winkle played by Joseph 
 
 [186]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 Jefferson, and The Old Homestead by Den- 
 man Thompson outlasted thousands of vul- 
 gar productions. The whole problem is one 
 of discrimination. The motion picture shows 
 have done more to redeem the theater than 
 any other one thing, simply because they 
 have presented the best in drama and litera- 
 ture in a pleasing form and at a price that 
 is within reach of all the people. According 
 to the best available statistics, there are 
 about 17,000 places of exhibit of motion 
 pictures in the United States, and fully ten 
 million of the population of the nation visit 
 these show places with more or less fre- 
 quency. It is estimated that about one- 
 sixth of the population of New York City 
 attends the motion picure shows daily, and 
 the people in other cities are attending 
 in about the same proportion. During 
 1913 the National Board of Censorship 
 of Motion Pictures estimated that the 
 people of our country spent $319,000,- 
 000 for admission fees to the motion 
 picture shows. These shows are popular 
 
 [186]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 because this is the first time in the his- 
 tory of the world that the best in art 
 and literature presented in dramatic form 
 has been made accessible to the common 
 people. 
 
 Jane Addams calls the motion picture 
 show "the house of dreams." Every thea- 
 ter is exactly this to a multitude of people. 
 It is a good thing to have a belief in the 
 unreal and to take an interest in a play 
 world. Any person who cannot lose himself 
 in watching and listening to the unfolding 
 of an interesting drama has lost the last 
 spark of the spirit of youth. Charles H. 
 Parkhurst says: "Some of us have not in 
 our lives enough of the unreal. Seriousness 
 is likely to degenerate into moroseness and 
 acidity if it is not diluted with an infusion 
 of the play impulse. We need to play. 
 Play lubricates the stiff grating machinery 
 of work-a-day life. It keeps us young. 
 When we have ceased to love to play we are 
 almost dead already. To be indifferent to 
 the fascination of amusements means that 
 
 [187]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the child that was in us by nature has turned 
 to adult and that we are already tainted 
 with superannuation." Music is furnished 
 through municipal parks ; pictures, statuary 
 and other works of art through the public 
 museums; the libraries have furnished the 
 means to satisfy those who have the taste 
 for history, biography, fiction and poetry; 
 but the man who appreciates the best in the 
 drama and who longs to see a really good 
 exhibit at the theater has been prohibited 
 because of the price charged for admittance. 
 On the other hand the cheap, poor, vile, con- 
 taminating theatrical performances have 
 been within the reach of the poorest. It is 
 the abuse of the theater rather than its use 
 that makes it dangerous. Like every other 
 interest in life the theater has a right to be 
 judged at its best. Here, as in the other 
 forms of popular amusements, it remains 
 for the church to inculcate good principles, 
 and so transform the tastes of the people 
 that they will instinctively learn the things 
 that are best and will naturally turn from 
 
 [138]
 
 DANCING, CARDS, THEATER 
 
 those that are vile and hurtful to those that 
 are pure and helpful. 
 
 The church, instead of being critical and 
 suspicious of the people's motives, must be 
 sympathetic with every endeavor to find 
 right kinds of play, and ready to help pro- 
 vide those things that are good and make it 
 possible for the people to follow their best 
 inclinations. Granted that some of the peo- 
 ple are suffering from an excess of amuse- 
 ments, and that they have gone too far in 
 their desire for fun: the way to strike the 
 proper balance is not by prohibiting all 
 pleasures, nor by indiscriminate condemna- 
 tion, but by giving such persons other things 
 to think about and worthy tasks to do, so 
 that recreation and amusement will natu- 
 rally fall into their proper places in the 
 ordered scheme of life. In preaching to 
 some audiences against the excesses grow- 
 ing out of the expression of the play spirit, 
 it is necessary for the church to urge mod- 
 eration; but instead of demanding renun- 
 ciation, put in its place the more significant 
 word, discrimination. 
 
 [189]
 
 VI 
 
 RECONSTRUCTING THE PLAY 
 LIFE OF THE PEOPLE
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 RECONSTRUCTING THE PLAY 
 LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 AMONG the most important tasks that 
 have been undertaken in recent years is the 
 task of reconstructing the play life of the 
 people. Various institutions and agencies 
 are at work and gradually a new conscience 
 is being developed, a new standard adopted 
 and opportunities provided for play, so that 
 to some degree it is coming to have its nor- 
 mal place in the community life. 
 
 The Russell- Sage Foundation, which was 
 incorporated under the laws of the State 
 of New York in April, 1907, has for its pur- 
 pose "the improvement of social and living 
 conditions in the United States of America." 
 One of the first undertakings of the Foun- 
 dation was to establish children's play 
 grounds and to give temporary aid to the 
 National Association then being organized 
 
 [143]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 to carry forward the play-ground work. As 
 soon as the Playground Association of 
 America had secured necessary funds to 
 carry on its activities this department of the 
 Foundation turned its energies to research, 
 with a view to publicity and to a study of 
 the special recreational problems not covered 
 by the Playground Association. 
 
 The principles that guide this department 
 as stated in its bulletins are : 
 
 "Research : To provide a sound basis for 
 action it is necessary to make a thorough 
 impartial searching out of the conditions 
 underlying each proposed activity and to 
 obtain a clear understanding of their mutual 
 relations to other social tasks. 
 
 "Securing Community Action: This in- 
 volves bringing the facts to the attention of 
 those who are responsible for action; stim- 
 ulating the adoption of various forms of 
 social betterment relating to recreation and 
 suggesting modes of procedure." 
 
 First among the agencies at work reeon- 
 
 [144]
 
 RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 structing the play life of the people is the 
 Playground Association of America. This 
 movement in our country grew out of the 
 recognition that boys and girls need a place 
 in which to play and some one to teach them 
 how to play. The Association was formed 
 to provide opportunities in every city that 
 would be adequate for all classes of young 
 people: sand piles for small children, play 
 grounds with equipment for older children, 
 and athletic fields with the base ball diamond 
 and other equipment for boys. Added to 
 these means were folk dance classes and halls 
 provided for social dancing where boys and 
 girls in their teens might have opportunity 
 for wholesome social recreation. This Asso- 
 ciation furnishes experts to help cities organ- 
 ize their recreational life. The tendency in 
 large cities and even in towns has been to 
 fill up the children's play space with business 
 blocks. Automobiles and policemen prevent 
 street play, therefore many children, idle 
 and playless much of the time, become wards 
 of jails, charities and hospitals. It is ex- 
 
 [145]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 pected that the cities themselves should bear 
 the expense of creating and maintaining 
 their own play grounds, but the National 
 Association carries on the propaganda, edu- 
 cates communities, trains and furnishes lead- 
 ers, thus helping communities to recognize 
 that play ought to be as well organized as 
 other educational activities. The ideal pre- 
 sented is that arrangements for play activ- 
 ities should parallel the school system in 
 our various cities and towns. According to 
 the last report of the Association over 1,050 
 communities replied to an inquiry as to 
 whether they were conducting supervised 
 recreation. Of these 642 cities reported that 
 they were maintaining regularly supervised 
 play grounds and recreation centers or were 
 making some effort in that direction. These 
 cities, during the year ending November 1st, 
 1913, maintained 2,302 such places. In 31 
 cities the playground and recreational cen- 
 ters are maintained by commissions ; five by 
 playground or recreational departments. 
 In others the work is combined with that 
 
 [146]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 of the park commission, school board, wel- 
 fare boards, and still others are carried 
 on by private agencies such as churches, 
 women's clubs, improvement associations, 
 Young Men's and Young Women's Chris- 
 tian Associations. In one hundred and 
 eleven cities these centers were supported by 
 municipal and private funds. The total 
 expenditure reported for this purpose 
 amounted to $570,223.81. There are 6,318 
 workers employed who are giving full time 
 to directing the play. Besides these there 
 are 1,933 care takers employed in and about 
 the various play grounds. Fifty-nine cities 
 maintain classes for the training of recrea- 
 tion workers and thirty-five of these cities 
 reported 2,638 students. In addition, seven 
 cities reported that training classes were in 
 process of organization, and ten cities re- 
 ported weekly conferences relating to the 
 whole problem of the people's play, these 
 conferences not being strictly training 
 classes. In eighteen communities the rec- 
 reation positions were filled by civil service 
 
 [147]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 examinations. During last year seventy 
 additional cities added supervised play- 
 grounds and equipment for the first time, 
 and in twenty cities bond issues for rec- 
 reational purposes were authorized to the 
 amount of $2,358,000. In forty-five cities 
 land and buildings were donated for play- 
 ground purposes, having a combined value 
 in twenty-six of these cities amounting to 
 $196,400.64. In 313 cities a total average 
 daily attendance was reported during July 
 and August of 454,438 persons. The plans 
 include separate space for boys and girls; 
 supervised evening centers ; streets used for 
 play purposes and organized public athlet- 
 ics. Special play activities include the fol- 
 lowing: Wading, tramping, swimming, 
 camping, story telling, dancing, skating, 
 singing, civics, pageants, moving pictures, 
 libraries and reading rooms, lectures, music, 
 industrial training, gardening, folk dancing, 
 evening entertainments, dramatics, debating 
 and the activities of the Camp Fire girls and 
 Boy Scouts. The report states that the past 
 
 [148]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 year marked an interesting growth in the 
 establishment of playgrounds by industrial 
 plants which maintained them for the entire 
 community either wholly at their own ex- 
 pense or in conjunction with the other agen- 
 cies for providing recreation. This Asso- 
 ciation has brought about a general recog- 
 nition throughout our country of the fact 
 that every community needs play centers 
 that shall be open for the entire year, and 
 that one of the first essentials in working 
 out a creditable system in any city is to have 
 men and women employed giving full time 
 to the recreation problem under the direc- 
 tion of one person appointed by the city, 
 who shall have general charge, as has a city 
 school superintendent. In a report on the 
 exploitation of pleasure in New York, pub- 
 lished by the Russell- Sage Foundation, it 
 was stated that a large majority of the 
 young girls during the period of adolescence 
 pass through the education of the dancing 
 academy. This influence over the youth of 
 New York is almost universal. There are 
 
 [149]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 over one hundred dance-halls in Manhattan. 
 These range in character from the very 
 finest and largest down to the dark back 
 room of the saloon where "couples sit around 
 at tables and from time to time arise and 
 whirl to the music of an unpleasant piano." 
 Mrs. Charles H. Israel secured information 
 concerning dance halls throughout the 
 United States. After studying one hundred 
 and fifty different places, varying from the 
 little town with its small hall, or the subur- 
 ban village with its public place, to the city 
 like greater New York with its five hundred 
 licensed dance halls, and where a community 
 of 80,000 persons has dance halls sufficient to 
 accommodate 15,000 in a night, and where in 
 five hundred dance halls a quarter of a mil- 
 lion people dance each evening, she formed 
 a conclusion with which we cannot but agree : 
 "The interrelation of the amusement prob- 
 lem and the adolescent youth is something 
 that there is need for us not to forget." 
 
 It is impossible for us to do away with 
 dancing in the reconstruction of the play life 
 
 [150]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 of the people therefore it is absolutely neces- 
 sary that the dance halls be closely super- 
 vised. Public opinion must be depended 
 upon in every community to establish a 
 standard of conduct. But it is often true 
 that opinions are formed on too few facts 
 and most judgments are small and narrow. 
 Public opinion must be educated to view the 
 needs and demands of the entire community 
 and to recognize that any thing that happens 
 of an objectionable nature in a dance hall 
 might have happened any where else. At 
 the same time the very fact that it did hap- 
 pen in the dance hall and is connected with 
 it in the thought of the people must be 
 looked upon as a register of the community's 
 attitude. Joseph Lee says, speaking of this 
 question of regulation: "Let us not be too 
 fearful, or too negative. Life upon the 
 whole is good, not bad. It was made for 
 living not to be cast aside. The mutual 
 attraction of boy and girl that has in it a 
 great part of the interest and beauty of our 
 lives is not a power to be decried or fought 
 
 [151]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 against." Educate the community to ex- 
 pect good things and people will look for 
 the good. Show them that the dance-hall 
 may conform to the highest conception of 
 morality and right. Without this educating 
 of the community conscience no legislation 
 will be effective. But public opinion must 
 be crystalized into law and the laws must be 
 enforced. These laws, however, must take 
 into consideration the varied character of 
 communities and the different characteris- 
 tics of human nature. To quote Joseph Lee 
 again: "Human virtue it seems is like a 
 hotel blanket; when you cover your feet it 
 comes off your shoulders. When you feel 
 that you are too decollete for comfort and 
 that the higher interests are being neglected 
 you pull it up over your neck and it comes 
 off your feet. Naturally human nature re- 
 volts against the cold. So the race has alter- 
 nated between license and Puritanism. We 
 must stretch our virtue until it will cover 
 human nature as it is." The law which reg- 
 ulates the dance-halls in Chicago and New 
 
 [152]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 York, while having many of the same fea- 
 tures, must of necessity be different from 
 the laws regulating the dance-halls in the 
 small communities, where the people all 
 know each other and life is lived on a 
 simple plane. Control of the dance-halls 
 and responsibility for conditions should be 
 placed squarely upon the shoulders of one 
 official in one department of the municipal 
 government. This is a matter that has to 
 do with the life of the city and the rules and 
 regulations should be those that the com- 
 munity has sanctioned and is willing to have 
 enforced. The very first consideration in 
 such legislation should be the building in 
 which the dance-hall is located. Our cities 
 need to study the question of construction. 
 We have laws on this matter but they are 
 not uniform in the various cities, and some 
 of them are antiquated and frightfully in- 
 adequate. The halls should either be located 
 in fireproof buildings or not above the sec- 
 ond story in buildings where there is danger 
 of a conflagration. Rigid regulations should 
 
 [153]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 be enforced to provide adequate ventilation, 
 and clean and sanitary toilet facilities that 
 will not lead to coarseness, indecency, or 
 the possibility of immorality. The lighting 
 should be so arranged that there will be no 
 dark corners, and the electric switches so 
 placed that no one can tamper with them; 
 the heating, the care as to cleanliness and 
 the general appearance of the hall should all 
 come under the inspection and regulation 
 of the city. 
 
 Having a place to dance that is physically 
 fit and clean, then certain regulations re- 
 garding the conduct of the dance itself 
 should be enacted and enforced. An ordi- 
 nance governing the dance should absolutely 
 prohibit the selling of liquor in the hall or 
 in any building directly connected with the 
 hall. No return check should be issued. If 
 a person leaves the dance-hall except under 
 mosfextraordinary circumstances, he should 
 not be allowed to return without again pay- 
 ing the regular admission fee. It is very 
 difficult to enforce a rule against liquor, but 
 
 [154]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 just as long as the saloon and liquor interests 
 control the dance-halls just so long it will 
 be impossible to have any thing that even 
 approximates a decent dance-hall. Liquor 
 and dancing must be divorced, or certainly 
 there will be grave moral danger. The worst 
 excesses are reported in dance-halls after 
 midnight. There is no reason why the 
 dance-hall should be allowed to remain open 
 all night, or even until three or four o'clock, 
 except on rare occasions of unusual interest. 
 A law should be passed in every community 
 and rigidly enforced by which the dance- 
 halls close at 12 o'clock. Julia Schoenfield 
 thinks that this early closing is so important 
 that even if a club desires to run a dance 
 until the early morning hours, "It should 
 show the license bureau the need for con- 
 tinuing the dance and receive a special per- 
 mit." No girl or boy under eighteen years 
 of age should be allowed to attend public 
 dances in public dance-halls. It is argued 
 that it would be very difficult to enforce 
 this rule, and that in any case it ought not 
 
 [155]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 to be enforced, for the age from fourteen 
 to eighteen is the age when a girl is very 
 apt to need some such relaxation as the 
 dance offers. The answer to this is per- 
 fectly obvious. Instead of public dance- 
 halls for young people of this age provision 
 should be made through the parks, play- 
 grounds and other social centers where they 
 can safely indulge their love of dancing and 
 at the same time not break away from the 
 family and neighborhood group. The Juve- 
 nile Protective Association of Chicago in a 
 report on dancing suggests that a city ordi- 
 nance should be enacted covering the fol- 
 lowing points: 
 
 "A license should be required for prem- 
 ises used for dance-halls, not for the man 
 who operates the halls. This would make it 
 impossible to have a license taken out by a 
 relative after it had been once revoked. 
 
 "All dance-halls should be made to comply 
 with the regulations of the Building and 
 Fire Departments so as to insure proper 
 sanitation and adequate fire protection. By 
 
 [156]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 this means many small and poorly built halls 
 would be forced out of business because they 
 could not pass inspection. 
 
 "The sale of liquor in dance-halls or in 
 buildings connected with them should be 
 prohibited. 
 
 "The giving of return checks to dancers 
 should be prohibited so that the saloons in 
 the neighborhood may not be constantly 
 utilized. 
 
 "The connection of dance-halls with 
 rooming houses or hotels should be pro- 
 hibited. 
 
 "All halls should be brilliantly lighted and 
 all stairways and other passages and all 
 rooms connected with dance-halls should be 
 kept open and well lighted. 
 
 "No immoral dancing or familiarity 
 should be tolerated. 
 
 "People under the influence of liquor or 
 known prostitutes should not be permitted 
 in dance-halls. 
 
 "A policeman provided by the city should 
 be on duty at every dance and should remain 
 
 [157]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 at his post from the time the hall is opened 
 until it is closed. He should be instructed 
 to enforce the above regulations. 
 
 "A license should be forfeited upon pres- 
 entation of reliable evidence that the rules 
 and regulations covering the dance-halls 
 have been violated. 
 
 "There should be an inspector of dance- 
 halls who should have in his department a 
 corps of inspectors who would regularly 
 inspect the dance-halls and make reports 
 concerning them to the chief inspector." 
 
 This Association thinks that no limit 
 should be put on the age of those who attend 
 the dance and that the hours of closing 
 should not be determined by statute, but left 
 to the discretion of the people themselves. 
 This would be well were it not that the peo- 
 ple who attend the dance are not the ones 
 who can determine these questions. Most 
 of them are at the mercy of those who 
 manage the halls. The only way that these 
 regulations can be carried out is by having 
 a strict inspection of the dance-halls. There 
 
 [158]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 should be an inspector in attendance in every 
 hall where a public dance is given and in 
 addition a matron, a woman of broad sym- 
 pathies, wide tolerance and with a keen 
 knowledge of the world, so that any girl 
 would feel that she had in her a friend. The 
 cost of the inspection should be borne by the 
 management of the hall itself. 
 
 The Juvenile Protective Association of 
 Chicago had an interesting experience with 
 the proprietor of a disreputable hall. He 
 was told that he must close his saloon, aban- 
 don his wine room and make certain changes 
 in the physical arrangement of the hall and 
 the buildings. These things he did. But 
 several months later he came and said that 
 he still felt that his hall was not what it 
 ought to be; that liquor was sold at the 
 dances under special permit. He asked the 
 Association to send some one who would 
 act as inspector and said he would gladly 
 pay the salary of such an official. The As- 
 sociation sent a social worker to the hall who 
 became friendly with the people and learned 
 
 [159]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the personnel of the groups in the neighbor- 
 hood. He has two good policemen who 
 assist under his direction and they are also 
 genuinely interested in the welfare of young 
 people who attend the hall. The Associa- 
 tion reports that the dances given in this 
 hall have been completely revolutionized and 
 the hall has become thoroughly respectable. 
 The proprietor says of the experiment : "It 
 pays to be respectable, for I am now renting 
 my hall for more than I ever did before and 
 I have no difficulty in disposing of it to nice 
 people. And, besides, I sleep nights when 
 I think of the girls." Fred F. McClure, 
 of the Board of Public Welfare in Kansas 
 City, says: "I am firmly of the belief that 
 commercial dance halls properly regulated, 
 if owned by individuals, can be brought to 
 the same standard as halls owned by the 
 municipality. Believing this we have tried 
 to bring the commercial dance-halls of Kan- 
 sas City up to the standard by placing 
 inspectors in every hall every night and 
 insisting that the manager enforce the rules 
 
 [160]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 laid down by the department." In Kansas 
 City a permit for a license goes to the Li- 
 cense Bureau and then to the chief of police 
 for his counter signature. After the permit 
 has been countersigned by the chief of police 
 the manager of the hall signs it, thus he is 
 practically entering into a contract with the 
 city to operate the hall in a decent manner. 
 Liquor is absolutely barred. No connection 
 of any kind with the saloon is tolerated. 
 There can be no passing in and out during 
 the evening. No dance can be continued 
 later than twelve o'clock except in the case 
 of annual meetings. If a girl comes to the 
 dance-hall who appears to be under seven- 
 teen years of age her name is taken down 
 and the next morning is given to one of the 
 women probation officers. She then visits 
 the home of the girl and warns the parents 
 of the dangers that threaten their daughter 
 if she is allowed to attend places of com- 
 mercial amusement and keep late hours. 
 They are also warned that their girl must 
 not attend a public dance again unless ac- 
 
 [161]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 companied by a parent or guardian. Mr. 
 McClure is doubtful of the ultimate success 
 in making the public commercial dance-hall 
 what it ought to be and agrees that the social 
 center in a school-house would provide a 
 much safer and better means of affording 
 young people the opportunity for social 
 dancing. 
 
 The municipal dance-hall has been pro- 
 posed as a means of off-setting the evils so 
 often connected with the public commercial 
 dance-hall. Much can be said in its favor. 
 In cities where municipal dance-halls have 
 been opened those who are sympathetic with 
 the people in their play have felt that the 
 cities in opening these halls have moved in 
 the right direction, while they do not fail to 
 recognize the difficulty in maintaining such 
 places. Probably, however, before the mu- 
 nicipal dance-hall can take the place of the 
 commercial hall it will be necessary to open 
 up a larger number of our school houses 
 and church parish houses as social centers, 
 to have dance-halls in our parks and play- 
 
 [162]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 grounds or in connection with our churches 
 and our clubs and invite the people to use 
 them. The large public dance, wherever 
 it is given, while it offers a wide variety 
 of attractions will, because of the indiscrim- 
 inate mingling and mixing of all classes of 
 people, always be dangerous. Dances of 
 small groups where every one knows every 
 body else, where all are friends and neigh- 
 bors, are more amenable in the very nature 
 of the case to the ordinances of the city and 
 to the dictates of good conduct. 
 
 Until recent days we in America have 
 neglected a fruitful opportunity for utiliz- 
 ing our national resources of play in the 
 failure to observe national holidays in a 
 proper manner by the use of the traditions 
 and history of cities and community life. 
 Independence Day was celebrated until 
 within a few years ago with noise and roar. 
 Its joy was often turned to sorrow because 
 of its fatalities. Seven years ago on the 
 Fourth of July 5,623 individuals were seri- 
 ously injured celebrating the day. This 
 
 [163]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 year there were very few accidents. The 
 "Sane Fourth" means a celebration of the 
 Fourth of July not by fire crackers and 
 cannons but by some such means as that of 
 pageantry. Programs are substituted for 
 fireworks. These programs depict historic 
 incidents and give emphasis to the patriotic 
 ideals which govern our country. These 
 celebrations are so attractive that year after 
 year a larger number of our cities have taken 
 up the idea. Not only does this kind of 
 celebration appeal to the boy and girl who 
 has rejoiced in the barbarities of the old 
 time Fourth of July, but it makes a strong 
 appeal to the foreign people to whom Amer- 
 ica is new, American history vague, and 
 American customs unreal. By tableaux and 
 pictures the whole historic past has been 
 presented before the eyes of wondering 
 groups and in a number of cities classes of 
 aliens, as a result of this day's program, 
 have sought the papers necessary to make 
 them American citizens. 
 
 There need be no difficulty in finding 
 
 [164]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 leaders in each community capable of train- 
 ing those who are to participate, arranging 
 the details and conducting the pageantry on 
 the Fourth of July. Programs and material 
 in abundance are available for every commu- 
 nity that wishes to undertake this splendid 
 work of rescuing our greatest national holi- 
 day and making it contribute to the life and 
 joy of our nation. 
 
 May Day offers another opportunity for 
 the community to gather together its people, 
 and through the play spirit bring them to 
 an appreciation of the year and its blessings. 
 The celebration of May Day is an old Eng- 
 lish custom dating from the period when 
 life was more simple and when people took 
 time for their pleasures. To bring it back 
 and make it a part of the yearly round in 
 the life of the average community is a thing 
 well worth while. 
 
 All communities have some events con- 
 nected with their early history that can 
 easily be made the basis of a gala season. 
 A pageant developed out of the stories of 
 
 [165]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the past helps marvelously in cementing the 
 good feelings of a community and teaches 
 the people how to play and how to work 
 together. At Sag Harbor "Home Coming 
 Week" was made the occasion of depicting, 
 by means of pageantry, the story of whaling 
 days and the other historic events connected 
 with the early times of this old Long 
 Island village. As a result the entire pop- 
 ulation dropped their round of sober duty 
 and "in a healthful and wholesome way 
 sought enjoyment. There was added gain 
 when in this enjoyment being purely social 
 man rubbed shoulder with his fellows and 
 thus became better acquainted with the peo- 
 ple among whom he was living working and 
 rearing his family." The entire community 
 profited by it. People learned that they 
 could "pull together." There are divisive 
 forces enough. Loyalty to one's group, 
 lodge or society very easily drifts into a sort 
 of contempt for the other fellow's crowd, 
 but when representatives of practically 
 every organization in a community le.arn that 
 
 [166]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 they can work together in democratic har- 
 mony, on one plan, for several weeks, they 
 are on the way toward learning that the 
 same spirit of cooperation carried into every 
 department of community life will help to 
 solve many of the problems of our complex 
 civilization. At Darien, a Connecticut town 
 about forty miles from New York, a pag- 
 eant was given depicting the story of the 
 development of this quaint residential com- 
 munity. Other places have carried out the 
 same idea and in every instance the results 
 have been the same: the cementing of the 
 neighborhood spirit, the development of a 
 new ideal in the community and the growth 
 of democracy. The season's church festivals 
 all lend themselves to this type of pageantry 
 and these are being utilized more and more 
 by various communities. As a result the 
 people are being furnished clean, healthful 
 forms of play, are being amused and recre- 
 ated; old bitternesses and divisions in the 
 community are often forgotten and the new- 
 comers, many of them from other shores, 
 
 [167]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 to whom American ways and institutions are 
 enigmas, are being taught through this com- 
 munity play and brought into sympathy 
 with the other races. The people of a neigh- 
 borhood who join in play, forgetting racial 
 and religious differences, are making a long 
 stride forward in achieving that democracy 
 without which our nation cannot endure. 
 
 The motion picture developed so rapidly 
 that before we were aware of it a new form 
 of entertainment had come into existence 
 and made an appeal to all conditions of men, 
 to all races, all ages and all degrees of edu- 
 cation. It is by far the most democratic 
 form of our play. The motion picture of- 
 fers opportunity for great evil as well as 
 great good, therefore it is most essential that 
 there should be some check on the output 
 of pictures and those that are of doubtful 
 morality as well as those that are positively 
 bad should be eliminated. What we see has 
 a much more powerful effect upon us than 
 what we hear. How can the motion picture 
 be controlled? America does not like the 
 
 [168]
 
 sS 
 
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 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 idea of a censor over the theater or over the 
 printing press. A law broad enough in its 
 scope to meet the demands of all the people 
 would be futile. One narrow enough to sat- 
 isfy another definite class, made up of those 
 who see evil in every thing that they do not 
 enjoy, could not be enforced. The solution 
 of the question was effected by the organ- 
 ization of the National Board of Censorship 
 of Motion Pictures. This Board was cre- 
 ated by the People's Institute and at the 
 request of the theaters in New York city 
 that were exhibiting motion pictures. The 
 Board is a volunteer committee, the mem- 
 bers serving without compensation. It is 
 made up of a general committee of repre- 
 sentatives from twenty civic agencies located 
 in New York, together with certain public- 
 spirited individuals who are in no way con- 
 nected with the theatrical or motion picture 
 business; an executive committee is chosen 
 from this membership and Censoring Com- 
 mittee of one hundred and five members. 
 This Censoring Committee is divided into 
 
 [169]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 sub-committees and is at work at least five 
 days each week. A majority of those voting 
 determines the action of the Board on any 
 picture. An appeal from the verdict of the 
 Censoring Committee may be taken by any 
 dissatisfied member of the Committee by the 
 Secretary or by the owner of the film in 
 question. The general committee has the 
 power of final review. The film is again 
 exhibited before the general committee; 
 members of the committee of the first in- 
 spection state their reasons for or against; 
 the owner of the film presents his defence 
 of the film, and the general committee 
 reaches the final verdict. As soon as final 
 action is taken the owner of the film is noti- 
 fied in writing and a notification is sent 
 through a weekly bulletin to correspondents 
 of the Board. 
 
 Although this Censorship Board has no 
 power in law, yet it does wield a great influ- 
 ence, because it works through a cooperative 
 arrangement with the film makers, main- 
 taining its relation with a given manufac- 
 
 [170]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 turer only so long as he submits all his prod- 
 uct and carries out all the recommendations 
 of the Board. 
 
 The work of the Board is varied and 
 exacting. A definite standard of judgment 
 has been adopted and is stated in the fol- 
 lowing terms in its annual report : 
 
 "The Board prohibits obscenity in all 
 forms; vulgarity when it offends or when 
 it verges toward indecency, unless an ade- 
 quate moral purpose is served. It prohibits 
 the representation of crime in such detailed 
 way as may teach the methods of commit- 
 ting crime, except as in the judgment of 
 the Board the representation serves as a 
 warning to the whole public ; morbid scenes 
 of crime where the only value of the scene 
 is in its morbidity or criminal appeal are 
 excised. Nevertheless the Board cannot 
 judge films exclusively from the standpoint 
 of children or delicate women, of the emo- 
 tionally morbid, or of any one class of audi- 
 ence. But it does take into consideration 
 as one of the controlling motives governing 
 
 [171]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 it the fact that possibly 25 per cent, of the 
 total motion picture audience is made up of 
 children under sixteen. 
 
 Broad problems such as the effect of 
 scenes of violence on the juvenile mind still 
 rest in an astonishing obscurity. It is im- 
 possible to get either from the lips of psy- 
 chologists or from the penal statistics of 
 the country any conclusive verdict on this 
 subject. 
 
 The Board prohibits the unnecessary elab- 
 oration or prolongation of scenes of suffer- 
 ing, brutality, vulgarity, violence or crime; 
 prohibits blasphemy, by which is understood 
 the careless, wanton or unnecessary offence 
 against religious susceptibilities of any large 
 number of people in the country; anything 
 obviously or wantonly libellous in films; 
 anything calculated to cause injury to per- 
 sons or interests from an obviously malicious 
 or libelous motive, and films dealing with 
 questions of fact which relate to criminal 
 cases pending in the courts. 
 
 The Board does not enforce on motion
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 pictures simply its own views of what is 
 desirable and right. Rather it tries to elim- 
 inate its own personal equation completely. 
 The general conscience of the country be- 
 lieves in free speech on religious and polit- 
 ical matters; in the right of the people to 
 live and enjoy themselves in the way they 
 see fit so long as fundamental morality is 
 not injured; to insure a certain amount of 
 freedom both to speech, to art and to con- 
 duct is a part of the conscience of the coun- 
 try as much as to forbid obscene and demor- 
 alizing speech and art and to prevent de- 
 structive actions. 
 
 The Board does not regard itself as a 
 Censor of tastes, unless it is clear that the 
 question of taste is an essentially moral one. 
 Nor does it regard itself as a censor of accu- 
 racy unless the inaccuracy in question is of 
 a libelous kind or will result in some con- 
 crete disaster to the person whom the inac- 
 curacy misleads." 
 
 Several films were presented to the Board 
 during the last year dealing with the White 
 
 [173]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 Slave Traffic. These presented complicated 
 moral problems. The Board finally stated 
 its position as follows : 
 
 "The Board will critically examine all 
 films presenting various forms of sex lapses ; 
 for those effects on audiences which arouse 
 rather than minimize passions; which tend 
 to perpetuate the double standard of moral- 
 ity; which reveal easy ways of gratifying 
 desire and of making money in the 'trade,' 
 or which simply indicate the weaknesses of 
 humanity or recite the dreary tale of the 
 lives of those unfortunate members of soci- 
 ety called 'prostitutes.' ' 
 
 Last year 7,576 reels of motion pictures 
 were inspected by this Board. These repre- 
 sented 5,740 subjects and 8,698,246 feet of 
 motion pictures. Out of these only 53 sub- 
 jects were wholly condemned; 401 were 
 condemned partially, so that cuts had to be 
 made in the reels. In this way 12,030 feet 
 of film were eliminated. This loss to the 
 manufacturers amounted to $115,909.50. It 
 is interesting to know that the film manu- 
 
 [174]
 
 RECONSTRUCTING PLAY 
 
 facturing companies cooperate heartily with 
 the National Board and very seldom is there 
 any question raised as to its decisions. The 
 motion picture concerns of the country have 
 found that decency pays. 
 
 When we begin to discuss the question 
 of a censorship over the press and the theater 
 we immediately find ourselves in the midst 
 of difficulties. State censorship is being 
 tried, but this plan of control meets with 
 severe opposition, for it is similar in many 
 respects to restricting free speech or impos- 
 ing state criticism on newspapers, magazines 
 and books. For the present, at least, the 
 practical thing seems to be to give the Na- 
 tional Board the widest possible influence 
 and by cooperating secure the general adop- 
 tion of its standards in every state and 
 community. 
 
 The question of the municipal theater 
 receives serious consideration from time to 
 time. Considering the experience of some 
 of the European cities there is hope that 
 ultimately there may be a people's opera 
 
 [1T5]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 house in every community, where the best 
 in music and the drama will be offered to the 
 people at low prices. Why could not the 
 average American community do in a 
 smaller degree what Charlottenburg, Ger- 
 many, did in a magnificent way? In this 
 German city the people built a million dol- 
 lar opera house and this is crowded every 
 night with the residents of Greater Berlin. 
 Here the finest singers and the best operas 
 can be heard for sixteen or twenty cents. 
 Let us hope that in some city in our country 
 a group similar to the society which made 
 this venture a success will try out this plan. 
 Our efforts for a municipal theater have 
 failed so far because not one of them has 
 ever been purely a people's movement. 
 They have usually had for their motive the 
 exploiting of some new idea, the educating 
 of the people's taste, or some other noble 
 purpose, when in reality the people's theater 
 must be built on the level of the people's 
 lives and must give them a chance to hear 
 and see the things they love best. 
 
 [176]
 
 VII 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ANY one will fail of his mark in discussing 
 this question of recreation who assumes 
 that the attitude of our churches and the 
 conditions in those churches are the same 
 as they were twenty-five years ago. While 
 many will question some of the statements 
 and divide on the issues raised in this book 
 it is believed that the majority will agree in 
 general with what has been said. The ques- 
 tion that all will raise is this : what can the 
 church do and how shall it be done? It 
 must be plain that with a vision of the King- 
 dom of God in men's hearts, the next step 
 is to realize that Kingdom in the midst of 
 the community life. 
 
 The first thing for the church to do in 
 providing for the people's play is to learn 
 the recreational facilities of the community. 
 This information cannot be gained without 
 
 [179]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 a thorough study of the situation. The 
 average person in the community knows in 
 a vague sort of way what the facts are 
 relating to the social life of the people, but 
 very few know the facts definitely enough 
 to be able to state them accurately and con- 
 vincingly. Each person is apt to think of 
 each particular problem from his own stand- 
 point. The court officials know of the girls 
 and boys that have gotten into trouble be- 
 cause of evil forms of recreation. They can 
 tell of men and women whose lives are 
 blighted by the power of commercialized 
 play, institutions which ought not to be 
 tolerated in any well regulated community. 
 The doctors, the school teachers, the minis- 
 ters all have a partial view of the commu- 
 nity needs. What is demanded is a study 
 of the whole situation; a gathering of all 
 the facts so that the entire community can 
 view the question in all of its aspects. In 
 making such a study it is better for one 
 particular church to associate, if possible, 
 with all the other churches and religious 
 
 [180]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 forces of the community in doing the work. 
 If this cannot be done, any one church that 
 has a vision ought to go ahead and get the 
 facts. Such facts will include the number 
 of people that are playing on the streets; 
 the number of boys found in the pool- 
 rooms; the attendance at the dance-halls, 
 playgrounds, theaters and moving picture 
 shows; the character of the places and the 
 programs offered. If there are saloons in 
 the community, it will be necessary to find 
 out approximately how many people visit 
 the saloons, their attractions and how long, 
 on the average, the patrons remain; also 
 the hours in the day or night when the sa- 
 loons are doing the biggest business. Hav- 
 ing secured this information the church will 
 then have in its possession the rough mate- 
 rial in the way of facts upon which to build 
 its program of action. 
 
 After securing the facts, the results should 
 be tabulated and compared. It will be easy 
 then to determine whether or not the play 
 facilities are adequate for the needs of the 
 
 [181]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 community. Rowland Haynes of the Play- 
 ground and Recreation Association is au- 
 thority for the statement that in many cities 
 it was found by an intensive study that fifty 
 to seventy per cent, of the entire recrea- 
 tional life was cared for in a haphazard way 
 by home or private and commercial agencies 
 and of the thirty to fifty per cent., which 
 would naturally fall to the care of public 
 recreation agencies, only five or ten per cent, 
 was being handled by such agencies. From 
 the facts gathered by the church it will be 
 of prime importance to determine what pro- 
 portion of the people have their recreational 
 needs looked after by private and commer- 
 cial agencies and what proportion through 
 public agencies. The study, if it has been 
 made properly, will include detailed statis- 
 tics as to the places where the population is 
 most congested. This information can be 
 secured from the government census reports 
 and the records of the city engineer's office. 
 Having the area of each ward and the pop- 
 ulation it will be easy to compute the popu- 
 
 [182]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 lation per acre. Then if the school census 
 can be secured it will give the number of 
 children in each ward, section of the city, 
 town or township. If these records cannot 
 be secured it will be necessary to make a 
 house to house canvass. Knowing how 
 many people there are desiring to play and 
 what their opportunities are for play it will 
 riot be very difficult to determine whether or 
 not the facilities offered are adequate. By 
 listing the various types of recreation in each 
 section a judgment can be formed as to the 
 physical and moral value of the kind of play 
 facilities offered. For instance, if in a cer- 
 tain community it was found that there was 
 a playground adequate in size and equip- 
 ment to accommodate all the children within 
 a radius of eight or ten blocks obviously 
 there would be no need of agitating the 
 playground question in that community. 
 If in the same community there were three 
 dance-halls, all of them of questionable 
 character, and these were night after night 
 crowded with the young men and women 
 
 [188]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 of the community it would be apparent 
 that this love of dancing ought to be ex- 
 pressed under better conditions. If in the 
 same community there were half a dozen 
 saloons, two or three pool rooms, a penny 
 arcade, three moving picture shows and a 
 burlesque theater, it might well be assumed 
 from the facts gathered that there was no 
 very definite community program regarding 
 recreation: that it was left to chance. It 
 would probably be found that the play 
 grounds had been put into the district by 
 outside agencies. The facts being known, 
 the one thing to impress itself would be 
 the need of providing amusements for the 
 older boys and girls as well as for the men 
 and women; the problem of the children's 
 play having been already met. 
 
 Having learned the facts through an in- 
 tensive study of the community, and having 
 tabulated the results and drawn conclusions 
 regarding the needs and the facilities for 
 meeting them, the wise church will attempt 
 to change the character of the existing rec- 
 
 [184]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 reational agencies. There are definite ways 
 in which pool rooms, dance-halls, moving 
 picture shows and other play agencies can 
 be regulated and made to conform to the 
 law. In this the church will need to exer- 
 cise the widest charity and a spirit of toler- 
 ance. People cannot all see alike, and every 
 community must provide amusements that 
 the people enjoy. In a city where a rec- 
 reational survey was made and it was found 
 that the halls were badly managed and were 
 decidedly a dangerous factor in the life of 
 the young people a committee called for a 
 meeting of the leading citizens to discuss 
 the question. Among others they invited 
 the pastors of the churches. Two of the 
 leading ministers refused to attend on the 
 ground that they were unalterably opposed 
 to dancing in any form and would not give 
 their sanction to it, even so far as to at- 
 tend a meeting where the question of rec- 
 reation might be discussed. They were in 
 favor of one thing only, and that was the 
 elimination of the dance hall. These two 
 
 [1851
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 ministers through their congregations rep- 
 resented approximately five hundred people 
 out of a population of 90,000. In one 
 of these dance-halls in question there was 
 accommodated every week twelve times as 
 many young people as attended the two 
 churches together. As it was impossible for 
 the churches to prevent the people attend- 
 ing the dance-halls the wise and humane 
 thing would have been to help in regu- 
 lating and making them as safe and decent 
 as possible. If a community has no up- 
 to-date ordinance governing public amuse- 
 ments this fact ought to be known. Let 
 the church help publish it and then secure 
 assistance in framing such legislation as 
 will meet the needs. It must be clear that 
 no matter what our personal opinions are 
 regarding dancing there can be no ques- 
 tion that the dance is much less dangerous 
 conducted in a well regulated hall where 
 there is close supervision by the city through 
 volunteer or paid service than in one left 
 to itself. What is true of the dance-hall 
 
 [186]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 is true of the pool room and other recre- 
 ational opportunities. While we have to 
 take things pretty largely as we find them, 
 it is nevertheless the duty of the church to 
 educate people to better standards so that 
 the cheap and tawdry, to say nothing of the 
 vicious, will no longer make its appeal, but 
 until this is done the people who may be- 
 come the victims of bad conditions must be 
 protected against themselves, as well as 
 against evil designs of evil men and women. 
 Such regulations will not end with the insti- 
 tutions in the community that are known to 
 be of doubtful or questionable morality. It 
 is just as necessary to have some sort of 
 public control and regulation over the pub- 
 lic parks as it is over the public dance-halls. 
 A trip through the parks in any city at 
 night will offer convincing evidence of the 
 need of plenty of light and police regu- 
 lation. The emphasis ought to be put on 
 the light for it is of more value in the 
 long run than the efforts of the police, no 
 matter how vigilant they may be. Thou- 
 
 [187]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 sands of young people in our parks, who 
 take occasion to make love to each other, 
 have no other place to entertain or to be 
 entertained, and their "spooning" is as 
 harmless as it is natural. The danger arises 
 when a city becomes parsimonious in the 
 matter of electricity and allows benches to 
 be placed in dark and unfrequented places. 
 Boston is a model in the administration and 
 equipment of her parks. They are well 
 lighted and on any warm evening you may 
 see young couples making love on almost 
 every bench, but the love making is in the 
 glare and light of an adjacent electric globe. 
 It is a good thing to know the men who 
 own the places of public amusement, and 
 are responsible for their administration. A 
 great deal may be done through personal 
 contact. If the dance-hall proprietors, 
 managers of pool rooms, owners of the 
 motion picture shows and others who are 
 furnishing public amusements know that 
 the church people understand the needs of 
 the community and know who is respon- 
 
 [188]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 sible for the kind of amusement that is being 
 furnished they are very apt to feel that they 
 are accountable to the community for their 
 attitude as well as their actions. The Juve- 
 nile Protective Association of Chicago really 
 did a remarkable thing in getting acquainted 
 with the managers of some of the most 
 vicious dance-halls, and in several instances, 
 by explaining to them the purpose of the 
 Association, secured the cooperation of these 
 managers in helping carry out a program 
 for bettering conditions. The National 
 Board of Censorship of Motion Pictures has 
 accomplished its wonderful work and exerts 
 its widespread influence through cooperation 
 with the motion picture men and the theater 
 managers throughout the country. It has 
 been able to do more than could be accom- 
 plished by any amount of the most drastic 
 legislation. Most people want to do the best 
 thing if they are only given half a chance. 
 The church will not go far astray if it as- 
 sumes this statement to be true and works 
 along these lines. 
 
 [189]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 The membership and the work of the 
 Playground Association, the dramatic 
 leagues and other agencies ministering to 
 the play life of the people should be well 
 known to the church. The church should 
 learn from these recreational agencies what 
 they need, and cooperate with them in help- 
 ing to put through a unified program of play 
 for the whole community. One of the great 
 difficulties in this field arises from the fact 
 that too often the agencies are working at 
 cross purposes. In one city a sum of money 
 had been appropriated from a bond issue 
 for the purpose of establishing playgrounds. 
 A committee of the women's clubs had one 
 idea as to how the money ought to be spent ; 
 the civic federation had another plan; the 
 feeble playground association had still an- 
 other idea ; the business interests of the city 
 wanted it adjacent to the main business 
 street so they could sell candies and sweets 
 to the children on their way to the play- 
 ground. The churches apparently knew 
 nothing about the matter and expressed no 
 
 [190]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 interest to the committees. For seven years 
 there was a dead-lock until finally one of 
 the churches woke up and succeeded in 
 bringing all the elements of the community 
 together and out of the various organiza- 
 tions secured members for the playground 
 association. A site was selected, equipment 
 purchased, a director employed and the city 
 had its playgrounds. It is much better for 
 the church to work through existing agen- 
 cies, cooperating with them, than it is to 
 attempt to meet the needs of the community 
 through its own efforts. 
 
 After cooperating to the fullest extent it 
 probably will be found that there are certain 
 definite recreational needs that are not being 
 met by existing agencies. These the church 
 should provide, or stimulate and create 
 agencies to provide them. It may be that 
 there is need for club rooms ; it may be for 
 a dance-hall ; it may be for additional play- 
 ground facilities. Whatever it is that the 
 church undertakes to do in this way, it ought 
 to be done to meet a definite need and as a
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 protest to the community because the com- 
 munity has not been able, or willing, to do 
 its duty. The failure of many a church plan 
 for social service may be credited to the fact 
 that the church has undertaken a piece of 
 work not because there was a definite call 
 for it in the community, but because the 
 church felt that in its own interest it must 
 do something different from what it had 
 been doing. 
 
 The church is responsible in every com- 
 munity for educating the taste of the people 
 and teaching them to desire better things. 
 The pastor of a church in a western city saw 
 that the young people were being hurt by 
 the three commercial dance-halls that were 
 located within a radius of two blocks of his 
 church building. The saloon interests had 
 such a grip upon these halls that it was im- 
 possible to better them by any kind of reg- 
 ulation. They were totally bad and would 
 be bad as long as they existed. The pastor 
 tried to get in touch with the management 
 and found that the men interested were sim- 
 
 [192]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ply social pirates and he could make no im- 
 pression upon them. In fact in his discus- 
 sion with them they were insolent and defied 
 him and his kind. After studying the situ- 
 ation, this pastor with the hearty support of 
 his church board established a dance-hall in 
 connection with the church. Admission was 
 free but any one who attended had to be 
 endorsed by some one that the pastor knew. 
 The hall was a success from the very begin- 
 ning. This was an unusual situation and 
 the church was meeting it in an unusual 
 way. Not only were the young people being 
 given the chance to dance under clean, safe 
 conditions, but the community was being 
 educated and shamed into action against the 
 bad halls. If the time should come when 
 this community finds itself able and willing 
 to build, equip and maintain a municipal 
 hall it will then be time for the church to 
 cooperate with the community by giving up 
 its enterprise. Another church, hearing of 
 what had been accomplished, undertook in 
 its community to provide the same kind of 
 
 [193]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 dance privileges for the young people. A 
 hall was procured and fitted up and the 
 people were invited to come to the dance. 
 Only a few responded. The church was 
 divided over the question and finally aban- 
 doned all interest in recreation because their 
 dance-hall was a failure. The pessimists in 
 the church gloated over what seemed to them 
 evidence to strengthen their theory that peo- 
 ple are inherently bad. As a matter of fact 
 this dance-hall was a failure simply because 
 there was no need for it. A study of the 
 community, a true appraisal of its needs, 
 and a spirit of cooperation with the other 
 agencies would have taught the church the 
 futility of undertaking such an enterprise. 
 There are many activities that are open to 
 the church, many things that can be done 
 and some of them with very little equip- 
 ment. From among the following sugges- 
 tions any wide-awake church will find 
 some opportunity for service in its own 
 community : 
 Equipping one or more rooms in the 
 
 [194]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 church which shall be open to the various 
 clubs in the community for club purposes. 
 
 Installing a pool table, a bowling alley 
 and tables for other games. 
 
 Organizing a brass or string band to give 
 free entertainments in the church itself or 
 on the church steps or lawn on frequent 
 occasions. 
 
 Assuming responsibility for the teaching 
 of wholesome, helpful games that may be 
 played in the home and outside of the home, 
 but in close connection with it; providing 
 hours and places of amusement where chil- 
 dren and parents can play together. 
 
 Supplying volunteer helpers to the com- 
 munity's recreational agencies, such as the 
 playground association. 
 
 Helping to organize and promote play 
 in the streets. This kind of work can be 
 successfully done by having one or more of 
 the young men of the church get acquainted 
 with the people in a congested neighborhood 
 and in an informal way visit them some 
 warm evening when they are sitting on the 
 
 [195]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 front porch or standing about on the street. 
 In several places this has been successfully 
 done. Without becoming officious, a visitor 
 has simply suggested a game and in an off- 
 handed sort of way started it and soon had 
 all the people interested. In every instance 
 the one who has organized the street play 
 has been invited to return and in every case 
 has become a great favorite with the people. 
 
 Providing tennis courts and baseball 
 diamonds. 
 
 Arranging with the city authorities for 
 side walks in certain blocks to be open for 
 roller skating or coasting. 
 
 Promoting church athletics, baseball, bas- 
 ketball, volley ball leagues and offering a 
 banner or a prize for the best athletic club. 
 
 Maintaining boating, yachting and fishing 
 clubs in communities adjacent to navigable 
 water. 
 
 Arranging for summer camps and camp- 
 ing trips. 
 
 Planning tramping trips under right 
 guidance and direction for groups of dif- 
 
 [196]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 ferent ages in the church. One church that 
 has made a success of this kind of work 
 arranges a tramping trip to some place for 
 every Saturday afternoon during the year. 
 The names of the members of this tramping 
 club are printed in a pamphlet and the pro- 
 gram of the tramping trips laid out at the 
 beginning of the season. A diary of the 
 club is kept by one of the members; pic- 
 tures are taken of the various trips and dur- 
 ing the winter time many a pleasant and 
 happy evening is spent living over again the 
 incidents of the past summer. 
 
 Securing a lease upon vacant lots in the 
 community and providing the means and 
 direction to the young people for gardening. 
 
 Providing an adequate program for the 
 celebration of the various holidays by pag- 
 eants, entertainments, picnics and such other 
 exercises as appeal to the good judgment of 
 the church. 
 
 Cooperating in promoting the Boy Scout 
 activities, paying special attention to the 
 social fraternal features of the work and 
 
 [197]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 eliminating everything from the movement 
 that tends to foster a love of militarism. 
 
 Organizing and maintaining Camp Fire 
 groups for girls. 
 
 Helping to provide some form of recre- 
 ation for the community on Sunday after- 
 noons. This is one of the greatest oppor- 
 tunities offered to the church today. All 
 forms of commercial recreation ought to be 
 closed on Sunday. Ball games where ad- 
 mission price is paid should not be tolerated. 
 In congested districts where large numbers 
 of children would have to spend most of the 
 day in idleness on the streets if it were not 
 for the playground, there can be no reason- 
 able objection to the playgrounds being 
 opened and other play facilities offered. 
 When strict Sabbath laws are enforced 
 thousands of people wander up and down 
 the streets with nothing to do and usually 
 fall in with suggestions of evil. In an east- 
 ern city the old blue laws were enforced 
 very strictly. Ten miles distant was a sub- 
 urban town that was not so exacting. The 
 
 [198]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 moving picture shows and two dance-halls 
 were running all Sunday afternoon and late 
 into the night. From twelve noon until nine 
 o'clock at night in the summer time it was 
 almost impossible to get a seat on the trains 
 running out of this city, and from nine 
 o'clock until midnight it was impossible to 
 get a seat on the trains coming in from the 
 suburban town. The people in this city 
 were not doing their duty. Their attitude 
 was wholly negative. If they were con- 
 vinced that the door of the ordinary recrea- 
 tional opportunities should be closed on 
 Sunday afternoon, they owed it to the peo- 
 ple of the community to provide some way 
 in which they could spend their time in clean, 
 healthful, safe enjoyment of the day. In 
 Houston, Texas, a definite effort was made 
 to meet such a situation. The largest hall 
 in the city was opened to the people and free 
 entertainments and music furnished. This 
 plan has been tried in other places, and 
 everywhere it has been tried it has proved 
 successful. Parks and playgrounds as they 
 
 [199]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 have been opened to the people on Sunday 
 have been utilized and always to the good 
 of the community. There are a variety of 
 ways to meet the needs for Sunday recrea- 
 tion. Whatever is done must be done with 
 a thorough knowledge of all the facts and 
 with a view to the sentiment as well as the 
 needs of the community. Let a church do 
 any or all of the following : 
 
 Urge, work for and demand in the name 
 of humanity the Saturday half holiday for 
 all the people. 
 
 Organize a group of the base ball enthusi- 
 asts in the church and together rent one of 
 the large boxes at the league base ball park. 
 Let this be known as the box belonging to 
 the local church. Other organizations fol- 
 low this plan and their members always 
 sit together at the games. Why not the 
 church ? 
 
 Offer the church building and its facili- 
 ties to the community as a place for in- 
 forming the community as to its recrea- 
 tional needs and emphasize these needs 
 
 [200]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 through public addresses, entertainments 
 and pictures. 
 
 Install a stereopticon and moving picture 
 machine if possible and utilize this popular 
 form of amusement. 
 
 Organize a dramatic league in the church, 
 teach the principles underlying the best in 
 the drama, and in arranging to give fre- 
 quent exhibitions during the year, give all 
 of the people in the church the opportunity 
 of taking part in the various plays that are 
 presented. The Missionary Education 
 Movement of the United States and Canada 
 publish high grade plays and missionary 
 pageants that may be used in the churches 
 to good advantage. 
 
 Equip a gymnasium in connection with 
 the church. Provide classes and instruction 
 either in the church or through the church 
 agencies in cooperation with the Y.M.C.A. 
 and other local institutions. 
 
 Finally, the most important thing of all 
 is for the church to come to an intelligent 
 understanding with the community as to its 
 
 [201]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 own attitude and sympathies. No com- 
 munity can succeed in meeting the recrea- 
 tional demands of the people unless there be 
 some clearly thought out and definitely ac- 
 cepted program for play which will meet 
 the requirements of all the people as it does 
 the demands of the whole individual. The 
 church will be of the greatest value in help- 
 ing to formulate the standard, create a pro- 
 gram and make it effective. This will mean 
 a hearty appreciation of the whole commu- 
 nity and its needs ; sympathy for its f ailings 
 and a willingness to help create a better 
 understanding of the various elements mak- 
 ing up our complex democracy. 
 
 The responsibility of the church does not 
 stop with its community. We must learn to 
 think in terms of the community, then edu- 
 cate the community to think in terms of the 
 state, and the state in terms of the nation. 
 Outside of their own specialized field the 
 churches in every community ought to feel 
 that they are a part of the national move- 
 ments which are reconstructing the play life 
 
 [202]
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH 
 
 of the people, helping them to secure more 
 of the joy of living which is the birthright of 
 every individual. 
 
 [203]
 
 VIII 
 
 RESULTS ATTAINED AND 
 ATTAINABLE
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RESULTS ATTAINED AND 
 ATTAINABLE 
 
 IT is well known that John Wesley was 
 a lover of all kinds of literature and espe- 
 cially of the drama. He read the Greek and 
 English dramatists and advised his preach- 
 ers to study them both for the help and for 
 the pleasure to be derived from them. He 
 never attended the theater but he clearly 
 stated his attitude toward the question of 
 popular amusements. After declaring that 
 he did not attend the theater or play cards 
 he says: "Possibly others can. I am not 
 obliged to pass any sentence on those who 
 are otherwise minded. I leave them to their 
 own Master. To Him let them stand or 
 fall." The churches generally are coming 
 to accept this as a proper attitude. But it 
 
 [.207]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 is not enough. The church must help to 
 form the standard of tastes. Its attitude 
 must be positive, not uncertain nor negative. 
 It is encouraging to note that in hundreds 
 of communities churches are expressing pos- 
 itive interest in unmistakable ways. Social 
 centers, playgrounds, and other public in- 
 stitutions for providing means of play are 
 being heartily supported by the churches. 
 
 The interest of the church in play is not 
 however limited to its interest in these public 
 movements. More and more it is establish- 
 ing and making effective institutional plans 
 for meeting the play problems of the com- 
 munity. In discussing the results that are 
 being achieved by the church it is right to 
 include the work of those agencies that are 
 directly connected with or under the direc- 
 tion of the church, such as the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, the Young Women's 
 Christian Association and church social 
 settlements. 
 
 An inquiry was sent out recently to a 
 large number of cities throughout the coun- 
 
 [208]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 try regarding the play facilities of the peo- 
 ple and the activities of the church in rela- 
 tion thereto. The reports received indicate 
 that the opportunities provided are totally 
 inadequate to the need. In the largest num- 
 ber of cases the Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociation church clubs and public play- 
 grounds furnish the chief means for play. 
 The schools are being used more and more 
 for recreational purposes, many of the newer 
 buildings being equipped with gymnasium 
 and game rooms. 
 
 The answer from one city is typical of 
 conditions found in the best of them, al- 
 though it has gone further in shaping a 
 program than have many of the others. 
 The school authorities and park department 
 of this city provide ample playgrounds and 
 swimming pools for use during the summer, 
 with gymnasium classes in the winter. The 
 schools have baseball, basketball and com- 
 munity clubs. These facilities are all sup- 
 ported by the city. The playgrounds are 
 equipped with the usual apparatus and are 
 
 [209]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 closely supervised so that the language and 
 conduct of the children are always under 
 observation. The play is graded, there 
 being games provided for different ages and 
 for both boys and girls. Among the schools 
 there has been developed an athletic league 
 and an annual field day is held at which the 
 teams from the various schools compete with 
 each other. The Young Men's Christian 
 Association and the churches furnish most 
 of the directors who are employed by the 
 city. The Boy's Club is strong and has 
 recently built a new club house thoroughly 
 equipped for play and instructions and has 
 an efficient corps of workers under the direc- 
 tion of a competent superintendent who is 
 paid by the city and is also one of the pro- 
 bation officers of the local juvenile court. 
 These recreational opportunities are thor- 
 oughly appreciated by the people. The 
 playgrounds and the buildings used as a 
 social center are crowded. Opinions differ 
 but the tendency is toward a more demo- 
 cratic control of play and the widest use of 
 
 [210]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 the facilities offered. The churches in the 
 city, with the exception of two are composed 
 of the well-to-do class of people. The mem- 
 bers of the poorer churches, one of which is 
 supported by a well-to-do up-town church, 
 use the play facilities that are offered by the 
 city, while the other churches report that 
 their members are not so much dependent 
 upon these places, many of them finding 
 their amusement at the theaters and at 
 dances given by their various sets, the coun- 
 try club, a boat club or through other means 
 provided by private and commercial enter- 
 prises. The pastor of one of the leading 
 churches in this city thinks that social lines 
 are drawn as closely in the matter of play 
 as in any other matter pertaining to the 
 social life of the people. 
 
 The playgrounds in this city have been 
 productive of the utmost good. "They have 
 helped to reduce hoodlumism and conse- 
 quently petty crime and misdemeanors are 
 not so frequent as formerly." The churches 
 have had an important part in helping to 
 
 [211]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 provide these excellent play facilities. The 
 federation of men's clubs set on foot the 
 movement looking to the larger use of the 
 school buildings as social centers. When 
 the plan was under way the whole manage- 
 ment was turned over to the school authori- 
 ties, yet even today the clubs back up the 
 plan by their influence and the officers 
 charged with the active work of promoting 
 these centers are all vitally interested in 
 church work. Outside of this general activ- 
 ity in promoting play and making it possi- 
 ble, the churches have maintained a social 
 service league, various clubs, and organiza- 
 tions for the boys and girls, have provided 
 outings, and arranged group and neighbor- 
 hood meetings. No effort has been made 
 to censor the theaters or to deal with the 
 problem of the dance. 
 
 There is a difference of opinion among 
 the church people as to the value of this 
 kind of work. Some of the churches have 
 unwisely looked upon every play facil- 
 ity offered to the people as a means of 
 
 [212]
 
 CARDING CONTEST 
 
 Arranged in connection with the White Rock Fair, North Carolina, under 
 the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Missions
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 increasing the attendance at the Sunday- 
 school and church services, and have meas- 
 ured the success of every undertaking in 
 terms of the increased enrollment in the 
 church and Sunday-school. A few of the 
 ministers believe in furnishing a variety of 
 interests for the young people but deeply 
 deprecate any thing which does not show 
 evidence of a positive good. 
 
 In relation to Sunday amusements one 
 community reports : "The church going peo- 
 ple are opposed to anything that would very 
 materially change the nature of the day from 
 the old fashioned Puritan Sabbath." It was 
 reported that in one of these cities the reli- 
 gious people were utterly indifferent to this 
 matter ; in another that the people were apa- 
 thetic or lacking in sympathy. It is very 
 difficult to secure accurate figures as to the 
 number of people in the various cities who 
 attend the Sunday dances. The churches 
 recognize that there is a large problem raised 
 by the question of Sunday amusements, but 
 as yet in no city have they been able to 
 
 [218]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 meet this problem adequately and solve it 
 without raising so much discussion and 
 opposition that it has seemed wise not to 
 attempt even those things that might be of 
 help. 
 
 The report from still another city is sig- 
 nificant as it represents quite a different 
 situation. This city has a population of 
 about 22,000. It is a manufacturing town 
 of diversified interests and the people are of 
 mixed races. It is well located and has 
 every opportunity for growth in commercial 
 and social importance but for a long period 
 of years there has been no growth in popu- 
 lation. Wages are good ; working conditions 
 are favorable for the most part, and there 
 have been no labor troubles; the school 
 houses of the town are well built and its 
 churches, of which there are the average 
 number found in places of this size, are at- 
 tractive and well attended. In the matter 
 of play facilities there is one theater which 
 caters to all classes, presenting serious 
 drama, English grand opera, comic opera, 
 
 [214]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 vaudeville, minstrels and motion picture 
 shows. On Sunday this theater presents a 
 vaudeville show, although this is contrary 
 to the state law. There are seven motion 
 picture shows, the best of which is very good 
 and the worst cannot be called bad. They 
 are all maintained in a decent, orderly way. 
 All of these shows are open on Sunday. 
 Nearby there is a famous watering place 
 which attracts thousands in the summer 
 months. This resort is easily accessible by 
 ferry. There is a splendid beach here. 
 Formerly a great deal of liquor was sold 
 at the place but it has improved in this re- 
 spect in late years. The management is not 
 vicious but is simply looking after the dol- 
 lars. The best people in the town patronize 
 the resort. There is no cheap vaudeville, no 
 open immorality. The worst feature grows 
 out of the abuse of the wide reaches of beach 
 adjacent to the resort, and of the woods 
 which extend down to the very edge of the 
 water and which are neither lighted nor 
 patrolled at night. The management of this 
 
 [215]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 resort was appealed to and has cooperated 
 very heartily with the authorities of the city 
 in helping get rid of gambling and dancing 
 and in giving better protection to the girls 
 and women, especially to its own employees. 
 It is significant that the moral tone has been 
 rising during the last half dozen years. Dur- 
 ing the summer season train loads of excur- 
 sionists come from distant points and bring 
 thousands of merry-makers to spend Sun- 
 day at the lake. The bay around which the 
 city is built affords unusual boating facilities 
 and is largely used. Skating and ice boat- 
 ing are enjoyed during the winter months. 
 The city is fortunately laid out in a triangu- 
 lar arrangement with abundant recreation 
 parks for tennis, football, baseball and 
 other sports which are open and free to the 
 public. An attempt to secure a public play- 
 ground failed. There is no Young Men's 
 Christian Association or Young Women's 
 Christian Association. The Business Girl's 
 Christian Association, however, provides 
 gymnasium classes in connection with other 
 
 [216J
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 features in the church basement which they 
 rent and where they hold weekly meetings. 
 A kindergarten is maintained in connection 
 with a local Episcopal church. The new 
 high school building is equipped with a gym- 
 nasium. No investigation has been made of 
 the dance-halls of the city. The latest 
 dances are taught and it is claimed by some 
 persons that they are danced in a modest 
 manner. There is no unanimous verdict on 
 this question however, for when asked re- 
 garding a dance that was conducted by a 
 group of decent fellows one girl said: "I 
 would not like to be caught dead on the floor 
 of that hall." In fact no one in the city 
 seems to have any accurate information as 
 to the actual conditions. The saloons do a 
 good business. The enforcement of the new 
 state law which limits the number of saloons 
 to one to each five hundred of the popula- 
 tion put fifty-five of the saloons out of busi- 
 ness. Sunday closing is now observed for 
 the first time in a number of years. There 
 are two large breweries in the town and five 
 
 [217]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 wineries. There are plenty of pool-rooms 
 and bowling-alleys frequently connected 
 with the cheaper grade of saloons. The 
 number of pool-rooms have increased since 
 some of the saloons were closed. The roller 
 skating rink has a good patronage. There 
 is a club in the town, with a well appointed 
 but modest club-house, having a membership 
 of about two hundred of the leading men 
 of the city. Cards, billiards and pool are 
 the principal games. There is a reading 
 room, dining-room and guest-rooms. No 
 liquor is sold, but members are allowed to 
 keep liquor in their lockers. No games are 
 allowed on Sunday. This club opens its 
 doors for women's card parties and recep- 
 tions. These functions are patronized by 
 the families of the members and their 
 friends. Secret orders are strong and nearly 
 all of them maintain club rooms. All of the 
 play facilities of the city are maintained by 
 private enterprise except the public parks in 
 which band concerts are occasionally held. 
 A large proportion of the people avail them- 
 
 [218]
 
 selves of the opportunities offered by the 
 various places of amusements. Church peo- 
 ple patronize all of these places, though 
 there are a few exceptions. The outdoor 
 features of the amusements offered are un- 
 doubtedly good; the only question to be 
 raised is in regard to Sunday observance. 
 The indoor features shade all the way from 
 good to very bad. The two largest Catholic 
 parishes have audience rooms in their parish 
 buildings and here amateur theatricals are 
 given by the young people. One of the 
 Protestant churches has a small gymnasium 
 and conducts classes. During the winter a 
 lyceum course has been managed under 
 church auspices. Occasional game days are 
 provided for the children of younger age. 
 The boys are cared for by the churches 
 through such organizations as the Knights of 
 St. Paul and by the Boy Scout movement. 
 Various cooperative organizations have at- 
 tempted to institute a Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association but so far without success. 
 Inter-church relations exist on a small scale. 
 
 [219]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 If the churches had been asked some of them 
 would have helped in the movement made 
 for the establishment of playgrounds, for 
 all the churches, excepting one or two, are 
 heartily in sympathy with this kind of out- 
 door recreation. The playground move- 
 ment, which proved abortive, shows that a 
 new conscience is being developed and that 
 recreation is coming to be considered as a 
 real community interest. If the old settlers 
 had not argued so strenuously against the 
 playground on the basis that the natural 
 advantages offered by the bay and its ade- 
 quate beaches made the establishment of a 
 playground foolish, the organization would 
 have been completed and the playground 
 secured. A movement toward the establish- 
 ment of free public bathing beaches has so 
 far proved a failure probably on account of 
 the influence of the Resort Company. There 
 is no united position on the question of play 
 maintained by the ministers. Apparently 
 the churches have not been able to come to 
 any conclusion as to what constitutes right 
 
 [220]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 and wrong in the matter of the people's play. 
 "The ideas range all the way from the decent 
 continental Catholic type to the strictest 
 Puritan type." There is no common ground. 
 The idea of a community of interest in this 
 matter has evidently never made its appeal. 
 "There are at least three communities. The 
 minds of the mass of the people are liberal 
 to a fault, while the influential church mem- 
 bers are tinctured with liberalism but on the 
 whole follow the rather narrow Puritan 
 ideal. A small minority in the churches have 
 a well balanced, well thought out attitude 
 toward this important question." 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association 
 has met the play problem in a straightfor- 
 ward way and the results it has achieved 
 ought to be a guide to the churches in plan- 
 ning for future developments. The first 
 games tried in the association buildings 
 were of a simple kind, and yet these caused 
 more or less criticism. It took some time 
 before the bowling alley would be tolerated. 
 Then followed table croquet and finally 
 
 [221]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 some of the more progressive associations 
 installed pool and billiard tables. The pro- 
 test against these gradually lessened until 
 today it is not an exaggeration to say that 
 most of the well equipped associations have 
 these splendid games, and the interesting 
 thing is that, so far as we can learn, no as- 
 sociation has ever found the pool table any- 
 thing but a help and no association has ever 
 taken it out after once installing it. The 
 testimony of practically all of these organ- 
 izations is the same as that expressed by 
 the following reports : 
 
 "We installed pool and billiard tables in 
 our building about four years ago. There 
 was some opposition at the time and there 
 are still some church members in the city 
 who do not agree with our policy, but our 
 experience has so fully justified their instal- 
 lation that we would consider our equipment 
 very incomplete without them. All young 
 men like to play games, and pool and bil- 
 liards are practically the only games of an 
 indoor character that appeal to red-blooded 
 
 [222]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 young men. This whole question of pool 
 and billiard tables is largely a matter of 
 supervision and we have always had a uni- 
 versity student for an attendant. In select- 
 ing men for this job we look for more than 
 the ordinary pool table attendant. We are 
 just as careful in selecting him as we are 
 when we secure a man for any secretarial 
 position. Keeping the right man in the pool 
 room has solved the question of discipline 
 and evil influences. The very presence of 
 this man gives the room a tone which does 
 not admit of any other atmosphere than the 
 best." 
 
 "Personally I was very much prejudiced 
 against the use of these games by the Young 
 Men's Christian Associations but my expe- 
 rience has entirely removed this prejudice 
 and we are able to draw into the building 
 a group of men who otherwise would take 
 no interest in the activities. The only argu- 
 ment I have ever heard against the game 
 is that it will teach young men to play who 
 will then visit other pool and billiard rooms 
 
 [223]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 where the standards are low. Neither my 
 experience nor my observation have led me 
 to note any such case as this." 
 
 "We have conducted a pool and billiard 
 room in our present building for the past 
 eight years. Before the tables were put in 
 we called a meeting of all the Protestant 
 ministers in our section of the city and dis- 
 cussed the matter very frankly with them 
 and then asked their opinion as to whether 
 or not they thought it wise for us to open 
 such a room. Every minister but one voted 
 in favor of our putting them in. The tables 
 have had a very general usage ever since 
 they were put in. We have no smoking in 
 the room and the social tone is splendid. 
 We were quite surprised when the billiard 
 room was opened to find that it was not 
 necessary to teach any of the boys to play 
 pool and billiards. They had all been play- 
 ing in public pool rooms and were pretty 
 well versed in the matter. We find that the 
 room provides a splendid social feature and 
 that many of our members who formerly 
 
 [224]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 played in the pool rooms connected with the 
 saloons now play here." 
 
 "We have pool and billiard tables in our 
 building. There was some opposition when 
 we put them in but we have none at the 
 present time. They are generally used and 
 it is keeping a large number of our boys in 
 the building by having them. I believe it 
 has made some difference in the lives of the 
 young men in our community, especially the 
 boys coming out of high school, by playing 
 here. It keeps them away from the cheaper 
 pool and billiard halls." 
 
 "We have four pool tables and two bil- 
 liard tables. They were put into our Asso- 
 ciation about four years ago. There was 
 some opposition on the part of a few but 
 this has been practically overcome. The 
 tables are not in my opinion absolutely es- 
 sential to the life of the young men in the 
 association but they add much to it. Their 
 use is quite general during the noon and 
 evening hours when men are free from their 
 work. It has made some difference in the 
 
 [226]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 social life of the association but of course 
 this small effect in a large city like this would 
 not have any great marked influence on the 
 life of the community. The sum total of 
 opinion with us is that they are a good thing 
 when carefully supervised and helpful rather 
 than detrimental to the moral life of young 
 men." 
 
 "We have eight branches in all in which 
 we have billiard tables. In the four boys' 
 branches we have a special rule that only 
 boys eighteen years of age and up shall use 
 the billiard tables. Other games are pro- 
 vided for younger boys. In all but one of 
 these branches the billiard tables are in very 
 great demand, and the exception is caused 
 by the room being too small so that there 
 are too few tables and they are too crowded. 
 There has been no serious opposition after 
 the clergymen and some others who were 
 doubtful have seen the billiard rooms in 
 operation. When our associations organ- 
 ized and built gymnasiums a generation ago 
 we were ardently discouraged in the attempt 
 
 [226]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 because a great many good men said that 
 gymnasiums were in the hands of prize- 
 fighting gangs and no good could come but 
 only evil to us through attempting to con- 
 duct a gymnasium. We took the gymna- 
 sium, lifted it out of its bad environment, 
 sanitated it and made it a source of moral 
 and religious influence. We are doing the 
 same thing with billiards a game in which 
 there is no intrinsic evil, a clean game and 
 a beautiful game. It is played in our build- 
 ings entirely free from gambling, profanity 
 and tobacco. Billiard rooms like gymna- 
 siums must be supervised. There is hardly 
 anything more fruitless or deadly in a com- 
 munity than a gymnasium or billiard room 
 without expert supervision. This costs 
 money. Churches, clubs and associations 
 too often force themselves to learn the bit- 
 ter lesson that the putting in of equipment 
 does not solve but may complicate the prob- 
 lem. Personality is as important as facilities 
 and facilities are positively dangerous with- 
 out leadership." 
 
 [227]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 "We have numerous pool and billiard 
 tables in our men's and boys' departments. 
 There was practically no opposition to their 
 installation. So far as I know there is no 
 criticism against their use. The tables are 
 extensively used." 
 
 "As near as I can remember we put in our 
 first pool table in our building about ten 
 years ago and at that time there was a little 
 opposition from some quarters, but I believe 
 the day of objection to those things, espe- 
 cially in a large city, has passed away. We 
 consider both the billiard room and the bowl- 
 ing alleys a necessary part of an up-to-date 
 equipment in a building of this size. We 
 have constant supervision of our outfit and 
 endeavor to keep our equipment in the 
 finest possible condition. The rates we 
 charge are about half what they are in a 
 regular pool room. Our room is filled 
 most every day at certain times but we 
 are not making much from it financially. 
 Of course it is a great social factor and 
 we find that lots of these things must be 
 
 [228]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 conducted even though there is not much 
 money in them." 
 
 Of course no one supposes that because 
 the Young Men's Christian Association has 
 put in pool tables that of necessity they are 
 solving the community's recreational prob- 
 lems. They are however making an advance 
 and the spirit that leads them to take this 
 step promises greater things and a more 
 aggressive interest in the community welfare 
 in days to come. 
 
 In Brooklyn the Men's League in one of 
 the largest churches cooperates loyally with 
 the local park and play-ground association, 
 and last summer helped in a movement for 
 more adequate recreation piers. In one of 
 the largest cities of the middle west a strong 
 church has helped maintain play-grounds in 
 the city. In fact this church furnished the 
 first inspiration for this undertaking and 
 since its inception has furnished most of the 
 money to carry it on. These things indicate 
 a vital interest. A good start has been made. 
 In the country communities especially, the 
 
 [229]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 churches are coming to the conclusion that 
 they cannot possibly solve the rural life 
 problem without an adequate provision for 
 social and recreational opportunities. A 
 well rounded life is just as possible in the 
 open country as in the centers of popula- 
 tion, provided the social, educational and 
 religious advantages be equal in the two 
 places. A little church at a cross roads right 
 out in the midst of the open country has been 
 working for a number of years to meet the 
 needs of the community. It has laid out an 
 athletic field with baseball diamonds, basket 
 ball courts, tennis courts, swings, sand piles 
 and other playground equipment for the 
 younger children. During the winter home- 
 talent entertainments are encouraged and 
 supported enthusiastically. The agricultu- 
 ral college has been asked to cooperate with 
 the church and has sent out their lecturers 
 to assist on the lecture and music course that 
 is provided under the auspices of the church. 
 An annual home-coming week has been 
 made a special feature of the year's work. 
 
 [280]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 Through the efforts of this church Saturday 
 afternoon has come to be recognized as a 
 time for play and it is a general holiday on 
 all the farms and in all the ho nes. At this 
 time the community meets in contests 
 of baseball, basketball and tennis and the 
 local teams compete with the teams of sur- 
 rounding communities. The church has as- 
 sumed the leadership of all the recreational 
 life of the community but it also cooperates 
 with any clean, healthful recreation that 
 may be offered from any other source. The 
 results have well paid for the effort and now 
 this church is looked upon as the natural 
 center of the community life. 
 
 In Chicago, Boston and several other 
 cities the Sunday-school associations have 
 organized and successfully managed inter- 
 church baseball leagues. 
 
 In a community of another sort a church 
 has taken hold of a bad group of amusement 
 opportunities and by putting in better things 
 has been able to transform the attitude of 
 the people and have a large influence over 
 
 [281]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the life of the small city. The first thing 
 that this church did was to secure the coop- 
 eration of several of the other churches and 
 form an inter-church athletic association 
 which immediately took over the baseball 
 games and since that time they have been 
 played under the control of the church peo- 
 ple. A ball field was rented and all the 
 expenses paid by the churches. The gate 
 receipts nearly paid the bills. The result 
 is that they have clean baseball without 
 drunkenness or profanity on the grounds. 
 This church is now planning to finish off 
 its basement and provide a game room, a 
 bowling alley and a gymnasium. As this 
 town is the center of a large farming com- 
 munity and many of the country people 
 come to town on Saturday the church has 
 arranged to put in a rest and reading room 
 in its building that may be used by the coun- 
 try people with the privilege of making cof- 
 fee on the church kitchen range. 
 
 Success in doing this work is measured by 
 the success of the local church and it is here 
 
 [282]
 
 RESULTS ATTAINABLE 
 
 we find the need of leadership. The leader 
 must be wise as well as efficient ; must know 
 how to direct, how to cooperate and some- 
 times how to follow. Failure is often due 
 to the fact that the church people forget that 
 there are many and varied interests and per- 
 sonalities in every community. The true aim 
 ought to be to strengthen everything con- 
 structive that is being done and to compete 
 with nothing except that which is distinctly 
 bad. This kind of effort will be successful 
 if it is kept simple and natural and respect- 
 ful of the popular ways and traditions. 
 
 [283J
 
 IX 
 
 THE CHURCH A SOCIAL 
 CENTER
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE CHURCH A SOCIAL 
 CENTER 
 
 A REAL community is a body of people 
 having certain things in common; who are 
 dependent upon each other for their means 
 of livelihood; whose interests are related; 
 who look at passing events from the same 
 general standpoint, and who recognize their 
 dependence one upon another for good or 
 evil. The full idea of a community can be 
 developed only as there is some meeting 
 place where through fellowship, study, play 
 and worship each sharer in the community 
 life learns to know the value of the interests 
 that exist in common. Under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances people living in the same block 
 or neighborhood come to know each other 
 lodges, our work, our play, being diverse 
 and to feel an interest and a relation in each 
 other's affairs, but it is too often true that 
 
 [287]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 in our cities and rural districts the things 
 that ought to bring us together divide us. 
 Our religion, our clubs, our societies, our 
 in character, tend to separation. In making 
 the changes, therefore, which are necessary 
 it is especially important that there should 
 be some central rallying place, where all the 
 people could occasionally meet and bring 
 forward their interests and their problems 
 for consideration. Jane Addams says it is 
 a good thing for us to get out occasionally 
 on the highway of life to see each other's 
 burdens even if we do not help to bear them. 
 President Wilson once told a story of a 
 woman who, though very fastidious, was of 
 genial good nature, whose automobile hap- 
 pened to be stalled one night in front of a 
 school house where a community meeting 
 was going on, over which her seamstress was 
 presiding. She was induced by some ac- 
 quaintance whom she saw going into the 
 building to go in also, and was at first filled 
 with disdain. She did not like the looks of 
 some of the people ; there were too many of 
 
 [288]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 the sort with whom she did not care to asso- 
 ciate; an employee of her own was presid- 
 ing, but she was obliged to remain a little 
 while, as it was the most comfortable place 
 to stay while her automobile was being re- 
 paired. Before she could get away she had 
 been touched with the generous contagion of 
 the place. Here were people of all sorts, 
 talking on subjects that were interesting 
 and that revealed to her things of which she 
 had never dreamed in regard to her common 
 vital interests with persons she had always 
 thought unlike herself. So the communal 
 bond of human hearts was revealed to her, 
 and she realized the unity of human life. 
 
 It is generally wise to utilize the public 
 school building for the social center of the 
 community, but in many places this is im- 
 possible. The church is then offered a splen- 
 did opportunity for this kind of service, 
 especially in rural districts. 
 
 A little village in eastern Vermont has a 
 population of about four hundred persons 
 and about one hundred and seven families. 
 
 [289]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 It is primarily a farming community, three- 
 fifths of the people being thus employed. 
 There are, however, mills in the town which 
 employ about one hundred men and women. 
 The farming people are mostly of American 
 stock; the mill people are mostly French. 
 There were three churches in the community, 
 two Protestant and one Catholic. One of 
 the Protestant churches was so weak that 
 finally it gave up and the other church pur- 
 chased its property. Under this arrange- 
 ment it would seem that there was a fair 
 chance for good substantial work, but the 
 people in the community had apparently 
 lost interest in and respect for the church 
 as an institution. There were less than 
 forty resident members of which number 
 not more than one-half could be depended 
 upon. The only organization in the church 
 having any life was the Ladies' Aid Society. 
 The Sunday-school struggled along with 
 fifteen or twenty children; the community 
 was torn with petty bickerings and old 
 jealousies. Every newcomer to town was 
 
 [240]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 warned of the sore spots. Families living 
 next door to each other were at deadly 
 enmity; the children quarreled and fought, 
 and the parents would not speak to one 
 another. The church had been seeking a 
 pastor for months but without success, until 
 finally a man who had been preaching in a 
 nearby town in a much stronger church 
 thought he saw an opportunity and accepted 
 this field of labor. He found it a good place 
 for hard work but with very little for en- 
 couragement. It seemed impossible to get 
 any cooperation in anything that he at- 
 tempted. The church had dwelt upon its 
 own needs so long that it had become thor- 
 oughly self-centered. It was not interested 
 in the community except in so far as the 
 community could minister to its success as 
 an institution. The pastor's one ambition 
 was to make this church a social center. 
 Having studied the situation, the first at- 
 tempt he made was to organize the boys. 
 A branch of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association was formed. It was found, 
 
 [241]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 however, that some of the boys were not 
 "evangelical" and consequently the Young 
 Men's Christian Association excluded them. 
 To obviate this difficulty, the institution was 
 recognized as a boys' branch, and young men 
 between nineteen and twenty-seven good 
 naturedly took cards and had just as good 
 a time as if they were members of the reg- 
 ular Young Men's Christian Association. 
 This church used its own building for wor- 
 ship and remodeled that of the other congre- 
 gation for use as a parish house. The Young 
 Men's Christian Association met there. The 
 first winter season proved a good one and 
 closed with thirty-seven members. The boys 
 made their own rules regulating their con- 
 duct. There were only three: "No swear- 
 ing, no smoking and no 'rough house,' " and 
 only once was any rule broken. Except for 
 pictures, an occasional dance of questionable 
 character and a pool room, the only play 
 opportunity offered to the village was 
 through this newly formed association. To 
 meet the need further a plan was made to 
 
 [242]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 secure at least one good entertainment each 
 month. Dramatic readings, stereopticon 
 lectures and other enjoyable and helpful 
 entertainments were offered to the public. 
 In these affairs local talent was supple- 
 mented by outside assistance in the way of 
 speakers, lecturers and singers as far as they 
 could be secured. During the first winter 
 there was also a series of socials held, at 
 which the young people became acquainted 
 with each other. On Easter Sunday a spe- 
 cial service brought out a large attendance, 
 and a good concert by an enlarged chorus 
 gave the pastor his first chance to address 
 the community. The sermon dealt with the 
 community's needs, what a church ought to 
 do in regard to them, and what the local 
 church was planning. The cooperation of 
 the people was asked. Just about this time 
 the State Sunday-school Association con- 
 ducted a canvass of the town with the help 
 of the church workers and brought the pas- 
 tor a wealth of information on its cards. In 
 June a children's service was held and again 
 
 [248]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 the community attended church. This time 
 an object lesson was used to reach the hear- 
 ers. The subject was the sower and the 
 soil. Four boxes of soil were used: A box 
 of good soil with growing vegetables created 
 great interest, and the illustration was ap- 
 plied to the needs of growing boys and girls. 
 Before long a manual training school was 
 organized and taught by the pastor under the 
 supervision of the town school board. Tools 
 and benches furnished by the school board 
 were installed in the parish house. Work 
 done was credited to each pupil on his reg- 
 ular school grade work for the spring term. 
 The exhibit of furniture made by the boys 
 won the second prize at the State Fair, 
 and the boys used the money to purchase 
 standard pictures for the public school 
 rooms. 
 
 There was much discussion regarding a 
 good celebration of the Fourth of July and 
 the Young Men's Christian Association 
 suggested that it be allowed to secure 
 funds for fireworks. Sufficient money was 
 
 [244]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 raised and a program of games and sports 
 in the afternoon, with fireworks in the 
 evening, was carried out. Free ice cream 
 and orangeade were furnished. A series of 
 summer evening concerts was next planned. 
 It was found that a good orchestra of four 
 pieces could be secured from a nearby city 
 at ten dollars a night if the local community 
 would furnish transportation. Five auto- 
 mobile owners in the village were appointed 
 a committee on transportation, and each 
 evening of the five concerts one of these men 
 sent his car to the large town twelve miles 
 distant, bringing the members of the orches- 
 tra and returning them after the festival. 
 Games were provided for the young people, 
 and ice cream and cake served at a small 
 charge. The sale of these refreshments cov- 
 ered the necessary expenses. A committee 
 decorated the lawns and porches with Japa- 
 nese lanterns and electric lights, and pro- 
 vided tables, chairs and dishes. The food 
 materials were all donated so that the income 
 was practically net. Five of these summer 
 
 [246]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 night festivals were held in various sections 
 of the town, and the work was all done by 
 the people and all the people helped in fur- 
 nishing supplies. The average attendance 
 on these occasions was about one thousand 
 people. "The church set everybody to work 
 and has put this town on the map. It has 
 never before had anything of its own. There 
 was an adage, 'Good things either never get 
 here or they pass us by.' ' 
 
 During last summer extensive improve- 
 ments were made on the church property; 
 the organ was moved and equipped with an 
 electric blower ; the church was redecorated 
 by Boston artists; a new carpet was laid; 
 a new furnace and ventilator system in- 
 stalled and the cellar concreted. In July 
 the pastor went into camp with a group of 
 the boys at a nearby lake. The Young 
 Men's Christian Association was equipped 
 with additional apparatus such as basket- 
 ball and indoor baseball outfits, quoits and 
 boxing gloves ( for this church is not afraid 
 to teach its young men the art of self-de- 
 
 [246]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 fense). In September a girls' club was 
 organized. The girls took up calisthenics, 
 basket ball and other indoor games, besides 
 basketry and embroidery. The last to be 
 provided for were the younger women who 
 had no connection with the church or Ladies' 
 Aid Society. A teacher was secured to give 
 them ten weeks' work in basketry. This is 
 a popular fad and yet it is more than that. 
 Some of the women whose opportunities 
 are limited and who live humdrum lives 
 have a new interest and are adding mate- 
 rially to their incomes by making and sell- 
 ing baskets. They find a ready market in 
 the town craftshops. With the basketry 
 came the desire to revive home industries. 
 Groups were formed to learn tatting, net- 
 ting, cross-stitch, embroidery and rug- 
 weaving. Many articles made by the girls 
 and women were displayed at a State 
 Social Welfare Exhibit and received fa- 
 vorable comment. The arts and crafts club 
 enrolled thirty-seven women, two-thirds of 
 whom were not interested in the church 
 
 [247]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 affairs and more than half of whom were 
 Catholics. To rally all the forces for the 
 spiritual growth of the church a definite 
 program was kept before the people 
 throughout the year beginning on Rally 
 Sunday in September and ending with Chil- 
 dren's Sunday in June. The Sunday-school 
 has grown a, hundred per cent. ; the church's 
 vested choir was enlarged and music of a 
 higher order used. Much effort has been 
 put into the church services. Simple ser- 
 mons have succeeded in drawing most of the 
 children to church. Sunday evenings have 
 been given to expository sermons on the 
 great characters of the Bible and the mid- 
 week meetings have taken the form of a 
 study class using the Bible as a text book. 
 A class of young men has taken the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago Extension Bible Study 
 Course on the origin and teachings of the 
 New Testament under the pastor's direction. 
 The climax of the spiritual activities of the 
 church came at Easter. An evangelist was 
 secured and helped conduct a series of meet- 
 
 [248]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 ings, and as a result a large number of 
 persons united with the church. 
 
 In one way the work of the church has 
 gone beyond the community. As spring 
 approached it was thought desirable to give 
 the farmers some scientific aid in agriculture. 
 It was too expensive to arrange instructions 
 for the one community, and accordingly the 
 cooperation of five neighboring communities 
 was secured. A series of lectures by pro- 
 fessors of the State University was ar- 
 ranged. In this district there are no rich 
 men to pay the bills. All expenses have 
 been borne by the people themselves, except 
 those of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation apparatus and the girls' uniforms, 
 which have been given by friends. 
 
 This church has become a power in the 
 community. It has healed the old sores and 
 taught the people that they can and ought 
 to be friends. No one living in this town 
 or in the surrounding country need feel 
 isolated. The church has touched every 
 part of the life social, business, educa- 
 
 [249J
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 tional and religious. The wasteful compe- 
 tition, the disintegration and disgraceful 
 factions are now almost unknown. With a 
 larger vision of service the church has devel- 
 oped leadership of its own and made of the 
 people community servants. This church 
 has a right to be called Christian. 
 
 What has been done here can be done 
 to some degree in almost every community. 
 It cannot be expected that all the things 
 that succeed in one locality will succeed in 
 another, but in general the program that 
 is successful in one place will be successful 
 in another. 
 
 The one thing requisite if the church is 
 to become a social center is that its eyes shall 
 be turned outward toward the community 
 rather than inward toward itself. The mem- 
 bership of the church and especially the gov- 
 erning Board must adopt a liberal policy 
 regarding the use of the church building. 
 Wherever it is possible the building ought 
 to be offered to various helpful organiza- 
 tions, heat and light furnished without ex- 
 
 [250]
 
 A SOCIAL CENTER 
 
 pense, or with a minimum charge which will 
 cover the actual cost of usage. If the church 
 is to be made a social center a broad-minded 
 policy must be adopted. In one community 
 the people wondered why the boys would 
 not use the parish house, but they had taken 
 every occasion to warn the boys against the 
 evils of pool and would not allow a pool 
 table to be installed, even though the boys 
 offered to pay for it themselves, for it was 
 the one thing they desired above everything 
 else for the time being. In consequence this 
 church lost its opportunity, and the boys 
 played pool in a back room of a near-by fruit 
 store that was owned by a Greek. The suc- 
 cessful church whose work is detailed in this 
 chapter made its first impression upon the 
 community by offering to meet the commu- 
 nity's need for recreation, and when it did 
 this it succeeded in establishing itself in the 
 center of affairs. The result was that it 
 gained the confidence of all the people and 
 was able to help them in every good under- 
 taking. Naturally the community at large 
 
 [251]
 
 DANGERS AND DISASTERS 
 
 came to look upon the church as an author- 
 ity not only in spiritual matters but in other 
 things as well. 
 
 Some day the church as a whole will see 
 its opportunity and throughout the country 
 wherever there is a church there will be a 
 center for inspiring the community and 
 helping it to face its problems bravely and 
 solve them with wisdom. 
 
 [252]
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Addams, Jane Spirit of Youth and the City Streets. The 
 Macmillan Company. 
 
 Archibald, G. H. The Power of Play in Child Culture. 
 
 Bates, Esther Willard Pageants and Pageantry. Ginn 
 & Co. 
 
 Beard, Dan The Outdoor Handy Book. Charles Scrib- 
 ner's Sons. 
 
 Black, Hugh Culture and Restraint. Fleming H. Revell 
 Co. 
 
 Boyd, A. K. H. Recreations of a Country Parson. Long- 
 mans Green & Co. 
 
 Buckley, J. M. Christians and the Theater. The Century 
 Co, 
 
 Clark, Ellery H. and Graham, John Practical Track and 
 Field Athletics. Duffield & Co. 
 
 Crampton, C. Ward The Folk Dance Book. A. S. Barnes 
 Co. 
 
 Edwards, R. H. Christianity and Amusements. The As- 
 sociation Press, New York. 
 
 Gibson, H. W. Camping for Boys. Association Press. 
 
 Groos, Karl The Play of Man. D. Appleton & Co. 
 
 Gulick, Luther H. The Healthful Art of Dancing. 
 Doubleday Page & Co. 
 
 Hall, Katherine Stanley Children at Play hi Many Lands. 
 
 Hemenway, Herbert D. How to Make School Gardens. 
 Doubleday Page & Co. 
 
 Hyde, Wm. DeWitt The Quest of the Best. Crowell & 
 Co. 
 
 Inge, William Ralph The Church and the Age, The Mac- 
 millan Co. 
 
 Johnson, George E. Education by Play and Games. Ginn 
 &Co. 
 
 Kimmius, G. T. The Guild of Play Book of Festival and 
 Dance. J. Curwen & Sons, Ltd., 24 Bemers St. W., 
 London, Eng. 
 
 Lincoln, Jennette E. C. The Festival Book. A. S. Barnes 
 Co. 
 
 Lindsey, Ben B. The Beast and the Jungle. Doubleday 
 Page & Co. 
 
 Lyman, Edna Story Telling What to Tell and How to 
 Tell It A. C. McClurg & Co. 
 
 [253]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 McKay, Constance How to Produce Plays for Children. 
 
 Mero, Everett B. American Playgrounds. Baker & 
 Taylor Co. 
 
 Reisner, Christian F. Social Plans for Young People. 
 Methodist Book Concern. 
 
 Sawyer, Frederic A Plea for Amusements. D. Appleton 
 & Co. 
 
 Smith, H. M In Playtime. 
 
 Smith, H. M. Playmates. 
 
 Strachan, John What Is Play? G. P. Putnam's Sons. 
 
 Taylor, Graham Religion in Social Action. Dodd Mead 
 & Co. 
 
 Vincent, M. R. Amusements a Force in Christian Train- 
 ing. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 White, Mary Book of Games. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
 Wilson, Warren H. The Evolution of the Country Com- 
 munity. (Pages 189-207.) Pilgrim Press. 
 
 Wilson, Warren H. The Church of the Open Country. 
 (Pages 79-97.) Missionary Education Movement. 
 
 PERIODICAL LITERATURE 
 
 The Amusements of the People, by Rev. Harry Jones. 
 Good Words, 1891. 
 
 Amusements for the People. Spectator, August 15, 1891. 
 
 Amusements: Review of a Plea for Amusements, by Fred- 
 eric W. Sawyer. Christian Examiner and Religious 
 Miscellany, September, 1848. 
 
 A Plea for Amusements, by Frederic W. Sawyer. New 
 England Magazine, August, 1851. 
 
 Amusements of the People, by Walter Besant. Contempo- 
 rary Review, March, 1884. 
 
 The Boys Are After You, by Forrest Crissey. Success 
 Magazine, May, 1911. 
 
 The Church as a Social Center. Collier's Weekly, October 
 8, 1910. 
 
 The Church's Attitude Toward Recreation, by Rev. H. R. 
 Haweis. The Outlook, September, 1900. 
 
 Christianity and Amusements, Symposium. Cardinal Gib- 
 bons, Dr. Newman Smyth, Dr. Bradford Paul Ray- 
 mond, Bishop Ezekiel Boring Kephart, Dr. Charles 
 Henry Parkhurst, Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur, Dr. 
 Junius Benjamin Remensnyder, Bishop David HummelJ 
 Greer. Everybody's Magazine, May, 1904. 
 
 The Central Games Committee of Germany. Henry S. 
 Curtis. Charities and The Commons, July 7, 1906. 
 
 Christianity and Popular Amusements, by Washington 
 Gladden. The Century, January, 1885. 
 
 [254]
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 City Neighbors at Play, by Graham Romeyn Taylor. The 
 Survey, July 2, 1910. 
 
 The Dilemma of Amusements. The Literary Digest, Sep- 
 tember 28, 1912. 
 
 The Dance Problem, by Mrs. Charles H. Israels. Conference 
 Kinney. Century, October, 1914. 
 
 The Dance Problem, by Mrs. Charles Israels. Conference 
 of Charities and Corrections, 1912. 
 
 Editor's Easy Chair. Harpers Magazine, August, 1907. 
 
 The Educational Value of Play, by Dr. John E. Bradley. 
 Review of Reviews, January, 1902. 
 
 Fashionable Amusements. A Tract Discussed in Christian 
 Examiner, 1830. Tract No. 73. American Tract 
 Society. 
 
 Folk Dances for Health, by William Inglis. Harpers 
 Weekly, July 8, 1911. 
 
 Fighting the Gang With Athletics, by Jacob A. Riis. 
 Colliers, February 11, 1911. 
 
 The Gospel of Amusement. Spectator, October 26, 1889. 
 
 The Gospel of Recreation, by Herbert Spencer. Popular 
 Science Monthly, January, 1883. 
 
 Give Them a Place to Play, by Denis A. McCarthy. Sur- 
 vey, July 9, 1910. 
 
 Giving City Children a Chance, by Ralph D. Paine. Col- 
 liers, November 12, 1910. 
 
 The Importance of Teaching, Encouraging and Enabling 
 the People to Play Rationally and Healthfully, by 
 Francis Fuller (paper read before the Victoria Dis- 
 cussion Society, March 6, 1870. Published in Victoria 
 Magazine, 1870.) 
 
 Municipal Theatre and Concert Hall. The American City. 
 May, 1910. 
 
 The Miracle of the Movie, by W. P. Lawson. Harpers 
 Weekly, January 2, 1915. 
 
 The Methodist Amusement Ban. Litery Digest, January 
 15, 1912. 
 
 The Man Who Danced to Health, by Dr. Stephen Innes. 
 Technical World Magazine, July, 1913. 
 
 The New Fourth of July, by Percy Mackaye. The Century, 
 July, 1910. 
 
 The Need of Recreation, by Mrs. Joseph I. Bowen (Presi- 
 dent Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago) Con- 
 ference Charities and Corrections, 1910. 
 
 On the Need of Play. Editorial. North American Review, 
 January, 1909. By Henry S. Curtis. 
 
 Our Amusements. Backwoods Magazine, December, 1866. 
 
 Our Recreation Facilities and the Immigrant, by Victor 
 
 [255]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 Von Borosini, Hull House, Chicago. Annals of the 
 
 American Academy of Political and Social Science, 
 
 March, 1910. 
 Organized Play in the Country, by Myron T. Scudder. 
 
 Charities and The Commons, August 3, 1907. 
 The Playground Movement in America. The American 
 
 City, March, 1912. 
 The Public Library a Social Force in Pittsburg. Survey, 
 
 March 5, 1910. 
 The Physiology of Recreation, by Charles Roberts. The 
 
 Contemporary Review, July, 1895. 
 The Playground in Rural Communities, by H. L. Bailey. 
 
 The Playground, September, 1911. 
 Play as a Factor in Social Educational Reforms, by Prof. 
 
 A. E. Kirkpatrick. Review of Reviews, August, 1899. 
 Play as an Education, by Woods Hutchinson, M.D. The 
 
 Contemporary Review, September, 1903. 
 Play as a Reformative Agency, by T. F. Chapin. Con- 
 ference of Charities and Corrections, Detroit, 1902. 
 Play and Congestion, by Joseph E. Lee. Charities and The 
 
 Commons, April 4, 1908. 
 Play and Democracy, by Luther E. Gulick. Charities and 
 
 The Commons, August 8, 1907. 
 Play and Dancing for Adolescents, by G. Stanley Hall. 
 
 Independent, February 14, 1907. 
 Public Recreation and Social Morality, by Jane Addams. 
 
 Charities and The Commons, April 8, 1907. 
 Playgrounds in the Prevention of Tuberculosis, by Henry 
 
 Baird Favill, M.D. Charities and The Commons, 
 
 August 3, 1907. 
 The Play Impulse and Attitude in Religion, by Prof. Carl 
 
 E. Seashore. The American Journal of Theology, 
 
 October, 1910. 
 
 Play and Puritans. British Review, May, 1856. 
 Playgrounds for Poor Children, by Mrs. DeMorgan. Good 
 
 Words, November 1, 1867. 
 Popular Amusements. The Westminster and Foreign 
 
 Quarterly Review, July, 1856. 
 Play and Social Progress, by Howard S. Braucher. Annals 
 
 of the American Academy of Political and Social 
 
 Science, March, 1910. 
 
 Play, by Joseph Lee. Survey, July 2, 1910. 
 Play as a Medicine, by Joseph Lee. Conference of Char- 
 ities and Corrections, 1911. 
 
 The Psychology of Relaxation, by G. T. W. Patrick. Pop- 
 ular Science Monthly, June, 1914. 
 
 [ 256 ]
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Problem that the Tango has Inflicted on the Church. 
 
 Current Opinion, March, 1914. 
 The Relation of Play to Character, by President John E. 
 
 Bradley. Education, March, 1899. 
 Relation of Play to Juvenile Delinquency, by Caroline McP. 
 
 Bergen. Charities and The Commons, August 8, 1907. 
 Some Reflections on the Failure of the City to Provide 
 
 Recreation for Young Girls, by Jane Addams. Char- 
 ities and The Commons, December 5, 1908. 
 Recreations for the People. The Penny Magazine of the 
 
 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Jan- 
 uary 12, 1839. 
 Recreation, by George J. Romanes. Nineteenth Century, 
 
 September, 1879. 
 
 The Rochester Play Congress Report. Survey, July 2, 1910. 
 Recreation as a Public Function in Urban Communities, 
 
 by Jane Addams. The American Journal of Sociology, 
 
 March, 1912. 
 Report of Subcommittee on Amusements and Employment, 
 
 by D. H. Holbrook, East High School, Minneapolis. 
 
 School Review, November, 1912. 
 Recreation A World Need, by C. M. Goethe. Survey, 
 
 October 4, 1913. 
 A Signal Example of Church Social Service (Rochester, 
 
 N. Y.). Survey, December 17, 1910. 
 
 The Science of Recreation, by Walter Besant. Time, Jan- 
 uary, 1886. 
 The Soul of Play, by Richard C. Cabot. Atlantic Monthly, 
 
 November, 1910. 
 The Significance of the Present Dance Movement, by Lucia 
 
 Gale Barber. New England Magazine, November, 
 
 1909. 
 The Social Significance of Play, by Otto T. Mallery. Annals 
 
 of the American Academy of Political and Social 
 
 Science, March, 1910. 
 The Social Center, by Mabel Potter Daggett. World's 
 
 Work, November, 1912. 
 The Sociology of Recreation, by J. L. Gillin. American 
 
 Journal of Sociology, May, 1914. 
 The Significance of Playgrounds, by Wm. Hale Beckford. 
 
 Lippincott's, June, 1918. 
 
 Southern Boys' Corn Clubs. The Outlook, February 6, 1910. 
 Summer Activities. The Association Monthly, June, 1911. 
 Tango to Fight Disease. Literary Digest. May 9, 1914. 
 Using the School House Out of School Hours, by Anne 
 
 Forsythe. The World Today, January, 1911. 
 The Wage Earner and His Recreation, by Edward Priestly. 
 
 The Catholic World, July, 1888. 
 [257]
 
 THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE'S PLAY 
 
 REPORTS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Camp Fire Girls of America. Handbook may be secured 
 
 from Secretary, 118 E. 28th St., New York. 
 Boy Scouts' Official Manual. Doubleday Page & Co. 25c. 
 Publications of the Russell Sage Foundation, 130 E. 22nd 
 St., New York: 
 
 Recreation Bibliography. 
 
 Information About Field Methods, etc. 
 
 How to Start Social Centers, by Clarence A. Perry. 
 
 The Celebration of the Fourth of July by Means of 
 Pageantry. William C. Langdon. 
 
 The Fourth of July Program. 
 
 Independence Day Legislation and Celebration Sugges- 
 tions. Lee F. Hanmer. 
 
 Sources of Information on Recreation. 
 
 Recreation Legislation. 
 
 Sources of Speakers and Topics for Public Lectures in 
 School Buildings. 
 
 May Day Celebrations, by Elizabeth Bruchenal. 
 
 Athletics in the Public Schools, by Lee F. Hanmer. 
 
 The Exploitation of Pleasure. A Study of Commercial 
 Recreation in New York City, by Michael M. Davis, Jr. 
 
 Exercise and Rest, by Luther H. Gulick. 
 
 Inter-High School Athletics, by Earl Cline. 
 
 The Unused Recreation Resources of the Average Com- 
 munity, by Clarence A. Perry. 
 
 First Annual Report of the Chief Children's Bureau to the 
 Secretary of Labor. United States Government Docu- 
 ment, Washington, D. C., 1914. 
 
 Publications of the Playground Association of America. 
 1 Madison Avenue, New York: 
 
 The Playground. Vol. VI No. 9. 
 
 The Playground. Vol. VII No. 10. 
 
 Index to Vol. VI The Playground. 
 
 Index to Vol. VII The Playground. 
 
 A Year's Campaign for a Life Rather Than a Living 
 for Everyone in America. Report of Secretary 
 Braucher for year 1912-13. 
 
 The Social Influence of the Moving Picture, by Rev. H. 
 A. Jump. 
 
 Leisure, Recreation and Life, by Raymond Robins. 
 
 A City and Country Life Movement. 
 The Question of Motion Picture Censorship. Report pre- 
 pared by the National Board of Censorship of Motion 
 Pictures, 70 Fifth Ave., New York. 
 
 The Policy and Standards of the National Board of Cen- 
 sorship of Motion Pictures, 70 Fifth Ave., New York. 
 
 [258]
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Suggestions for Regulation of Motion Pictures. Juvenile 
 Protective Association of Chicago. 
 
 The Colored People of Chicago. Report of an Investiga- 
 tion Made for The Juvenile Protective Association of 
 Chicago. 
 
 On the Trail of the Juvenile Adult Offender. An Inten- 
 .sive Study of 100 County Jail Cases for the Juvenile 
 Protective Association of Chicago, 1912. 
 
 The Care of Illegitimate Children in Chicago. Report 
 Made by Howard Moore for Juvenile Protective Asso- 
 ciation of Chicago. 
 
 A Study in Adult Delinquency. Investigation by Juvenile 
 Protective Association of Chicago. 
 
 The Juvenile Court of Denver. A Report issued by au- 
 thority of the Judge of the Court. 
 
 Annual Report of the Seattle Juvenile Court, 1912. 
 
 Vice Reports Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, New 
 York and Boston. 
 
 Annual Report of the Committee of Fifteen, Chicago, 1914. 
 
 Survey of the Conditions Demoralizing to Women and 
 Girls in the Saloons of Chicago by the Chicago South 
 Side Club, 731 Plymouth Ct., Chicago. 
 
 Report of Mashashimuet Park and Social Center, Sag 
 Harbor, N. Y. 
 
 The Pageant of Darien. Report Committee Darien, Conn. 
 
 Second Annual Report Recreation Department of Board 
 of Welfare, Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Third Annual Report Recreation Department of Board 
 of Welfare, Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Report of the Committee on Immigation on the Problem 
 of Immigation in Massachusetts Massachusetts State 
 Document. 
 
 [259]
 
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