196 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



extent demoralized, the habits of those sections of the 

 community who have had the misfortune to come in 

 contact with them. One is tempted to think that the 

 simplicity of a home life which would fit any child for 

 any career is exchanged for the more elaborate para- 

 phernalia of luxury and display, quite as much on 

 account of the preference of the parents for an extrava- 

 gant style of living as for the real advantage of the 

 children to whose welfare it is sometimes charged. 



The cult of games, too, for which the present age 

 is conspicuous, has probably done much harm. Games 

 are excellent for young people ; the moral and physical 

 training they give cannot be obtained otherwise. 

 Even in mature age, they provide healthful exercise, 

 and, taken in moderation, give a much-needed mental 

 relaxation. But of late years there has set in an 

 organization of professionalism, with its attendant evils 

 of a publicity developing into notoriety for successful 

 players, and the establishment of an endless number 

 of championships of every imaginable kind. Thus 

 games have become exalted till they have become the 

 serious object of life and the subject of incessant 

 thought and conversation, not only to those who 

 spend too much time in play, but also to others for 

 whom they are but spectacular indulgences. Had 

 this excessive interest in games and sport been con- 

 fined to men, from our present point of view it might 

 have been less disastrous. But with the growing 

 tendency to assimilate the lives of men and women, 

 wives and mothers too often place their desire to par- 

 ticipate in the pastimes of their husbands and brothers 

 before the welfare or existence of their actual or possible 



