RURAL AMERICA 



C. Play Parks 



Not only playgrounds without number have been established, 

 especially in the cities, but a beginning has been made in the 

 matter of play parks, with stands and suitable buildings. 

 These parks provide for all the games that interest both 

 young and old, and arrangements have been made in some of 

 them for winter as well as summer sports, since recreation 

 must be an all-the-year-round affair. Parks of this sort 

 encourage the organization of game leagues of various sorts, 

 which bring young people together from neighboring town- 

 ships, villages and cities in all kinds of contests. There is no 

 reason why neighboring counties, townships, villages and cities 

 should not organize in the interest of sports and thus put the 

 sport life of whole sections on a high plane. Simply a begin- 

 ning has been made in the sport activities of the youth, not 

 only in Rural America, where least progress has been made 

 owing to many handicaps, but in Urban America as well. A 

 German school-teacher in one of the trenches recently made 

 the statement that the Germany of the future must make 

 more ample provision for organized out-of-door play, for the 

 sake of the future physical fitness of the young manhood of 

 the nation, if for no other. England and America have 

 possibly done more in this direction than any other nation, 

 excepting Switzerland, and their boys and girls have in a 

 majority of cases as a result laid a good foundation for 

 longevity. 



D. Rural Entertainment Halls 



A movement coming to have increasing significance in recent 

 months has to do with rural entertainment halls, where all 

 kinds of productions can be given, but particularly where such 

 productions can be presented as are of special interest in the 

 country, and where moving pictures of the better class, be- 

 cause of the availability of pictures and films at very low 

 prices, can likewise be shown. Of course rural entertainments 

 must compete with attractions in towns and cities, but with 

 the growing spirit of loyalty that is beginning to assert itself 



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