CHAPTER IX 

 RURAL RECREATION, DRAMA, ART 



EXTRACT FROM THE WILL OF 

 CHARLES LOUNSBURY 



* * ITEM : I devise to boys jointly all the useful fields and com- 

 mons where ball may be played; all pleasant waters where one 

 may swim; all snow-clad hills where one may coast; and all 

 streams and ponds where one may fish, or where, when grim 

 winter comes, one may skate ; to have and to hold the same for 

 the period of their boyhood. 



"Item: To young men jointly I devise and bequeath all 

 boisterous, inspiring sports of rivalry, and I give to them the 

 disdain of weakness and undaunted confidence in their own 

 strength, though they be rude ; I give them the power to make 

 lasting friendships, and of possessing companions, and to them 

 exclusively I give all merry songs and brave choruses, to sing 

 with lusty voices." 



THE NEED OF PLAY IN RURAL LIFE x 



HENRY S. CURTIS 



IN the early days there was plenty of hunting and fishing, and 

 there was an occasional scalping party, conducted by the Indians, 

 which gave variety to life and prevented it from being dull. 

 Such conditions brought out the manhood in boys and awoke 

 the heroic in girls. There was not the time or energy or often 

 the opportunity for vice. Men and women living under such 

 conditions did not see the need of play. Life itself was a des- 

 perate game of engrossing interest. The farmer has been too 



i Adapted from Introduction, "Play and Recreation," pp. 13-16, Ginn, 

 Boston, 1914. 



226 



