sprung from a perception of the beauty and utility of trees. Survivals of this still linger on in many parts of Europe. The peasants in Bohemia will sally forth into their gardens before sunrise on Good Friday, and falling upon their knees before a tree will exclaim: "I pray, O green tree, that God may make thee good." At night-time they will run to and fro about their gardens crying: "Bud, O trees, bud, or I will flog you." In England the Devonshire farmers and their men will to this day go out into their orchards after supper on the evening of Twelfth Day, carrying with them a large milk-pail of cider, with roasted apples prest into it. All present hold in their hands an earthenware cup filled with liquor, and taking up their stand beneath those apple-trees which have borne the most fruit, address them in these words:
Health to thee, good apple-tree,
Well to bear pocketfuls, hatfuls,
Peckfuls, bushel bagfuls!
simultaneously dashing the contents of their cups over the trees.—The Gentleman's Magazine.
(2383)
Planting That Multiplied—See Missionary, A Little.
PLAY AND MORALS
Play is related to morals. As we learn
from Judge Lindsey: "The whole question
of juvenile law-breaking—or at least nine-tenths
of it—is a question of children's play.
A boy who breaks the law is in nine cases
out of ten not a criminal. He is obeying
an instinct that is not only legitimate, but
vital, and which, if it finds every lawful
channel choked up, will seek an outlet at the
next available point. The boy has no especial
desire to come in conflict with the laws
and usages of civilized society." Give a boy
an opportunity to play at his favorite game,
and the policeman will need, as Mr. Lee puts
it, "a gymnasium himself to keep his weight
down." Give children playgrounds, and the
same spirit and imagination which form
rowdy gangs will form baseball clubs and
companies for games and drills. Precinct
captains attribute the existence of rowdyism
and turbulence to lack of better playgrounds
than the streets. They break lamps and windows
because they have no other provision
made for them. London, after forty years'
experience, says tersely, "Crime in our large
cities is to a great extent simply a question
of athletics." "This is not theory, but is the
testimony you will get from any policeman
or schoolmaster who has been in a neighborhood
before and after a playground was
started there. The public playground is a
moral agent, and should be in every community."
The play of youth needs careful
and scientific direction, so as to develop
active and manly qualities of mind and
character.—George J. Fisher, "Proceedings
of the Religious Education Association,"
1907.
(2384)
PLAY, COMMENDABLE
Lovely human play is like the play of the
sun. There's a worker for you. He, steady
to his time, is set as a strong man to run
his course, but also, he rejoiceth as a strong
man to run his course. See how he plays in
the morning, with the mists below, and the
clouds above, with a ray here and a flash
there, and a shower of jewels everywhere—that's
the sun's play; and great human play
is like his—all various—all full of light and
life, and tender, as the dew of the morning.—John
Ruskin.
(2385)
PLAY NECESSARY
The child has an artificial occupation
named play through games. Having the food
as raw material for the body, that food can
be built into the physique only through the
free play of the legs and arms, through exercise
and fresh air. In Prospect Park we
behold the maple bough pushing out a soft
growth of one or two feet, and then the sap
coursing through the young growth furnishes
food; then comes the spring and summer
winds to give the sap and the bough its exercise;
playing with the leaves in the air,
bending it, twisting it, hardening the young
growth, until it can stand up against the
storms of winter. And not otherwise does
the growing child need its exercise. The
little boy flings out his arm with the ball,
and so stretches the arm. Then, when the
arm is stretched, along comes the angel of
the blood and drops in a little wedge, so that
the stretched arm can not draw back. Thus
the growth is permanent. This is the function
of all the games for little children, to
stretch the blood into the body and then by
forcing the arterial blood into the extremities
to make the stretching permanent. One
thing, therefore, is vital, the playground.
(Text.)—N. D. Hillis.
(2386)
