HOW TO GET STRONG
of letting others see them do it; and, like their elders, they gladly follow a good leader. But if no one of them is equal to tasks which call for first-class strength and staying powers; and no one leads the rest up to a higher physical plane, they never will get there.
It is not a good sign, nor one that bodes well for our future, to see the few playgrounds of our cities and towns so much neglected. You may stand on many of them for weeks together and not see one sharp, hot game of ball; or of anything else, where each contestant goes in with might and main; and the spectator becomes so interested as to hate to leave the fun. Football is a game better known among us than it used to be, but in how many school-yards, or upon how many playgrounds do you see it played even once a week? For developing swift judgment; dash; and intrepidity, it has few rivals. No one dull or timid is ever a good football player. One fit to lead a football team in a sharp match, has in him the making of a leader of men in almost any calling. Weed out low tackling and mass-play, and we have no game in America which will make us a keener, tougher, braver race; fitter for peace or war. But the short, hasty recess in the crowded school-yard; or play snatched in the streets—these will never make robust and vigorous men. Yet these are too often all that our boys get; and so comes the natural result—small vital organs, and half-developed limbs.
Many of our cities have few or no playgrounds. Fortunately the Press is waking up, and has already done good work in New York, Boston, and elsewhere in causing public playgrounds, and even gymnasiums to be thrown open. But where there is one, there should be ten. No school should any more be without a playground than a school-house should be without win-
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