file which includes the original illustrations4 ,see #acjfi-;h4htm or #acjfi-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/#a_/c_/j_/ f_/acjfi_/acjfi-;h_/#acjfi-;h4htm7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/#a_/c_/j_/ f_/acjfi_/acjfi-;h4zip7 ,,the ,,minister ,,and ,,the ,,boy ,a ,handbook for ,churchmen ,engaged in ,boys' ,work by ,,allan ,,hoben1 ,,ph4,d4 ,associate ,professor of ,practical ,theology1 ,the ,university of ,chicago ,field ,secretary of the ,chicago ,juvenile ,protective ,association #aiab ,,preface ,the aim of this book is to call the attention of ministers to the important place which boys' work may have in furthering the ,kingdom of ,god4 ,to this end an endeavor is made to quicken the minister's appreciation of boys1 to stimulate his study of them1 and to suggest a few practical ways in which church work with boys may be conducted4 ,the author is indebted to the ,union ,church of ,waupun1 ,wis41 and to the ,first ,baptist ,church of ,detroit1 ,mich41 for the opportunity of working out in actual practice most of the suggestions incorporated in this book4 ,he is also indebted to many authors1 especially to ,president ,g4 ,stanley ,hall1 for a point of view which throws considerable light upon boy nature4 ,the ,boy-,scout pictures have been provided by ,mr4 ,h4,h4 ,simmons1 the others by ,mr4 ,d4,b4 ,stewart1 ,mrs4 ,joseph ,t4 ,bowen1 and the author4 ,the greatest contribution is from the boys of both village and city with whom the author has had the privilege of comradeship and from whom he has learned most of what is here recorded4 ,the material has been used in talks to teachers and clubs of various sorts1 and in the ,men and ,religion ,forward ,movement4 ,the requests following upon such talks and arising also from publication of most of the material in the ,biblical ,world have encouraged this attempt to present a brief handbook for ministers and laymen who engage in church work for boys4 ,,allan ,,hoben ,,chicago1 ,august #ai1 #aiab ,,table ,,of ,,contents ,i4 ,,the ,,call ,,of ,,boyhood ,,ii4 ,,an ,,approach ,,to ,,boyhood ,,iii4 ,,the ,,boy ,,in ,,village ,,and ,,country ,,iv4 ,,the ,,modern ,,city ,,and ,,the ,,normal ,,boy ,v4 ,,the ,,ethical ,,value ,,of ,,organized ,,play ,,vi4 ,,the ,,boy',s ,,choice ,,of ,a ,,vocation ,,vii4 ,,training ,,for ,,citizenship ,,viii4 ,,the ,,boy',s ,,religious ,,life ,,ix4 ,,the ,,church ,,boys' ,,club ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,call ,,of ,,boyhood ,the ,christian apologetic for today depends less upon the arguments of speculative theology and the findings of biblical science than upon sociological considerations4 ,the church is dealing with a pragmatic public which insists upon knowing what this or that institution accomplishes for the common good4 ,the deep and growing interest in social science1 the crying needs that it lays bare1 together with socialistic dreams of human welfare1 compel ,christian workers to pay more heed to the life that now is1 since individualistic views of salvation in the world to come do not fully satisfy the modern consciousness4 ,hence the ministry is compelled more and more to address itself to the salvation of the community and the nation after the fashion of the ,hebrew prophets4 ,lines of distinction also between what is religious and what is secular in education and in all human intercourse have become irregular or dim2 and the task of bringing mankind to fullness and perfection of life has become the task alike of the educator1 the minister1 the legislator1 and the social worker4 ,in fact1 all who in any capacity put their hands to this noble undertaking are co-workers with ,him whose divine ideal was to be consummated in the ,kingdom of ,god on earth4 ,the ministry1 therefore1 is taking on a great variety of forms of service1 and the pastor is overtaxed4 ,the church1 moreover1 is slow to recognize the principle of the division of labor and to employ a sufficient number of paid officers4 ,only the pressing importance of work for boys can excuse one for suggesting another duty to the conscientious and overworked pastor4 ,already too much has been delegated to him alone4 ,every day his acknowledged obligations outrun his time and strength1 and he must choose but a few of the many duties ever pressing to be done4 ,yet there is no phase of that larger social and educational conception of the pastor's work that has in it more of promise than his ministry to boys4 ,whatever must be neglected1 the boy should not be overlooked4 ,to answer this complex demand and the call of boyhood in particular the pastor must be a leader and an organizer4 ,otherwise1 troubles and vicissitudes await him4 ,in every field unused possibilities hasten the day of his departure4 ,idle persons who should have been led into worthy achievement for ,christ and the church fall into critical gossip1 and there soon follows another siege perilous for the minister's freight-wracked furniture1 another flitting experience for his homeless children1 another proof of his wife's heroic love1 and another scar on his own bewildered heart4 ,it is1 indeed1 difficult for the pastor to adopt a policy commensurate with modern demands4 ,he should lead1 but on the other hand a very legitimate fear of being discredited through failure deters him2 traditional methods hold the field2 peace at any price and pleasurable satisfaction play a large part in church affairs2 the adult1 whose character is already formed1 receives disproportionate attention2 money for purposes of experimentation in church work is hard to get2 everything points to moderation and the beaten path2 and the way of the church is too often the way of least resistance4 ,small wonder if the minister sometimes capitulates to things as they are and resigns himself to the ecclesiastical treadmill4 ,it requires no small amount of courage to be governed by the facts as they confront the intelligent pastor1 to direct one's effort where it is most needed and where it will1 in the long run1 produce the greatest and best results4 ,to be sure1 the adult needs the ministry of teaching1 inspiration1 correction1 and comfort to fit him for daily living2 but1 as matters now stand1 the chief significance of the adult lies in the use that can be made of him in winning the next generation for ,christ4 ,in so far as the adult membership may contribute to this it may lay claim to the best that the minister has4 ,in so far as it regards his ministry as a means of personal pleasure1 gratification1 and religious luxury1 it is both an insult to him and an offense to his ,master4 ,a successful ministry to boys1 whether by the pastor himself or by those whom he shall inspire and guide1 is fundamental in good pastoral work4 ,boys now at the age of twelve or fifteen will1 in a score of years1 manage the affairs of the world4 ,all that has been accomplished--the inventions1 the wealth1 the experience in education and government1 the vast industrial and commercial systems1 the administration of justice1 the concerns of religion--all will pass into their control2 and they who1 with the help of the girls of today1 must administer the world's affairs1 are1 or may be1 in our hands now when their ideals are nascent and their whole natures in flux4 ,boys' work1 then1 is not providing harmless amusement for a few troublesome youngsters2 it is the natural way of capturing the modern world for ,jesus ,christ4 ,it lays hold of life in the making1 it creates the masters of tomorrow2 and may pre-empt for the ,kingdom of ,god the varied activities and startling conquests of our titanic age4 ,think of the great relay of untamed and unharnessed vigor1 a new nation exultant in hope1 undaunted as yet by the experiences that have halted the passing generation3 what may they not accomplish8 ,as significant as the awakening of ,china should the awakening of this new nation be to us4 ,in each case the call for leadership is imperative1 and the best ability is none too good4 ,dabblers and incompetent persons will work only havoc1 whether in the ,celestial ,empire or in the equally potent ,kingdom of ,boyhood4 ,the bookworm1 of course1 is unfit even if he could hear the call1 and the nervous wreck is doomed even if he should hear it2 but the fit man who hears and heeds may prevent no small amount of delinquency and misery1 and may deliver many from moral and social insolvency4 ,if a minister can do this work even indirectly he is happy1 but if he can do it directly by virtue of his wholesome character1 his genuine knowledge and love of boys1 his athletic skill1 and his unabated zest for life1 his lot is above that of kings and his reward above all earthly riches4 ,then1 too1 it is not alone the potential value of boys for the ,kingdom of ,god1 and what the minister may do for them2 but what may they not do for him8 ,how fatal is the boy collective to all artificiality1 sanctimony1 weakness1 make-believe1 and jointless dignity2 and how prone is the ministry to these psychological and semi-physical pests6 ,for1 owing to the demands of the pulpit and of private and social intercourse1 the minister finds it necessary to talk more than most men4 ,he must also theorize extensively because of the very nature of theological discipline4 ,moreover1 he is occupied particularly with those affairs of the inner life which are as intangible as they are important4 ,his relation with people is largely a ,sunday relation1 or at any rate a religious one1 and he meets them on the pacific side4 ,very naturally they reveal to him their best selves1 and1 true to ,christian charity and training1 he sees the best in everyone4 ,if the women of his parish receive more than their proper share of attention the situation is proportionately worse4 ,it follows that the minister needs the most wholesome contact with stern reality in order to offset the subtle drift toward a remote1 theoretical1 or sentimental world4 ,in this respect commercial life is more favorable to naturalness and virility2 while a fair amount of manual labor is conducive to sanity1 mental poise1 and sound judgment as to the facts of life4 ,the minister must have an elemental knowledge of and respect for objective reality2 and he must know human nature4 ,now among all the broad and rich human contacts that can put the minister in touch with vital realities there is none so electric1 so near to revelation as the boy4 ,collectively he is frank to the point of cruelty and as elemental as a savage4 ,confronted alone and by the minister1 who is not as yet his chum1 he reveals chiefly the minister's helplessness4 ,taken in company with his companions and in his play he is a veritable searchlight laying bare those manly and ante-professional qualities which must underlie an efficient ministry4 ,later life1 indeed1 wears the mask1 praises dry sermons1 smiles when bored1 and takes careful precautions against spontaneity and the indiscretions of unvarnished truth2 but the boy among his fellows and on his own ground represents the normal and unfettered reaction of the human heart to a given personality4 ,the minister may be profoundly benefited by knowing and heeding the frank estimate of a bunch of boys4 ,they are the advance agents of the final judgment2 they will find the essential man4 ,may it not be with him as with ,kipling's ,tomlinson1 who1 under the examination of both ,peter and the little devils1 was unable to qualify for admission either to heaven or hell3 ,and back they came with the tattered ,thing1 as children after play1 ,and they said3 ,the soul that he got from ,god he has bartered clean away4 ,we have threshed a stook of print and book1 and winnowed a chattering wind ,and many a soul wherefrom he stole1 but his we cannot find3 ,we have handled him1 we have dandled him1 we have seared him to the bone1 ,and sure if tooth and nail show truth he has no soul of his own4 ,fortunately1 however1 ministerial professionalism is on the wane4 ,protestantism1 in its more democratic forms1 rates the man more and the office less1 and present-day tests of practical efficiency are adverse to empty titles and pious assumption4 ,to be ,reverend means such character and deeds as compel reverence and not the mere laying on of hands4 ,work with boys discovers this basis1 for there is no place for the holy tone in such work1 nor for the strained and vapid quotation of ,scripture1 no place for excessively feminine virtues1 nor for the professional hand-shake and the habitual inquiry after the family's health4 ,in a very real sense many a minister can be saved by the boys2 he can be saved from that invidious classification of adult society into men1 women1 and ministers1 which is credited to the sharp insight of ,george ,eliot4 ,the minister is also in need of a touch of humor in his work4 ,the sadness of human failure and loss1 the insuperable difficulties of his task1 the combined woes of his parish1 the decorum and seriousness of pulpit work--all operate to dry up the healthy spring of humor that bubbled up and overran in his boyhood days4 ,what health there is in a laugh1 what good-natured endurance in the man whose humor enables him to side-step disastrous and unnecessary encounters and to love people none the less1 even when they provoke inward merriment4 ,the boys' pastor will certainly take life seriously1 but he cannot take it somberly4 ,somewhere in his kind1 honest eye there is a glimmer1 a blessed survival of his own boyhood4 ,so1 being ministered to by the comradeship of boys1 he retains his sense of fun1 fights on in good humor1 detects and saves himself on the verge of pious caricature and solemn bathos2 knows how to meet important committees on microscopic reforms as well as self-appointed theological inquisitors and all the insistent cranks that waylay a busy pastor4 ,life cannot grow stale2 and by letting the boys lead him forth by the streams of living water and into the whispering woods he catches again the wild charm of that all-possible past3 the smell of the campfire1 the joyous freedom and good health of ,god's great out-of-doors4 ,genius and success in life depend largely upon retaining the boyish quality of enthusiastic abandon to one's cause1 the hearty release of one's entire energy in a given pursuit1 and the conviction that the world is ever new and all things possible4 ,the thing in men that defies failure is the original boy1 and no man is really a man who has lost out of him all the boy4 ,the boy may also be a very practical helper in the pastor's work4 ,in every community there are some homes in which the pastor finds it almost impossible to create a welcome for himself4 ,misconceptions of long standing1 anti-church sentiments1 old grievances block the way4 ,but if in such a home there is a boy whose loyalty the pastor has won through association in the boys' club1 at play1 in camp--anywhere and anyhow--his eager hand will open both home and parental hearts to the wholesome friendship and kindly counsel of the minister of ,christ4 ,when the boy's welfare is at stake how many prejudices fade away6 ,the reliable sentiment of fathers and mothers dictates that he who takes time to know and help their boy is of all persons a guest to be welcomed and honored1 and withal1 a practical interpreter of ,christianity4 ,the pastor whose advance agent is a boy has gracious passport into the homes where he is most needed4 ,he has a friend at court4 ,his cause is almost won before he has uttered one syllable of a formal plea4 ,further1 it must be apparent to all intelligent observers that the churches in most communities are in need of a more visible social sanction for their existence4 ,in the thought of many they are expensive and over-numerous institutions detached from the actual community life and needs4 ,boys' work constitutes one visible strand of connection with the live needs of the neighborhood2 and1 human nature being what it is1 this tangible service is essential to the formation of a just1 popular estimate of the church and the ministry4 ,talk is easy and the market is always overstocked4 ,the shortage is in deeds1 and the doubtful community is saying to the minister1 ,what do you do8 ,it is well if among other things of almost equal importance he can reply1 ,we are saving your boys from vice and low ideals1 from broken health and ruined or useless lives1 by providing for wholesome self-expression under clean and inspiring auspices4 ,the ,corban of false sanctity has been removed2 our plant and our men are here to promote human welfare in every legitimate way4 ,boys' work affords a concrete social sanction that has in it a wealth of sentiment and far-reaching implications4 ,closely allied with this is the help that the boy renders as an advertiser4 ,the boy is a tremendous promoter of his uppermost interest2 and1 while boys' work must not be exploited for cheap and unworthy advertising purposes but solely for the good of the boy himself1 the fact remains that the boy is an enterprising publicity bureau4 ,the minister who gives the boy his due of love1 service1 and friendship will unwittingly secure more and better publicity than his more scholastic and less human brother4 ,in the home and at school1 here1 there1 and everywhere1 these unrivaled enthusiasts sound the praises of the institution and the man4 ,others of their own kind are interested1 and reluctant adults are finally drawn into the current4 ,the man or church that is doing a real work for boys is as a city set on a hill4 ,the pastor needs the boys because his task is to enlist and train the ,christians and churchmen of the future4 ,these should be more efficient and devoted than those of the present1 and should reckon among their dearest memories the early joyous associations formed within the church4 ,many thoughtful ministers are perplexed by the alienation of wage-earners from the church2 but what could not be accomplished in the betterment of this condition if for one generation the churches would bend their utmost devotion and wisdom to maintaining institutions that would be worth while for all the boys of the community8 ,a boy genuinely interested and properly treated is not going to turn his back upon the institution or the man that has given him the most wholesome enjoyment and the deepest impressions of his life4 ,the reason why the church does not get and hold the boy of the wage-earner1 or any other boy1 is because it stupidly ignores him1 his primary interests1 and his essential nature2 or goes to the extreme bother of making itself an insufferable bore4 ,the reflex influence of boys' work upon the church herself should not be ignored4 ,here is a great plant moldering away in silence4 ,not to mention the auditorium1 even the ,sunday-school quarters and lecture-room are very little used1 and this in communities trained to sharp economic insight and insisting already that the public-school buildings be made to serve the people both day and night and in social as well as educational lines4 ,the basement is perhaps the most vulnerable point in the armor of exclusive sanctity that encases the church4 ,here1 if anywhere1 organized church work for boys may be tolerated4 ,whenever it is1 lights begin to shine from the basement windows several evenings a week1 a noisy enthusiasm echoes through the ghostly spaces above1 in a literal and figurative sense cobwebs are brushed away4 ,the stir is soon felt by the whole church4 ,a sense of usefulness and self-confidence begins to possess the minds of the members4 ,things are doing2 and the dignity and desirability of having some part in an institution where things are doing inspires the members and attracts non-members4 ,it will be a sad day for the pastor and the church when they agree to delegate to any other institution all organized work for boys and especially those features which the boys themselves most enjoy4 ,the ideal ministry to boyhood must not be centralized away from the church nor taken altogether out of the hands of the pastor4 ,there is no place where the work can be done in a more personal way1 and with less danger of subordinating the interests of the individual boy to mammoth institutional machinery and ambition1 than in the church4 ,the numerous small groups in the multitude of churches afford unequaled opportunity for intimate friendship1 which was pre-eminently the method of ,jesus1 and for the full play of a man's influence upon boy character4 ,the pastor who abdicates1 and whose church is but a foraging ground for other institutions which present a magnificent exhibit of social service1 may1 indeed1 be a good man1 but he is canceling the charter of the church of tomorrow4 ,it is at best a close question as to how the church will emerge from her present probation1 and the pastor should be wise enough to reckon with the estimate in which the community and the boy hold him and the organization that he serves4 ,and if he wants business men of the future who will respect and support the church1 laboring men who will love and attend the church1 professional men who will believe in and serve an efficient church1 he must get the boys who are to be business men1 wage-earners1 and professional men1 and he must hold them4 ,if he is concerned that there should be strong1 capable men to take up the burden of church leadership in the future let him create such leadership in his own spiritual image from the plastic idealism of boyhood4 ,let the hero-worship age1 without a word of compulsion or advice1 make its choice with him present as a sample of what the minister can be1 and tomorrow there will be no lack of virile high-class men in pulpit and parish4 ,as a rule the ideals that carry men into the ministry are born1 not in later youth nor in maturity1 but in the period covered by the early high-school years2 and the future leadership of the church is secure if the right kind of ministers mingle with boys of that age on terms of unaffected friendship and wholesome community of interest4 ,then too there are the riches of memory and gratitude that bulk so large in a true pastor's reward4 ,if in the years to come the minister wishes to warm his heart in the glow of happy memories and undying gratitude1 let him invest his present energy in the service of boys4 ,if the minister could but realize the vast significance of such work1 if he could feel the lure of those untold values lying like continents on the edge of the future awaiting discovery and development1 if he could but know that he is swinging incipient forces of commanding personality into their orbits1 directing destiny for the individual1 predetermining for righteousness great decisions of the future1 laying hold of the very kingdoms of this world for ,christ1 he surely would never again bemean himself in his own thought nor discount his peerless calling4 ,to be sure1 there are certain satisfactions that a minister may lose all too quickly in these days4 ,the spell of his eloquence may soon pass2 the undivided love of all the people is no permanent tenure of him who speaks the truth even in love2 speedy dissatisfaction and unbridled criticism are1 alas1 too often the practice of church democracy2 but that man who has won the love of boys has thrown about himself a bodyguard whose loyalty will outmatch every foe4 ,in the hour of reaction from intense and unrewarded toil the empty chambers of the preacher's soul may echo in bitterness the harsh misanthropy of a scheming world4 ,then it is that he needs the boys1 the undismayed defenders of his faith4 ,let him name their names until the ague goes out of his heart and the warm compassion of the ,man of ,galilee returns4 ,to be a hero and an ideal in the estimate of anyone is indeed a great call to the best that is in us2 and when the minister1 in the dark day or the bright1 hears the acclaim of his bodyguard let him believe that it is the call of ,god to manhood that has the triple strength of faith1 hope1 and love4 ,all of this and much more they surely can and will do for him1 and if the pastor who thinks that he has no field or who is getting a bit weary or professional in the routine ministry to unromantic middle life could but behold within his parish1 however small1 this very essence of vital reality1 this allurement of unbounded possibility1 this challenge of a lively paganism1 and this greatest single opportunity to bring in the ,kingdom of ,god1 he would1 in the very discovery of the boy and his significance1 re-create himself into a more useful1 happy1 and genuine man4 ,is it not better to find new values in the old field than to pursue superficial values in a succession of new fields8 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,an ,,approach ,,to ,,boyhood#a ,if the minister is to do intelligent work with boys he must have some knowledge of the ground plan of boyhood and he must believe that the boy both demands and merits actual study4 ,specific acquaintance with each one severally1 alert recognition of individuality1 variety1 and even sport1 and an ample allowance for exceptions to every rule will greatly aid in giving fitness to one's endeavor2 but beneath all of these architectural peculiarities lies the common biological foundation4 ,to know the human organism genetically1 to have some knowledge of the processes by which it reaches its normal organization1 to appreciate the crude and elemental struggle that has left its history in man's bodily structure1 to think in large biological terms that include1 besides the physics and chemistry of living matter1 considerations ethnological1 hereditary1 and psychological1 is to make fundamental preparation for the understanding of boyhood4 ,for the family to which the boy belongs is the human family4 ,his parents alone and their characteristics do not explain him1 nor does contemporary environment1 important as that is4 ,his ancestry is the human race1 his history is their history1 his impulses and his bodily equipment from which they spring are the result of eons of strife1 survival1 and habit4 ,four generations back he has not two but sixteen parents4 ,thus he comes to us out of the great physical democracy of mankind and doubtless with a tendency to re-live its ancient and deep-seated experiences4 ,this theory of race recapitulation as applied to the succeeding stages of boyhood may be somewhat more poetic than scientific4 ,genetically he does those things for which at the time he has the requisite muscular and nervous equipment1 but the growth of this equipment gives him a series of interests and expressions that run in striking parallel to primitive life4 ,if the enveloping society is highly civilized and artificial1 much of his primitive desire may be cruelly smothered or too hastily refined or forced into a criminal course4 ,but memory1 experience1 observation1 and experiment force one to note that the parallel does exist and that it is vigorously and copiously attested by the boy's likes and deeds4 ,at the same time the theory is to be used suggestively rather than dogmatically1 and the leader of boys will not imagine that to reproduce the primitive life is the goal of his endeavor4 ,it is by the recognition of primitive traits and by connecting with them as they emerge that the guide of boyhood may secure an intelligent and well-supported advance4 ,such an approach favors a sympathetic understanding of the boy4 ,to behold in him a rough summary of the past1 and to be able to capitalize for good the successive instincts as they appear1 is to accomplish a fine piece of missionary work without leaving home4 ,africa and ,borneo and ,alaska come to you4 ,the fire-worshiper of ancient times1 the fierce tribesman1 the savage hunter and fisher1 the religion-making nomad1 the daring pirate1 the bedecked barbarian1 the elemental fighter with nature and fellow and rival of every kind1 the master of the world in making--comes before you in dramatic and often pathetic array in the unfolding life of the ordinary boy4 ,our topmost civilization1 although sustained and repleted by this original stuff1 takes all too little account of these elemental traits4 ,in the growing boy the ascending races are piled one on top of another4 ,in him you get a longitudinal section of human nature since its beginning4 ,he is an abridged volume on ethnology2 and because he is on the way up and elected to rule1 it is more of a mistake to neglect him than it is to neglect any of those races that have suffered a long-continued arrest at some point along the way4 ,of course anyone expecting to note by day and hour the initial emergence of this or that particular trait of primitive man will be disappointed4 ,the thing for the friend of the boy to know is that in him the deep-set habits which made the human body the instrument it is1 the old propensities of savage life are voices of the past1 muffled1 perhaps1 but very deep and insistent1 calling him to do the things which for ages were done and to make full trial of the physique which modern civilization threatens with disuse or perversion4 ,illustration3 ,,mighty ,,hunters ,illustration3 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,water ,let a number of the common traits of boyhood testify4 ,there is the gang instinct which is noticeably dominant during the years from twelve to fifteen4 ,probably #hj per cent of all boys of this age belong to some group answering dimly to ancient tribal association and forming the first social circle outside the home4 ,a canvass of the conditions of boy life in the ,hyde ,park district of ,chicago revealed the existence of such gangs on an average of one to every two blocks1 and the situation is not materially different in other parts of the city or in the smaller towns4 ,the gang is thus the initial civic experiment for better or for worse1 the outreach after government1 co-operative power1 and the larger self which can be found only in association4 ,during this age and within his group the boy does not act as one possessing clear and independent moral responsibility4 ,he acts as part of the gang1 subject to its ideals1 and practically helpless against its codes of conduct and its standards of loyalty4 ,one hot afternoon ,i ran across a group in swimming at a forbidden spot on the shore of ,lake ,michigan4 ,as we talked and tended the fire1 which their sun-blistered bodies did not need1 one of the lads suddenly fired at me point-blank the all-important question1 ,what do you belong to8 ,being unable to give an answer immediately favorable to our growing friendship1 ,i countered with ,what do you belong to8 ,oh1 said he1 ,i belong to de gang4 ,what gang8 ,de gang on de corner of ,fitty ,fit and ,cottage ,grove4 ,and what do you do8 ,ah1 in de ev'nin' we go out and ketch guys and tie 'em up4 ,allowing for nickel-show and ,wild-,west suggestions1 there remains a touch of a somewhat primitive exploit4 ,another interesting gang was found occupying a cave in the saloon district of ,lake ,avenue4 ,the cave takes precedence over the shack as a rendezvous because it demands no building material and affords more secrecy4 ,beneath the cave was a carefully concealed seven-foot sub-cellar which they had also excavated4 ,this served as a guardhouse for unruly members and as a hiding-place for loot4 ,when in conclave1 each boy occupied his space on a bench built against the sides of the cave1 his place being indicated by his particular number on the mud wall4 ,this gang had forty-eight members and was led by a dissolute fellow somewhat older than the others1 one of those dangerous boys beyond the age of compulsory education and unfitted for regular work4 ,they played cards1 rushed the can1 and all hands smoked cigarettes4 ,facilis descensus ,averno4 ,the love of adventure and hunting was illustrated in the case of two other boys of this neighborhood who were but ten and eleven years of age4 ,having stolen eleven dollars and a useless revolver1 they ran away to ,milwaukee4 ,when taken in hand by the police of that city they solemnly declared that they had come to ,wisconsin to shoot ,injuns4 ,much could be said of the love of fire which has not yet surrendered all of its charm for even the most unromantic adult4 ,the mystic thrill that went through the unspoiled nerves of pre-historic man and filled his mind with awe is with us still4 ,the boy above all others yields to its spell4 ,further1 by means of a fire he becomes1 almost without effort1 a wonderworking cause1 a manipulator of nature1 a miracle worker4 ,hence the vacant lots are often lighted up2 barrels1 boxes1 and fences disappear2 and one almost believes that part of the charm of smoking is in the very making of the smoke and seeing it unwind into greater mystery as did incense from thousands of altars in the long-ago4 ,this elemental desire to be a cause and to advertise by visible1 audible1 and often painful proofs the fact of one's presence in the world is also basal4 ,it is the compliment which noisy childhood and industrious boyhood insistently demand from the world about4 ,even the infant revels in this testimony1 preferring crude and noisy playthings of proportion to the innocent nerve-sparing devices which the adult tries to foist upon him4 ,the coal scuttle is made to proclaim causal relation between the self in effort and the not-self in response more satisfactorily than the rag doll2 and the manifest glee over the contortions of the playful father whose hand is slapped is not innate cruelty but the delight of successful experiment in causation4 ,so of the noise and bluster1 the building and destruction1 the teasing and torture so often perpetrated by the boy4 ,he is saying that he is here and must be reckoned with1 and he wishes to make his presence as significant as possible4 ,if home1 school1 and community conditions are such as to give healthful direction to both his constructive and destructive experimentation1 all is well1 but if society cannot so provide he will still exploit his causal relation although it must be in violation of law and order4 ,the result is delinquency1 but even in this he glories4 ,it often gives a more pungent and romantic testimony than could otherwise be secured4 ,it is the flaring yellow advertisement of misdirected effectiveness4 ,probably there mingles with this impulse the love of adventure as developed in the chase4 ,flipping cars1 tantalizing policemen1 pilfering from fruit stands are frequently the degenerate1 urban forms of the old quest of1 and encounter with1 the game of forest and jungle4 ,then there is the lure of the water1 which explains more than half his school truancy during the open season4 ,it is a fine spring or summer day4 ,the ,wanderlust of his ancestry is upon the boy4 ,the periodic migration for game or with the herds1 the free range of wood and stream1 or the excitement of the chase pulsates in his blood4 ,voices of the far past call to something native in him4 ,the shimmer of the water just as they of old saw it1 the joyous chance of taking game from its unseen depths1 or of getting the full flush of bodily sensation by plunging into it1 the unbridled pursuit of one's own sweet will under the free air of heaven--these are the attractions over against which we place the school with its books1 its restraint1 and its feminine control2 and the church with its hush and its ,sunday-school lesson3 and1 too often1 we offer nothing else4 ,it is like giving a hungry woodchopper a doily1 a ,nabisco wafer1 and a finger-bowl4 ,if we could but appreciate the great crude past whose conflicts still persist in the boy's gruesome and tragic dreams1 filling him with a fear of the dark1 which fear in time past was the wholesome and necessary monitor of self-preservation2 if we could only realize how strenuous must be those experiences which guarantee a strong body1 a firm will1 and an appetite for objective facts1 we would not make our education so insipidly nice1 so intellectual1 so bookish1 and so much under the roof4 ,a school and a school building are not synonymous1 a church and a church building are not synonymous2 schooling is not identical with education1 nor church attendance with religion4 ,it is unfortunate if the boy beholds in these two essential institutions merely an emasculated police4 ,if either the church or the school is to reach the boy it will have to recognize and perform its task very largely beyond the traditional limits of the institution as such1 and with a heartiness and masculinity which are now often absent4 ,in this field the indirect and extra-ecclesiastical work of the minister will be his best work1 and the time that the teacher spends with his pupils outside the schoolhouse may have more educational value than that spent within4 ,in due time society will be ready to appreciate and support the educator who is bigger than any building2 and outdoor schools are bound to grow in favor4 ,illustration3 ,,getting ,,the ,,spark ,illustration3 ,,getting ,,the ,,flame ,illustration3 ,,fire6 ,consider also the boy's love of paraphernalia and all the tokens of achievement or of oneness with his group4 ,the pre-adolescent boy glorying in full ,indian regalia1 the early-adolescent proud in the suit of his team or in his accouterments as a ,scout1 and a little later1 with quieter taste1 the persistent fraternity pin--all of these tell the same story of the love of insignia and the power of the emblem in the social control and development of youth4 ,think also of the collecting mania1 which among primitives was less strong than is ordinarily supposed1 but which in early boyhood reaches forth its hands1 industriously1 if not always wisely1 after concrete1 tactual knowledge and proprietorship4 ,so also with the impulse to tussle and to revel in the excitement of a contest2 inhibited1 it explodes2 neglected1 it degenerates2 but directed it goes far toward the making of a man4 ,evidence of this intensity1 zest1 and pressure of young life is never wanting4 ,disorder rough-house1 and even serious accidents1 testify to the reckless abandon which tries to compensate in brief space for a thousand hours of repression4 ,such occurrences are unfortunate but worse things may happen if the discharge of energy becomes anti-social1 immoral1 and vicious4 ,the evils of lust and drink are the evils that devour playless and inhibited youth4 ,right conceptions of religion and education must therefore attach an added sanctity to the growth of the body1 since in and through it alone is the soul1 so far as we know it1 achieved4 ,to accept the biological order as of ,god and to turn to their right use all of life's unfolding powers constitutes a religious program4 ,for even those primitive instincts which pass and perish often stir into consciousness and operation other more noble functions or are transmuted into recognized virtues4 ,popularly speaking1 the tadpole's tail becomes his legs4 ,success in suppressing the precivilized qualities of the boy results in a zestless automaton that is something less than a man4 ,everything that characterizes the boy1 however bothersome and unpromising it may seem1 is to be considered with reference to a developing organism which holds the story of the past and the prophecy of the future4 ,to the apostle of the largest vision and the greatest hope1 these native propensities will be the call of the man of ,macedonia1 saying1 ,come over and help us4 ,the most striking biological change that comes to the boy on his way to manhood is that of puberty4 ,the church and the state have attested the vast importance of this experience for political and religious ends by their ceremonials of induction into the responsibilities of citizenship and the obligations of formal religion4 ,among the least civilized peoples these ceremonies were often cruel1 superstitious1 and long drawn out in their exaction of self-control1 sacrifice1 and subordination to the tribal will4 ,the sagacity of the elders of the tribe in preserving their own control and in perpetuating totemic lore must compel the unfeigned admiration of the modern ethnologist4 ,the ,athenians with their magnificent civilization exalted citizenship and the service of the state far beyond any modern attainment4 ,the way of the youth today is tame1 empty1 and selfish as compared with the ,spartan road to manhood and the ,roman ceremonies attendant upon the assumption of the toga virilis4 ,as a rule modern churches have too lightly regarded the profound significance of ancient confirmation services--,jewish1 ,greek1 and ,catholic4 ,knowledge of what transpires in the body and mind of adolescence proves the wisdom of the ancients and at the same time attracts both the educator and the evangelist to study and use the crises of this fertile and plastic period4 ,the process of transformation from childhood into manhood begins in the twelfth or thirteenth year1 passes its most acute stage at about fifteen1 and may not complete itself until the twenty-fifth year4 ,it is preceded by a period of mobilization of vitality as if nature were preparing for this wonderful re-birth whereby the individualistic boy becomes the socialized progenitor of his kind4 ,the normal physiological changes1 quite apart from their psychological accompaniments1 are such as to elicit the sympathy of intelligent adults4 ,early in pubescent growth the heart increases by leaps and bounds1 often doubling its size in the course of two years or even one year4 ,there is a rise of about one degree in the temperature of the blood and the blood pressure is increased in all parts of the body4 ,the entire body is unduly sensitized1 and the boy is besieged by an army of new and vivid sense impressions that overstimulate1 confuse1 and baffle him4 ,he is under stress and like all persons under tension he reacts extremely and hence inconsistently in different directions4 ,he cannot correlate and organize his experiences4 ,they are too vivid1 varied1 and rapid for that4 ,this over-intensity begets in turn excessive languor and he cannot hold himself in via media4 ,his physical condition explains his marked moods3 his sudden changes of front1 his ascent of rare heights of impulsive idealism1 and his equally sudden descent into the bogs of materialism2 his unsurpassed though temporary altruism and his intermittent abandon to gross selfishness4 ,he has range4 ,he is a little more than himself in every direction4 ,the wine of life is in his blood and brain4 ,it is no wonder that somewhere about the middle of the adolescent period both conversions and misdemeanors are at their maximum4 ,to make matters worse these vivid and unorganized experiences1 simply because they lie along the shore of the infinite and have no single clue1 no governing philosophy of life1 are overswept by the dense and chilling fogs of unreality that roll in from the great deep4 ,life is swallowed up in awful mystery4 ,external facts are less real than dreams4 ,one stamps the very ground beneath his feet to know if it exists4 ,the ego which must gauge itself by external bearings is temporarily adrift and lost4 ,suicidal thoughts are easily evoked2 and at such times the luxury of being odd and hopelessly misunderstood constitutes a chameleon-like morbidity that1 with a slight change of light and color1 becomes an obsession of conceit4 ,the odd one1 the mystery to self and others1 is he not the great one that shall occupy the center of the stage in some stupendous drama8 ,a man now prominent in educational circles testifies how that on a drizzly night on the streets of old ,london the lad1 then but sixteen years of age1 came to a full stop1 set his foot down with dramatic pose1 and exclaimed with soul-wracking seriousness3 ,the time is out of joint2--,o cursed spite1 ,that ever ,i was born to set it right6 ,so is it ever with the adolescent soul unless society curses the desire for significance and makes it criminal4 ,these bare cliffs of primal personality have not yet undergone the abrasion of the glacial drift nor of the frost and the heat1 the wind and the rain of long years4 ,they are angular1 bold1 defiant1 and unsuited to the pastoral and agricultural scenes of middle life4 ,the grind of life with its slow accomplishment and failure has not as yet imparted caution and discretion4 ,shrewd calculation and niggardliness too are normally absent4 ,generous estimates prevail4 ,idealism is passionate and turns its eye to summits that a life-time of devotion cannot scale4 ,honor is held in high regard and select friendships may have the intensity of religion4 ,judgments are without qualification4 ,valor1 laughter and fun1 excess and the love of victory mingle in hot profusion4 ,except in the case of the precocious boy of the street1 the cold vices of cynicism1 misanthropy1 and avarice--the reptilians of society--are found almost exclusively among adults4 ,the younger brother is the prodigal4 ,experience has not taught him how to value property and the main chance4 ,the failure of self-knowledge and self-control to keep pace with the rapid changes of bodily structure1 sense-impressions1 and mental organization is nowhere more marked and significant than in sex development2 and the common experience of adolescent boys is to the effect that no other temptations equal in persistence and intensity those that attend and follow this awakening4 ,it is highly important1 then1 that1 as preparation for dealing with the individual1 the minister shall both see the generic boy upon the background of the past and that he shall also understand in some measure the physical basis and psychological ferment of the boy's inevitable re-birth1 not for the purpose of cheaply exploiting adolescence but in order that he may bring every life to its best in terms of personal character and of worth to the world4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,boy ,,in ,,village ,,and ,,country#b ,from the consideration of bodily health the village boy is better off than his city cousin4 ,he also enjoys to a far greater degree the protective and educative attention of real neighborhood life4 ,the opinions and customs which help to mold him are more personal4 ,he probably holds himself more accountable1 for he can more readily trace the results of any course of action in terms of the welfare and good-will of well-known persons4 ,his relation to nature is also more nearly ideal4 ,artificial restrictions1 territorial and otherwise1 are not so strictly imposed4 ,his lot favors a sane and normal view of life4 ,there are more chores to be done1 more inviting occupations in the open1 and altogether there may be a more wholesome participation in the work of maintaining the home than is possible for the city boy4 ,on the other hand1 the static character of village life leaves the boy with little inspiration in his primary interests of play and his serious ideals of the noblest manhood4 ,idle hours work demoralization and the ever-present example of the village loafer is not good4 ,a disproportionate number of village people lack public spirit and social ideals4 ,the masculine element most in evidence is not of the strongest and most inspiring kind1 and the village is all too often the paradise of the loafer and the male gossip4 ,this1 however1 cannot be said of the small frontier town where the spirit of progress is grappling with crude conditions4 ,furthermore1 the village is sadly incompetent in the organization of its welfare and community work4 ,as a matter of fact1 social supervision is often so lax that obscene moving pictures and cards that are driven out of the large cities are exhibited without protest in the small towns4 ,usually the village is overchurched1 and consequently divided into pitiably weak factions whose controlling aim is self-preservation4 ,seldom can a religious1 philanthropic1 or social organization be developed with sufficient strength to serve the community as such4 ,the sectarian divisions which in the vast needs and resources of great cities do not so acutely menace church efficiency prove serious in the small town4 ,the saloon1 poolroom1 livery stable1 and other haunts of the idle are open for boys2 but the ,christian people1 because of their denominational differences1 maintain no social headquarters and no institution in which boys may find healthy expression for their normal interests4 ,the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 is impracticable1 because the church people are already overtaxed in keeping up their denominational competition and so cannot contribute enough to run an association properly4 ,wherever an association cannot be conducted by trained and paid officers it will result in disappointment4 ,the caricature of essential ,christianity which is afforded by the denominational exhibit in the village works great harm to boys4 ,it is not only that they are deprived of that guidance which true ,christianity would give them1 but they are confronted from the first with a spectacle of pettiness1 jealousy1 and incompetency which they will probably forever associate with ,christianity1 at least in its ecclesiastical forms4 ,villages are at best sufficiently susceptible to those unfortunate human traits that make for clique and cleavage in society1 and when the ,christian church1 instead of unifying and exalting the community life1 adds several other divisive interests with all the authority of religion1 the hope of intelligent1 united1 and effective service for the community1 on a scale that would arouse the imagination and enlist the good-will of all right-minded people1 is made sadly remote4 ,so far as church work is concerned1 the village boy is likely to be overlooked1 as promising little toward the immediate financial support of the church and the increase of membership4 ,in the brief interval of two years--the average duration of the village pastorate--it does not seem practicable for the minister to go about a work which will require a much longer time to produce those satisfactory results for which churches and missionary boards clamor4 ,a revival effort which inflates the membership-roll1 strenuous and ingenious endeavors to increase the offerings1 are the barren makeshifts of a policy which does not see the distinct advantage and security in building ,christian manhood from the foundation up4 ,it must not be thought that the minister is largely to blame for the situation as it now is4 ,perpetuating institutions beyond the time of their usefulness is one of society's worst habits1 and it is not to be expected that religious organizations1 which in a given stage of the development of ,christian truths were vital and necessary1 can easily be persuaded to surrender their identity1 even after the cause that called them into being has been won4 ,men are we1 and must grieve when even the shade ,of that which once was great has passed away4 ,but the real religious leader who loves boys will not be balked by the pettiness and inability of denominationalism4 ,his hope lies not solely in the church or the churches1 but largely in the intelligence1 sympathy1 and generosity of the unchurched citizens1 whose number and importance in the small town is probably in the inverse ratio of the number of churches4 ,business men of whatever creed1 or of none1 are remarkably responsive to any sane endeavor to create a wholesome outlet for juvenile activity1 and1 whether right or wrong1 count such efforts as being more valuable than much of the traditional church endeavor4 ,the minister will first try to organize boys' work for the whole community1 but if co-operation on the part of all or of a group of the churches proves impossible1 let him go ahead with such assistance as his own church and other voluntary supporters will afford1 and let him still work in entire freedom from sectarian aim4 ,as a minister of ,christ and his kingdom he must give to ,christianity an interpretation which will offset provincial and narrow impressions4 ,he must free it from cant and from the other-worldly emphasis and bring it into the realm where boys and business men will respect it as a social factor of primary importance4 ,all the problems of early adolescence belong to the village boy as to every other4 ,he also gropes about for his vocational discovery4 ,how shall he gain self-control1 how can he find himself8 ,how can he relate his life to the great perplexing world and to the ,god of all8 ,how can he win his immediate battles with temptation8 ,the public school throws little light upon his possible occupation1 trade1 or profession1 nor does it deal with his moral struggle4 ,the ,sunday school1 if it touches him at all1 is often regarded as a nuisance to be endured out of respect for others4 ,it addresses itself too much to tradition and too little to modern life4 ,it gets the ,israelites from ,egypt into possession of ,canaan by various miraculous interventions1 stops the sea and the sun1 knocks down the walls of ,jericho by the most uncommon tactics1 and reveals the umpire as on the ,israelites' side4 ,the boy knows that if this be intended as sober history things have changed somewhat4 ,for these are the very things that do not and should not happen in the conquest of his promised land4 ,under ,christian guidance he must learn the ethical value of an orderly world1 the morality that inheres in cause and effect1 the divine help which is not partiality2 and if it should turn out that he could master these lessons better through work and play and friendship than through being formally instructed in misapprehended lore1 then such work and play and fellowship will prove of greater value than the ,sunday-school hour alone4 ,as for the country boy1 perhaps his chief lack is association with his fellows4 ,to meet this and to satisfy the gregarious instinct1 which will be found in him as in all boys1 the minister's organizing ability must be directed4 ,the gymnasium1 in so far as it is a makeshift for lack of proper exercise in the life of the city boy1 is not in great demand in the country4 ,the farm boy has in his work plenty of exercise of a general and sufficiently exhausting character1 and he has the benefit of taking it out of doors4 ,he1 of course1 is not a gymnast in fineness and grace of development1 and he may need corrective exercises1 but the big muscles whose development tells for health and against nervousness are always well used4 ,in so far1 however1 as the gymnasium affords a place for organized indoor play through the winter months there is more to be said of its necessity4 ,for it is not exercise but group play that the country boy most needs4 ,the fun and excitement1 the contest and the co-ordination of his ability with that of others1 all serve to reduce his awkwardness and to supplant a rather painful self-consciousness with a more just idea of his relative rating among his fellows4 ,he finds himself1 learns what it is to pull together1 and gets some idea of the problems of getting along well with colleagues and opponents4 ,wherever the country pastor can secure a room that will do for basket-ball1 indoor baseball1 and the like1 he may1 if it is sufficiently central and accessible1 perform a useful service for the boys and establish a point of contact4 ,it is highly desirable that shower-baths and conveniences for a complete change of clothing be provided4 ,if ,saturday afternoon is a slack time and the farmers are likely to come to the village1 he should make arrangements to care for the boys then1 reserving ,saturday evening for the young men4 ,such an arrangement secures economy in heating the building and may overcome for some of the youth the ,saturday evening attractions of the saloon and public dance4 ,for the distinctly country church1 situated at the cross-roads1 a building that may serve as a gymnasium will be practically impossible unless a very remarkable enthusiasm is awakened among the boys and young men4 ,but in many a country village such an equipment is both necessary and well within the reach of a good organizer4 ,the country people have means and know how to work for what they really desire4 ,what they most lack is inspiration and leadership4 ,during that part of the open season when school is in session the country minister has an excellent opportunity to meet the boys1 organize their play1 and become a real factor in their lives4 ,in the country one-room school there will be found but few boys over fourteen years of age1 but a great deal can be done with the younger boys in some such way as follows3 ,as school lets out in the afternoon the minister is on hand4 ,the boys have been under a woman teacher all day and are glad to meet a man who will lead them in vigorous play4 ,it may be baseball1 football1 trackwork with relay races1 military drill1 or the like--all they need is one who knows how1 who is a recognized leader1 and who serves as an immediate court of appeal4 ,if they do not get more moral benefit and real equipment for life's struggle in this hour and a half than they are likely to get from a day's bookwork in the average one-room1 all-grades1 girl-directed country school1 it must be because the minister is a sorry specimen4 ,the city minister takes his boys on outings to the country4 ,the country minister will bring his boys on innings to the city4 ,as they see him he is pre-eminently the apostle of that stirring1 larger world4 ,what abilities may not be awakened1 what horizons that now settle about the neighboring farm or village may not be gloriously lifted and broadened1 what riches that printed page cannot convey may not be planted in the young mind by the pastor who introduces country boys to their first glimpse of great universities1 gigantic industries1 famous libraries1 inspiring churches1 and stately buildings of government8 ,one need not mention such possibilities as taking a group to the fair or the circus1 or on expeditions for fishing1 swimming1 and hunting--all of them easy roads to immortality in a boy's affection4 ,further1 the minister is not only the apostle of that greater world but the exemplar of the highest culture4 ,he is to bring that culture to the country not only through his own person but by lectures on art and literature1 so that the young may participate in the world's refined and imperishable wealth4 ,this may mean illustrated lectures on art and the distribution of good prints which will gradually supplant the chromos and gaudy advertisements which often hold undisputed sway on the walls of the farmhouse4 ,it might also be helpful to our partly foreign rural population to have lectures on history such as will acquaint boys and others with the real heroes of various nations1 preserve pride in the best national traditions1 and ultimately develop a sane and sound patriotism among all our citizens4 ,the church building is not too sacred a place for an endeavor of this kind4 ,the ordinary stereopticon and the moving picture should not be disdained in so good a cause4 ,boys are hero-worshipers1 and history is full of heroes of first-rate religious significance4 ,as a further factor in elevating and enriching the life of the country boy1 the minister may endeavor to create a taste for good reading4 ,the tendency is that all the serious reading shall be along agricultural rather than cultural lines and that the lighter reading shall be only the newspaper and the trashy story4 ,the minister should enlarge the boy's life by acquainting him with the great classics4 ,a taste for good things should be formed early4 ,with the older boys1 from the years of sixteen or eighteen upward1 organization for literary development and debating should be tried4 ,a good deal in a cultural way is necessary to offset the danger which now besets the successful farmer of becoming a slave to money-making1 after the fashion of the great magnates whom he condemns but with rather less of their general perspective of life4 ,the minister might help organize a mock trial1 county council1 school board1 state legislature1 or something of that sort1 as a social and educative device for the older boys4 ,under certain conditions music could well form the fundamental bond of association1 and groups gathered about such interests as these could meet from house to house1 thus promoting the social life of the parish in no small degree4 ,young women might well share in the organizations that are literary and musical4 ,the great vogue of the country singing-school a generation ago was no mere accident4 ,could not the minister enter into the campaign for the improvement of the conditions of farm life and stimulate the beautifying of the dooryards by giving a prize to the boy who1 in the judgment of an impartial committee1 had excelled in this good work8 ,could he not interest his boys' organization in beautifying the church grounds and so enlist them in a practical altruistic endeavor8 ,might he not find a very vital point of contact with the country boy by conducting institutes for farmers' boys1 perhaps once a month1 in which by the generous use of government bulletins and by illustration and actual experiment he might awaken a scientific interest in farming and impart valuable information8 ,in connection with this the boys could be induced to conduct experiments on plots of ground on their fathers' farms4 ,exhibits could be made at the church and prizes awarded4 ,it would be a good thing too if the profits1 or part of the profits1 from such experimental plots could be voluntarily devoted to some philanthropic or religious cause4 ,this would have the double value of performing an altruistic act and of intelligently canvassing the claim of some recognized philanthropy4 ,so also the raising of chickens and stock might be tried in a limited way with the scientific method and the philanthropic purpose combined4 ,illustration3 ,,boy ,,scouts ,,studying ,,the ,,trees ,in some places botanical collections can be made of great interest2 or the gathering and polishing of all the kinds of wood in the vicinity1 with an exhibition in due time1 may appeal to the boys4 ,in addition to forestry there is ornithology1 geology1 and1 for the early age of twelve to fifteen1 bows and arrows1 crossbows1 scouting1 and various expeditions answering to the adventure instinct4 ,the wise country minister will certainly keep in touch with the public school1 will be seen there frequently1 and will give his genuine support to the teacher in all of her endeavor to do a really noble work with a very limited outfit4 ,he will help her to withstand the gross utilitarianism of the average farmer1 who is slow to believe in anything for today that cannot be turned into dollars tomorrow4 ,what with the consolidation of township schools1 improved communication by rural delivery and telephone1 better roads1 the increasing use of automobiles1 and the rising interest in rural life generally1 together with a broad view of pastoral leadership and the cure of souls for the whole countryside1 the minister may be a vital factor in shaping the social and religious life of the country boy2 and he will1 because of his character and office1 illumine common needs and homely interests with an ever-refined and spiritual ideal4 ,his ministry1 however1 cannot be all top1 a cloudland impalpable and fleeting4 ,it was with common footing and vital ties that ,goldsmith's village preacher ,allured to brighter worlds and led the way4 ,after such fashion and with thorough rootage in country life must the minister of today turn to spiritual account the wealth-producing methods of farming4 ,out of soil cultivation he must guarantee soul culture by setting forth in person1 word1 and institution those ideals which have always claimed some of the best boyhood of the country for the world's great tasks4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,modern ,,city ,,and ,,the ,,normal ,,boy#c ,modern cities have been built to concentrate industrial opportunity4 ,they have taken their rise and form subsequent to the industrial revolution wrought by steam and as a result of that revolution4 ,so far they have paid only minor attention to the conservation or improvement of human life4 ,justice1 not to mention mercy1 toward the family and the individual has not been the guiding star4 ,the human element has been left to fit as best it could into a system of maximum production at minimum cost1 rapid and profitable transportation1 distribution calculated to emphasize and exploit need1 and satisfactory dividends on what was often supposititious stock2 and because these have been the main considerations the latent and priceless wealth of boyhood has been largely sacrificed4 ,the amazing and as yet unchecked movement of population toward the city means usually a curtailment of living area for all concerned4 ,the more people per acre the greater the limitation of individual action and the greater the need of self-control and social supervision4 ,restrictions of all sorts are necessary for the peace of a community wherein the physical conditions almost force people to jostle and irritate one another4 ,in such a situation the more spontaneous and unconventional the expression of life the greater the danger of bothering one's neighbors and of conflicting with necessary but artificial restrictions4 ,even innocent failure to comprehend the situation may constitute one anti-social or delinquent1 and the foreigner as well as the boy is often misjudged in this way4 ,but on the score of the city's inevitable ,thou shalt not1 it is the boy who suffers more than any other member of the community4 ,his intensely motor propensities1 love of adventure1 dim idea of modern property rights1 and the readiness with which he merges into the stimulating and mischief-loving gang operate to constitute him the peerless nuisance of the congested district1 the scourge of an exasperated and neurasthenic public1 the enemy of good order and private rights4 ,hence juvenile delinquency and crime increase proportionately with the crowding of the modern city1 the boy offending five times to the girl's once1 and directing #hj per cent of his misdemeanors against property rights4 ,in the city of ,chicago alone the #aiji records show that in one year there passed through the courts #c1hgj children under seventeen years of age1 #aj1ddi under twenty years1 and #be1ehj under twenty-five years of age4 ,but it is not the actual delinquency of which the law takes account that most impresses one2 it is rather the weight of failure and mediocrity1 the host of seconds and culls that the city treatment of childhood produces4 ,the constrictions1 vicissitudes1 and instability of city life often make such havoc of the home that the boy is practically adrift at an early age4 ,he has no abiding-place of sufficient permanency to create a wealth of association or to develop those loyalties that enrich the years and serve as anchorage in the storms of life4 ,he moves from one flat to another every year1 and in many cases every six months4 ,in such a kaleidoscopic experience the true old-fashioned neighbor1 whose charitable judgment formerly robbed the law of its victims1 is sadly missed4 ,formerly allowance was made out of neighborly regard for the parents of bothersome boys1 but among the flat-dwellers of today proximity means alienation1 familiarity breeds contempt1 and far from being neighbors1 those who live across the hall or above or below are aggrieved persons who have to put up with the noise of an unknown rascal whose parents1 like themselves1 occupy temporarily these restricted quarters--these homes attenuated beyond recognition4 ,a garden plot1 small live stock1 pets1 woodpile1 and workshop are all out of the question1 for the city has deprived the average boy not only of fit living quarters but of the opportunity to enact a fair part of his glorious life-drama within the friendly atmosphere of home4 ,he cannot collect things with a view to proprietorship and construction and have them under his own roof4 ,the noise and litter incident to building operations of such proportions as please boys will not be tolerated4 ,moreover1 this home1 which has reached the vanishing point1 makes almost no demand for his co-operation in its maintenance4 ,there are no chores for the flat boy wherein he may be busy and dignified as a partner in the family life4 ,to make the flat a little more sumptuous and call it an apartment does not solve the problem1 and with the rapid decrease of detached houses and the occupation of the territory with flat buildings the city is providing for itself a much more serious juvenile problem than it now has4 ,but the industrial usurpation takes toll of the family in other ways4 ,the intense economic struggle and the long distance to work rob the boy of the father's presence and throw upon the mother an unjust burden4 ,to return home late and exhausted1 to be hardly equal to the economic demand1 to see the prenuptial ideals fade1 to pass from disappointment to discouragement and from chronic irritability to a broken home is not uncommon4 ,the boy is unfortunate if the incompatibility end in desertion or divorce1 and equally unfortunate if it does not4 ,owing to the fact that the male usually stands from under when the home is about to collapse1 and to the further fact that industrial accidents1 diseases1 and fatalities in the city claim many fathers1 there frequently falls upon the mother the undivided burden of a considerable family4 ,if she goes out to work the children are neglected2 if she takes roomers family life of the kind that nurtures health and morality is at an end4 ,and just as the apparently fortunate boy of the apartment is forced upon the street1 so the boy from the overcrowded old-fashioned house is pushed out by the roomers who must have first attention because of bread-and-butter considerations4 ,much more could be said of all the various kinds of neglect1 misfortune1 and avarice that commit boys to the doubtful influences of the city street1 but the main object is to point out the trend of home life in the modern city without denying that there are indeed many adequate homes still to be found1 especially in suburban districts4 ,a survey of the street and its allied institutions will throw light upon the precocious ways of the typical city boy4 ,the street is the playground1 especially of the small boy who must remain within sight and call of home4 ,numerous fatalities1 vigorous police1 and big recreation parks will not prevent the instinctive use of the nearest available open area4 ,if congestion is to be permitted and numerous small parks cannot be had1 then the street must have such care and its play zones must be so guarded and supervised that the children will be both safe from danger and healthfully and vigorously employed4 ,illustration3 ,,find ,,the ,,playground ,in the busier parts of the city the constant street noise puts a nervous tax upon the children2 the proximity of so many bright and moving objects taxes the eyes2 the splash of gaudy and gross advertisements creates a fevered imagination2 slang1 profanity1 and vulgarity lend a smart effect2 the merchant's tempting display often leads to theft1 and the immodest dress of women produces an evil effect upon the mind of the overstimulated adolescent boy2 opportunities to elude observation and to deceive one's parents abound2 social control weakens2 ideals become neurotic1 flashy1 distorted2 the light and allurement of the street encourage late hours2 the posters and barkers of cheap shows often appeal to illicit curiosity1 and the galaxy of apparent fun and adventure is such as to tax to the full the wholesome and restraining influence of even the best home4 ,the cheap show is an adjunct of the street and a potent educational factor in the training of the city lad4 ,these motion-picture shows have an estimated daily patronage in the ,united ,states of two and a quarter millions1 and in ,chicago #cb1jjj children will be found in them daily4 ,many of these children are helplessly open to suggestion1 owing to malnutrition and the nervous strain which the city imposes2 and harmful impressions received in this vivid way late at night cannot be resisted4 ,at one time1 after a set of pictures had been given on the ,west ,side which depicted the hero as a burglar1 thirteen boys were brought into court1 all of whom had in their possession housebreakers' tools1 and all stated they had invested in these tools because they had seen these pictures and they were anxious to become gentlemanly burglars4#d ,through censorship bureaus1 national and municipal1 the character of the films put on exhibition is being greatly improved1 and the moving picture is destined to a large use by educational and religious agencies4 ,many instances of valuable moving-picture exhibits come to mind1 including those on travel1 nature-study1 the passion play1 athletic sports1 sanitation 7especially the exhibits showing the breeding and habits of the house-fly71 and various others having to do with the health1 happiness1 and morality of the people2 and from the study of hundreds of nickel shows one is forced in justice to say that although there are dangers from the children's being out late at night and going to such places unattended1 and although the recreation is passive and administered rather than secured by wholesome muscular exercise1 yet there has been brought within the reach of the entire family of moderate means an evening of innocent enjoyment which may be had together and at small expense4 ,properly regulated1 it is an offset to the saloon and a positive medium of good influence4 ,such a commendation1 however1 can safely be made for those communities only which take the pains to censor all films before exhibition is permitted4 ,in less than two years the censorship bureau of ,chicago has excluded one hundred and thirteen miles of objectionable films4 ,it should be said also that the vaudeville1 which now often accompanies the nickel and dime shows1 is usually coarse and sometimes immoral4 ,the music1 alas1 speaks for itself and constitutes a sorry sort of education except in the foreign quarters of our great cities where1 in conformity to a better taste1 it becomes classic and valuable4 ,but to describe a typical film of the better sort and to indicate its practical use may have some suggestive value for wide-awake ministers who wish to turn to good account every legitimate social agency4 ,during the ,christmas season of #aiaa the following film story was set forth to vast audiences of people with telling effect3 ,in a wretched hovel you see a lame mother with three pale children4 ,the rich young landlord comes to collect rent and is implored to improve the place4 ,this he refuses to do because of his small returns on the property4 ,he departs4 ,the father of the family returns from work4 ,they eat the bread of the desolate4 ,the landlord marries and sets out on an ocean voyage with his bride4 ,on the same ship the father of the tubercular family1 working as stoker or deck hand1 reaches the last stages of the disease and in his dying hours is mercifully attended by the bride4 ,she contracts the disease and later appears weak and fading4 ,the husband1 ascertaining the real nature of her malady1 brings her home with the purpose of placing her in the private sanitarium4 ,there is no room in this institution1 but good accommodations are found in the public sanitarium to which she goes and where she finds the children from their tenement4 ,the facts have now been put in such juxtaposition that the husband has a change of heart4 ,the patients recover and the landlord endows a great sanitarium for the tuberculous4 ,one may easily criticize the crudeness of the plot and the improbabilities with which it bristles4 ,but it sets forth love and death and conversion and an appeal to rescue those who suffer from the great white plague3 and this was sufficient for the crowd1 for all are children when beholding the elemental things of life4 ,at any rate the women who stood at the exits of the theater selling the ,christmas stamps of the anti-tuberculosis society will tell you that the purse strings as well as the heart strings of the crowd relaxed to the crude but deep melody of mercy4 ,the social hunger also1 turning its back upon the meager home and heightened by the monotony and semi-independence of early toil1 takes to the street4 ,the quest is quickly commercialized and debauched by the public dance halls which are controlled by the liquor interests4 ,a recent thorough investigation of #cbh of these halls in ,chicago showed a nightly attendance of some #hf1jjj young people1 the average age of the boys being sixteen to eighteen years and of the girls fourteen to sixteen years4 ,liquor was sold in #bdj halls1 #aij had saloons opening into them1 in #agh immoral dancing went on unhindered4 ,the worst halls had the least dancing and the longest intermissions4 ,everything was conducted so as to increase the sale of liquor1 and between the hours of one and three ,a4,m4 the toughest element from the saloons1 which close at one o'clock1 poured into the halls to complete the debauch and to make full use of the special liquor license which is good until the later hour4#e ,the quest of fun and social adventure can be traced also through other commercialized channels1 in public poolrooms where minors waste time and money--gamble1 smoke1 tell unclean stories and plan mischief2 in great amusement parks where the boy and girl on pleasure bent meet as strangers to each other and without social sponsor1 where the deluded girl not only accepts but often invites a generosity which will tend to compromise if not break down the morality of both2 on excursion boats which1 if neglected1 tend to become floating palaces of shame2 and in many ways that lead from the inadequate home to sorrow and disaster4 ,it is to be doubted whether the average pastor or parent has an adequate conception of the tremendous odds against which the moral forces contend for the conservation of the city's childhood and youth1 and whether we have as yet begun to solve the problems that arise from the city's sinister treatment of the home4 ,public parks1 field-houses1 libraries1 and social settlements graciously mitigate the evil1 but are far from curing it4 ,to turn to the public schools with the expectation that they can immediately1 or at length1 make good the injury done the home by industrial usurpation is to expect more than is fair or possible4 ,they are doing valiantly and well1 they are becoming social centers and in due time they will have more adequately in hand both the vocational and recreational interests of youth4 ,with this accession of educational territory will come a proportionate increase in the number of male teachers1 and a further diminution of the fallacy that the only kind of order is silence and the prime condition of mental concentration inaction4 ,the system will become less and the boy more important4 ,but the whole community is the master educator2 the best home is not exempt from its influence nor the best school greatly superior to its morality4 ,in fact the school1 even as the place of amusement and all places of congregation1 serves to diffuse the moral problems of boyhood throughout the whole mass4 ,moral sanitation is more difficult than physical sanitation1 and the spoiled boy is a good conductor of various forms of moral virus4 ,the moral training involved in the ordinary working of the public school is considerable and is none the less valuable because it is indirect4 ,with more attention to physical condition1 corrective exercise1 and organized play1 and with the motivating of a larger area of school work1 the moral value of the institution will be still further enhanced4 ,the church addresses itself to the problem in ways both general and specific1 positive and negative4 ,in its stimulation of public conscience1 in its inspiration of those who work directly for improved conditions1 and in ,sunday schools and young people's societies1 a contribution of no small value is continually made4 ,a rather negative1 or at best1 concessive attitude toward recreation and a disposition to rest satisfied with the denunciation of harmful institutions and activities militates against her greatest usefulness4 ,she must rather compensate for home shortages and compete with the doubtful allurements of the city4 ,this she may do in part within her own plant and in part by encouraging and supporting all wholesome outlets for the athletic zest1 social adventure1 worthy ambition1 and vocational quest of youth4 ,those segments of the church which believe in bringing every legitimate human interest within the scope and sanction of religion will in the nature of things offer a more immediate and telling competition to the harmful devices of the city4 ,but with the exception of a few boys' clubs and scout patrols1 for whose direction there is always a shameful shortage of willing and able lay leadership1 the church has not as yet grasped the problem2 and this remains true when one grants further the value of organized boys' classes in the ,sunday school and of the socials and parties of young people's societies4 ,to be sure1 the ,protestant church1 expressing itself through the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 has laid hold of the more respectable edge of the problem4 ,but with few exceptions this work is not as yet missionary1 militant1 or diffused to the communities of greatest need4 ,a few experiments are now being made1 but probably the ,y4,m4,c4,a41 more than the individual church1 is under the necessity of treating the underlying economic evils with a very safe degree of caution2 and in both there is the ever-recurrent need of an unsparing analysis of motive for the purpose of ascertaining which1 after all1 is paramount--human welfare or institutional glory4 ,the tendency ever is to cultivate profitable and self-supporting fields and sound business policies4 ,but the case of thousands upon thousands of boys living in localities that are socially impoverished1 unfortunate1 and debasing constitutes a call to the missionary spirit and method4 ,if the impulse which is so ready and generous in the exportation of religion and so wise in adaptation to the interests and abilities of the foreign group could but lay hold of our most difficult communities with like devotion and with scientific care there would be developed in due time advanced and adequate methods1 which in turn would take their rightful place as a part of civic or educational administration4 ,as is illustrated in both education and philanthropy1 the function of the church in social development has been of this order1 and the mistake of short-sighted religious leaders has been to desert these children when once they have found an abode within the civil structure4 ,the pastoral spirit of the new era claims again the entire parish1 however organized1 and guards its children still4 ,the pioneer is needed at home just as he is needed abroad1 and the pioneering agency must have the same zeal and freedom in order to mark out the way of salvation for hordes of wild city boys who are the menacing product of blind economic haste4 ,illustration3 ,,what ,,will ,,you ,,do ,,with ,,me8 ,the church should see this big problem and accept the challenge4 ,society should awaken to the fact that in our large cities there is growing up a generation of boys who morally cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand--this through no fault of theirs1 for they are but a product4 ,if they are unlovely1 smart1 sophisticated1 ungrateful1 and predatory1 what has made them so8 ,who has inverted the prophetic promise and given them ashes for beauty and the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise8 ,as matters now stand it is not the ninety and nine who are safe and the one in peril4 ,that ratio tends to be reversed1 and will be unless right-minded people accept individually and in their organized relations a just responsibility for the new life that is committed for shaping and destiny to the evolving modern city4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,ethical ,,value ,,of ,,organized ,,play#f ,the value of work as a prime factor in character building must not be overlooked4 ,in the revival of play that is sweeping over our ,american cities and in the tendency to eliminate effort from modern education there is danger of erecting a superficial and mere pleasure-seeking ideal of life4 ,it is upon the background of the sacred value of work that the equally legitimate moral factor of play is here considered4 ,further1 the value of undirected play in cultivating initiative1 resourcefulness1 and imagination1 especially in young children1 is worth bearing in mind4 ,one must grant also that play is not always enlisted in the service of morality4 ,but neither is religion4 ,both may be4 ,at any rate it is evident that when boy nature is subjected to city conditions we must either provide proper outlet and guidance for the boy's play instincts or be guilty of forcing him into the position of a law-breaker and a nuisance4 ,reduced to its lowest terms1 organized play is thus recognized as a convenient substitute for misconduct4 ,even the property owner and peace-loving citizen1 if moved by no higher motive1 will agree to the adage that ,satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do1 and will welcome the endeavor to safeguard property rights and promote the peace of the community by drawing off the adventurous and mischief-making energies of the boys into the less expensive channels of play4 ,practical men are quite agreed that it is better for gangs to release their energy and ingenuity against one another in a series of athletic games than to seek similar adventure and satisfaction in conflict with established property rights and the recognized agencies of peace and order4 ,nevertheless there persists in the church1 however unconsciously1 a sort of piety that disregards the body1 and the conventional ,christian ideal has certainly been anemic and negative in the matter of recreation4 ,the ,young ,men's ,christian ,associations with their reproduction of the ,greek ideal of physical well-being have served to temper the other-worldly type of ,christianity with the idea of a well-rounded and physically competent life as being consonant with the will of ,god4 ,at the beginning of the eighteenth century ,francke of ,halle1 an educational organizer and philanthropist of no mean proportion1 said1 ,play must be forbidden in any and all of its forms4 ,the children shall be instructed in this matter in such a way as to show them1 through the presentation of religious principles1 the wastefulness and folly of all play4 ,they shall be led to see that play will distract their hearts and minds from ,god1 the ,eternal ,good1 and will work nothing but harm to their spiritual lives4 ,only gradually does the-world-as-a-vale-of tears and the-remnant-that-shall-be-saved idea give place to a faith that claims for ,god the entire world with its present life as well as individual immortality in future felicity4 ,miracle and cataclysm and postmortem glory--the ever-ready recourse of baffled hope and persecuted ,christianity--are giving place more and more to a ,christian conquest that is orderly and inclusive of the whole sweep of human life4 ,the church is but dimly conscious1 as yet1 that through the aid of science she has attained this magnificent optimism2 much less does she realize its full implication for social service and the saving of the individual1 both body and soul4 ,the minister as the herald and exemplar of such an imperial salvation cannot ignore the exceptional opportunities which the play interests of boyhood offer4 ,he whose task has been to reconcile men to ,god1 to bring them into harmony with the universe in its ultimate content1 cannot neglect those activities which more than anything else in the life of the boy secure the happy co-ordination of his powers1 the placing of himself in right relation with others and in obedience to law4 ,these are the moral and religious accomplishments aimed at in the teaching of reconciliation which bulks so large in ,christian doctrine2 and by whatever means this right adjustment to self1 to others1 and to the will of ,god is brought about1 it always produces the sure harvest of service and joy4 ,to some undoubtedly it will seem sacrilegious to suggest that play can have anything to do in a transaction so deeply moral and so fundamentally religious4 ,yet a psychological analysis of both play and worship at their best will reveal marked similarities in spontaneity1 in self-expression for its own sake and free from ulterior ends1 in symbolism1 semi-intoxication and rhythm1 in extension and enrichment of the self1 and in preparation for the largest and most effective living4 ,that such a claim is not altogether extravagant may be demonstrated in part by canvassing the moral reactions of a well-organized group engaged in some specific game4 ,for in merely discussing the play attitude1 which is applicable to every interest of life1 there is the danger of so sublimating the value of play that its importance1 while readily granted1 will not affect pastoral or educational methods4 ,this mistake is only comparable with another which dwells upon the religious life of the boy as dependent upon the use of some inherent religious faculty that is quite detached from the normal physical and mental processes4 ,such an attitude favors an easy escape from both the labor of character building and the obligations of environmental salvation4 ,recognizing these dangers and remembering that morality and religion are most valid when acquired and incorporated in actual conduct1 one may analyze a standard game in search of its ethical worth4 ,baseball1 our most popular and distinctively national game1 constitutes a fair field for this inquiry4 ,in order to evaluate this form of play as an agency in moral training it is necessary to presume that one has a company of nine or more boys grouped together on the basis of loyalty to a common neighborhood1 school1 club1 church1 or the like4 ,they elect a manager who acts for the team in arranging a schedule of games with their various rivals and who serves in general as their business agent2 also a captain1 usually chosen because of his ability to play the game and his quality of natural leadership4 ,he directs his players in their contests and in case of dispute speaks for his team4 ,the boys should also have in every case a trainer older than themselves1 a player of well-known ability and exemplary character4 ,it is usually through neglect of supervision of this sort that the ethical value of baseball for boys of from twelve to fifteen years of age is forfeited4 ,without the trainer to direct their practice games1 and as a recognized expert to try out the players for the various positions1 the possibilities of forming a team are few and those of unjust and harmful conduct many4 ,if at the outset1 the group1 coming together in park or vacant lot1 cannot speedily agree upon a modus operandi1 their energy is turned into profane disputing about the chief positions1 and usually a game cannot be organized1 or1 if it is1 lack of agreement as to put-outs1 runs1 fouls1 and debatable points soon ruins the attempt1 with little left to most of the boys except resentment of the might-makes-right policy4 ,on the other hand1 whether one has in mind a team or a chance group of players1 the presence of a capable adult as an immediate and final court of appeal guarantees fair play for all1 prevents personal animosities1 and inspires each one to do his best in the presence of a competent judge4 ,wherever the team with proper supervision is a possibility the moral value of the game will be at its maximum4 ,uniforms are not to be despised4 ,loyalty to the school represented is but boyhood's form of what in later life becomes ability to espouse a cause and to assume a degree of social responsibility in keeping with that attitude4 ,because of this loyalty the boy who expected to play in the prominent position of pitcher takes his less conspicuous place in right field1 if by fair trials under the trainer another boy has demonstrated his superior fitness to fill the much-coveted position4 ,for the credit of the community or school which he has the honor to represent1 the match game must be won2 hence he surrenders his personal glory to the common good4 ,he does more4 ,under the excitement of the contest and with the consequent strengthening of the team spirit1 he encourages the very boy1 who would otherwise have been only his personal rival1 to do his level best1 forgetting utterly any mean individual comparisons and all anti-social self-consciousness1 in what he has enthusiastically accepted as the greater common good4 ,he goes to bat at a critical juncture in the game4 ,the score is close4 ,he as much as anyone would like to have runs to his credit4 ,but for the sake of the team his chief concern must be to advance the base runner4 ,so he plays carefully rather than spectacularly1 and makes a bunt or a sacrifice hit1 with the practical certainty that he will be put out at first base1 but with a good probability that he will thus have advanced his fellow one base and so have contributed to the team's success4 ,the religious value of the principle here involved receives no little attention in sermon and ,sunday-school class1 but how tame and formal is its verbal presentation as compared with its registration in the very will and muscles of a boy at play6 ,wherever a state has become great or a cause victorious1 wherever a hero--a ,socrates or a ,christ--has appeared among men1 there has been the willingness1 when necessary1 to make the sacrifice hit4 ,the loyalty that has held itself ready so to serve on moral demand has to its credit all the higher attainments of humanity4 ,in the great ,american experiment of democracy1 where the welfare of the people is so often bartered for gold1 and where public office is frequently prostituted to private gain1 there is a proportionately great need of teaching in every possible way this fundamental virtue of loyalty4 ,our future will be secure only in the degree in which intelligent and strong men are devoted to the welfare of city and state after the fashion of the boy to his team4 ,it is because war1 with all its horrors1 has stimulated and exhibited this virtue that its glory persists far into our industrial age2 and the hope of a lofty patriotism1 that shall be equal to the enervating influences of peace1 lies in an educated and self-denying type of loyalty4 ,the use of this loyalty in the reformation of boy criminals has been remarkably demonstrated in the well-known work of ,judge ,ben ,b4 ,lindsey1 of ,denver4 ,in a particularly difficult case he says3 ,i decided to put my influence over him to the test4 ,i told him of the fight ,i was making for him1 showed him how ,i had been spending all my spare time trying to straighten things out for him and ,heimel1 and warned him that the police did not believe ,i could succeed4 ,now1 ,lee1 ,i said1 you can run away if you want to1 and prove me a liar to the cops4 ,but ,i want to help you and ,i want you to stand by me4 ,i want you to trust me1 and ,i want you to go back to the jail there1 and let me do the best ,i can4 ,he went1 and he went alone--unguarded4 ,here is a striking example of the team work of two with the play upon loyalty and the spirit of contest4 ,another lesson about boys ,i learned from little ,mickey when ,i was investigating his charge that the jailer had beaten him4 ,the jailer said3 ,some o' those kids broke a window in there1 and when ,i asked ,mickey who it was1 he said he didn't know4 ,of course he knew4 ,d'yu think ,i'm goin' to have kids lie to me8 ,a police commissioner who was present turned to ,mickey4 ,mickey1 he said1 why did you lie8 ,mickey faced us in his rags4 ,say1 he asked1 ,do yoh t'ink a fullah ought to snitch on a kid8 ,and the way he asked made me ashamed of myself4 ,here was a quality of loyalty that we should be fostering in him instead of trying to crush out of him4 ,it was the beginning in the boy of that feeling of responsibility to his fellows on which society is founded4 ,thereafter1 no child brought before our court was ever urged to turn state's evidence against his partners in crime--much less rewarded for doing so or punished for refusing4 ,each was encouraged to snitch on himself1 and himself only4 ,another interview with a boy under sentence to the industrial school emphasizes the same point3 ,i can help you1 ,harry1 ,i said4 ,but you've got to carry yourself4 ,if ,i let boys go when they do bad things1 ,i'll lose my job4 ,the people 'll get another judge in my place to punish boys1 if ,i don't do it4 ,i can't let you go4 ,we went over it and over it2 and at last ,i thought ,i had him feeling more resigned and cheerful1 and ,i got up to leave him4 ,but when ,i turned to the door he fell on his knees before me and1 stretching out his little arms to me1 his face distorted with tears1 he cried3 ,judge6 ,judge6 ,if you let me go1 ,i'll never get you into trouble again6 ,i had him6 ,it was the voice of loyalty4444 ,this time he stuck4 ,judge1 the mother told me long afterward1 ,i asked ,harry the other day1 how it was he was so good for you1 when he wouldn't do it for me or the policeman4 ,and he says3 ',well1 ,maw1 you see if ,i gets bad ag'in the ,judge he'll lose his job4 ,i've got to stay with him1 'cause he stayed with me4' ,i have used that appeal to loyalty hundreds of times since in our work with the boys1 and it is almost infallibly successful4 ,in eight years1 out of #ejg cases of boys put upon their honor to take themselves from ,denver to the ,industrial ,school at ,golden1 to which the court had sentenced them1 ,judge ,lindsey had but five failures4 ,in view of such facts1 who will think for a moment that we have so much as begun to turn the latent loyalty of boyhood to its highest ethical use8 ,no doubt much can be said against football1 which ranks second in popularity among ,american athletic games4 ,for some years the elements of hazard and rough treatment have been unhappily too prominent1 so that the suspicion is warranted that players have been sacrificed to the bloodthirsty demands of the vast throng of spectators4 ,the tension of playing in the presence of thousands of partisan enthusiasts shows itself in a reckless disregard of physical injury4 ,furthermore1 for boys in early adolescence the tax upon the heart constitutes a common danger which is often rendered more serious by the untrained condition of the players4 ,it is to be hoped that in the further modification of the rules from year to year1 the players and their welfare will be kept more in mind and the sensation-loving public1 whose gate-fees have been too big a consideration1 will be measurably overlooked4 ,but with this concession1 all of the virtue that attaches to baseball will be found in football1 only in accentuated form4 ,physical bravery is1 of course1 more emphasized2 while team loyalty1 with all that it implies1 is more intense4 ,the relation of the members to one another in a well-organized team amounts to an affection which is never forgotten4 ,the words of cheer when the team is hard pushed and has to take a brace2 the fighting spirit that plays the game to a finish1 no matter what the odds2 the hand extended to help to his feet the man who has just advanced the ball2 the pat on the back2 the impulsive embrace2 the very tears shed in common after a lost game--all of this is a social and moral experience of no small value4 ,basketball also offers a good field for the subordination of personal glory to team success and1 in point of intensity1 stands midway between baseball and football with the elimination of the dangerous qualities of the latter4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,normal ,,boy ,,in ,,the ,,abnormal ,,playground ,games of this sort are also the most effective means of developing1 through expression1 the boy's sense of justice or fair play4 ,and this sentiment will always be found strong and operative in him unless it has been overcome by the passion to win or by imitation of the bad example of certain debased athletes1 popularly known as muckers4 ,under proper leadership1 the boy soon learns that the true spirit of manly sport is the farthest removed from that of the footpad and the blackguard4 ,appreciation of successful opponents and consideration for the vanquished can be made effectually to supplant the cheap1 blatant spirit which seeks to attribute one's defeat to trickery and chance and uses one's victory as an occasion for bemeaning the vanquished4 ,the presence of a capable director of play is sure to eliminate this evil which has crept in under the sanction of vicious ideals and through gross neglect of boys' play on the part of adults in general and educators in particular4 ,the ,decalogue itself cannot compete with a properly directed game in enforcing the fair-play principle among boys4 ,it is worth something to read about fair play1 but it is worth much more to practice it in what is1 for the time being1 a primary and absorbing interest4 ,a large part of the morality which is most obviously desirable for human welfare consists in bringing the body into habitual obedience to the will4 ,the amount of individual suffering and of loss and expense to society due to failure in this struggle is nothing less than appalling4 ,the victims of emotional hurricanes1 brainstorms1 neurotic excess1 and intemperate desire are legion4 ,a nation that is overfed1 under-exercised1 and notably neurasthenic should neglect nothing that makes for prompt and reliable self-control4 ,lycurgus said1 ,the citizens of ,sparta must be her walls1 and in building up a defense for the modern state against forces more disastrous than ,persian armies we must turn to the ancient device of the playground and athletic games4 ,the moral value of play in this respect arises from the instant muscular response to volition4 ,delay1 half-hearted response1 inattention1 preoccupation1 whimsicalness1 carelessness1 and every sluggish performance of the order of the will1 disqualifies the player so that when we take into account the adolescent passion to excel1 and the fact that #hj per cent of the games of this period are characterized by intense physical activity1 we are forced to place the highest valuation on play as a moral educator2 for this enthronement of the will over the body1 although having to do with affairs of no permanent importance1 has great and abiding value for every future transaction in life4 ,indeed1 the physical competency attained in athletic games has its reaction upon every mental condition4 ,many boys who are hampered by unreasonable diffidence1 a lack of normal self-confidence and self-assertion1 find unexpected ability and positiveness through this avenue alone and1 on the other hand1 the physical test and encounter of the game serves to bring a proper self-rating to the overconfident4 ,dr4 ,george ,j4 ,fisher1 international secretary of the ,physical ,department of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 says1 ,an unfortunately large number of our population haven't the physical basis for being good4 ,no one with even the slightest knowledge of sociology and criminology will be disposed to deny such a statement4 ,one might as well expect a one-legged man to win the international ,marathon as to expect certain physical delinquents to go right4 ,thousands of boys and girls sit in our public schools today who are the unhappy candidates for this delinquency1 and we are monotonously striving to get something into their minds1 which would largely take care of their own development1 if only we had the wisdom to address ourselves to their bodies4 ,there is indeed not only a physical basis of being good1 but1 what is not less important1 a physical basis of doing good4 ,many people avoid blame and disgrace who fail utterly in making a positive contribution to the welfare of the community4 ,they do not market their mental goods4 ,thousands of men remain in mediocrity1 to the great loss of society1 simply because they have not the requisite physical outfit to force their good ideas1 impulses1 and visions into the current of the world's life4 ,for the most part they lack the great play qualities1 enthusiasm1 spontaneity1 creative ability1 and the ability to co-operate4 ,whenever we build up a strong human organism we lay the physical foundations of efficiency1 and one is inclined to go farther and think with ,dr4 ,fisher1 that muscular energy itself is capable of transformation into energy of mind and will4 ,that is to say that play not only helps greatly in building the necessary vehicle1 but that it creates a fund upon which the owner may draw for the accomplishment of every task4 ,there is ground also for the contention that grace of physical development easily passes over into manner and mind4 ,the proper development of the instrument1 the right adjustment and co-ordination of the muscular outfit through which the emotions assemble and diffuse themselves1 is1 when other things are equal1 a guaranty of inner beauty and the grace of true gentility4 ,a poor instrument is always vexatious1 a good instrument is an abiding joy4 ,the good body helps to make the gracious self4 ,other things being equal the strong body obeys1 but the weak body rules4 ,one should not overlook the heartiness that is engendered in games1 the total engagement of mind and body that insures for the future the ability to be a whole man to one thing at a time4 ,much of the moral confusion of life arises from divided personality1 and the miserable application of something less than the entire self to the problem in hand4 ,do not the great religious leaders of the world agree with the men of practical efficiency in demonstrating and requiring this hearty release of the total self in the proposed line of action8 ,the demand of ,jesus1 touching love of ,god and neighbor1 or regarding enlistment in ,his cause1 is a demand for prompt action of the total self4 ,possibly no other single virtue has a more varied field of application than the ability for decisive and whole-souled action1 which is constantly cultivated in all physical training1 and especially in competitive athletic games4 ,it should be noted also that the hearty release of energy is1 in every good game1 required to keep within the rules4 ,this is particularly true in basket-ball1 which takes high rank as an indoor game for boys4 ,while the game is intense and fatiguing1 anything like a muscular rampage brings certain penalty to the player and loss to his team4 ,so that1 while the boy who does not play snappy and hard cannot rank high1 neither can the boy who plays rough-house4 ,forcefulness under control is the desideratum4 ,besides this there is always the development of that good-natured appreciation of every hard task1 that refinement of the true sporting spirit1 by which all the serious work of life becomes a contest worthy of never-ending interest and buoyant persistency4 ,in the midst of all the sublime responsibilities of his remarkable ministry we hear ,phillips ,brooks exclaim1 ,it's great fun to be a minister4 ,an epoch-making president of the ,united ,states telegraphs his colleague and successor1 with all the zest of a boy at play1 ,we've beaten them to a frazzle2 and the greatest of all apostles1 triumphing over bonds and imprisonment1 calls out to his followers1 ,i have fought a good fight4 ,it is doubtful if a great man ever accomplished his life work without having reached a play interest in it4 ,the saving power of organized play1 in the prevention and cure of that morbidity which especially besets youth1 can hardly be overestimated4 ,this diseased self-consciousness is intimately connected with nervous tensions and reflexes from sex conditions and not infrequently passes over into sex abuse or excess of some sort4 ,so that the diversion of strenuous athletic games1 and the consequent use of energy up to a point just below exhaustion1 is everywhere recognized as an indispensable moral prophylactic4 ,solitariness1 overwrought nervous states1 the intense and suggestive stimuli of city life1 call for a large measure of this wholesome treatment for the preservation of the moral integrity of the boy1 his proper self-respect1 and those ideals of physical development which will surely make all forms of self-abuse or indulgence far less likely4 ,the normal exhilaration of athletic games1 which cannot be described to those without experience1 is often what is blindly and injuriously sought by the young cigarette smoker in the realm of nervous excitation without the proper motor accompaniments4 ,possibly if we had not so restricted our school-yards and overlooked the necessity for a physical trainer and organized play1 we would not have schools in which as many as #hj per cent of the boys between ten and seventeen years of age are addicted to cigarettes4 ,in trying to fool ,nature in this way the boy pays a heavy penalty in the loss of that very decisiveness1 force1 and ability in mind and body which properly accompany athletic recreation4 ,the increased circulation and oxidization of the blood is in itself a great tonic and when one reflects that1 with a running pace of six miles an hour the inhalation of air increases from four hundred and eighty cubic inches per minute to three thousand three hundred and sixty cubic inches1 the tonic effect of the athletic game will be better appreciated4 ,this increased use of oxygen means healthy stimulation1 growth of lung capacity1 and exaltation of spirit without enervation4 ,health comes in through the muscles but flies out through the nerves4 ,it was well thought and arranged by the ancients says ,martin ,luther that young people should exercise themselves and have something creditable and useful to do4 ,therefore ,i like these two exercises and amusements best1 namely1 music and chivalrous games or bodily exercises1 as fencing1 wrestling1 running1 leaping1 and others44444 ,with such bodily exercises one does not fall into carousing1 gambling1 and hard drinking1 and other kinds of lawlessness1 as are unfortunately seen now in the towns and at the courts4 ,this evil comes to pass if such honest exercises and chivalrous games are despised and neglected4 ,illustration3 ,,what ,,shall ,,we ,,play8 ,the feeling of harmony and bien-etre resulting from play is1 in itself1 a rare form of wealth for the individual and a blessing to all with whom one has to do4 ,every social contact tends to become wholesome4 ,and who will say that the virtue of cheerfulness is not one of the most delightful and welcome forms of philanthropy8 ,play1 rightly directed1 always has this result4 ,possibly no social work in ,america is more sanely constructive than that of the playground movement4 ,in the few years of its existence it has made ample proof of its worth in humane and beneficent results2 and our city governments are hastening to acknowledge--what has been too long ignored--the right of every child to play4 ,it is only to be regretted that the play movement has not centered about our public schools for it constitutes a legitimate part of education4 ,the survivors who reach high school and college receive relatively a good deal of attention in physical training and organized play1 but the little fellows of the elementary grades who have curvatures1 retardation1 adenoids1 and small defects which cause loss of grade1 truancy1 and delinquency receive as yet very meager attention4 ,in dearth of opportunity and in cruel oversight of the normal play-needs of boyhood1 there probably has never been anything equal to our modern ,american city4 ,but the cost of industrial usurpation in restricting the time and area of play is beginning to be realized2 and the relation of the play-time and of the playground to health1 happiness1 morality1 and later to industrial efficiency1 begins to dawn upon our civic leaders4 ,if recreation is stronger than vice1 it becomes the duty of religious and educational institutions to contribute directly and indirectly to normal recreative needs4 ,but what can the minister do8 ,he can help educate the church out of a negative or indifferent attitude toward the absorbing play-interests of childhood and youth4 ,he can publicly endorse and encourage movements to provide for this interest of young life and may often co-operate in the organization and management of such movements4 ,every church should strive through intelligent representatives to impart religious value and power to such work and should receive through the same channels first-hand information of this form of constructive and preventive philanthropy4 ,he can partly meet the demand through clubs and societies organized in connection with his own church4 ,he can plead for a real and longer childhood in behalf of ,christ's little ones who are often sacrificed through commercial greed1 un-,christian business ambition1 educational blindness1 and ignorance4 ,he can preach a gospel that does not set the body over against the soul1 science over against the ,bible1 and the church over against normal life2 but embraces every child of man in an imperial redemption which is environmental and social as well as individual1 physical as well as spiritual4 ,in short1 he can study and serve his community1 not as one who must keep an organization alive at whatever cost1 but as one who must inspire and lead others to obey the ,master whose only reply to our repeated protestations of love is1 ,feed my lambs4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,boy',s ,,choice ,,of ,a ,,vocation#g ,it is practically impossible to overemphasize the importance of the boy's vocational choice4 ,next to his attitude toward his ,maker and his subsequent choice of a life partner this decision controls his worth and destiny4 ,for it is not to be supposed that play with all its virtue1 its nourish and exercise of nascent powers1 and its happy emancipation into broader and richer living can adequately motivate and permanently ennoble the energies of youth4 ,until some vocational interest dawns1 education is received rather than sought and will-power is latent or but intermittently exercised4 ,play has a great orbit1 but every true parent and educator seeks to know the axis of a given life4 ,for some boys presumably of high-school age and over1 this problem becomes real and engrossing1 but for the vast majority there is little intelligent choice1 no wise counsel1 no conscious fronting of the profoundly religious question of how to invest one's life4 ,the children of ease graduate but slowly1 if at all1 from the good-time ideal1 while the children of want are ordinarily without option in the choice of work4 ,but for all who1 being permitted and helped1 both seek and find then-proper places in the ranks of labor1 life becomes constructively social and therefore self-respecting4 ,to be able to do some bit of the world's work well and to dedicate one's self to the task is the individual right of every normal youth and the sure pledge of social solvency4 ,ideally an art interest in work for its own sake should cover the whole field of human labor1 and in proportion as each person finds a task suited to his natural ability and is well trained for that task does he lift himself from the grade of a menial or a pauper and enter into conscious and worthy citizenship4 ,here then1 as in the case of the mating instinct1 the vocational quest rightly handled forces the ego by its very inclination and success into the altruism of a social order4 ,for it is the misfits1 the vocationally dormant1 the defeated1 and those who1 however successful1 have not considered such choice as an ethical concern of religion that make up the anti-social classes of the present time4 ,hence this problem of vocational guidance which is so agitating the educational world comes home to the minister in his work with youth4 ,it may be that he shall find new and practical use for the maligned doctrine of election and that he shall place under intelligent1 and heavenly commission the ideals and hopes of later adolescence4 ,at any rate where the life career hinges1 there the religious expert should be on hand4 ,for what profit is there in society's vast investment in early and compulsory education if at the crucial time of initial experiment in the world's work there be neither high resolve nor intelligent direction nor sympathetic coaching into efficiency8 ,but the importance of vocational choice does not turn upon the doubtful supposition that there is one and only one suitable task for a given youth4 ,probably there are groups or families of activities within which the constructive endeavor may have happy and progressive expression4 ,nor1 from the minister's point of view1 is the economic aspect of the problem paramount4 ,it is true that an investment of #ej1jjj worth of working ability deserves study and wise placing and it is true that the sanction of public education is to return to the state a socially solvent citizen who will contribute to the common welfare and will more than pay his way2 but the immediately religious importance of this commanding interest consists in the honest and voluntary request for counsel on the part of the youth himself4 ,fortunately in the very midst of a reticent and often skeptical period there comes1 through the awakened vocational interest1 an inlet into the soul of youth4 ,no religious inquisitor or evangelistic brigand could have forced an entrance1 but lo1 all at once the doors are opened from within and examination is invited4 ,it is invited because the boy wishes to know what manner of person he is and for what pursuit he is or may be fitted4 ,when once this issue is on and one is honored as counselor and friend1 the moral honesty and eagerness of youth1 the thoroughgoing confession on all the personal and moral phases of the problem in hand are enough to move and humble the heart of any pastor4 ,such conference solemnizes and reassures the worker with boys1 while to have spent no time as an invited and reverent guest within this sacred precinct is to fail of a priesthood that is profoundly beautiful4 ,several experiences with both individuals and groups are fresh in mind at this writing4 ,on one occasion a guild of working boys in later adolescence were living together in a church fraternity house1 and it was their custom on one evening of each week to have some prominent man as guest at dinner and to hear an informal address from him after the meal4 ,it chanced that on the list of guests there was1 in addition to the mayor of their city and a well-known bishop of the ,episcopal church1 the manager of one of the greatest automobile factories in ,america4 ,on the occasion on which this captain of industry spoke1 he told in simple fashion his own experience in search of a vocation4 ,it was of a kind very common in our country3 early privation1 put to work at thirteen1 an attempt to keep him in an office when he longed to have hold of the tools in the shop4 ,in time his request was granted4 ,while he worked he observed and studied the organization of the shop and the progression of the raw material to the finished product4 ,having mastered the method he left this shop and hired in another1 and then in due time in still another shop1 much to the disgust of his friends4 ,but in reply to their warning that a rolling stone gathers no moss he said that that was not his aim4 ,as a result of faithfully following his bent he was ready to respond to the great demand for men to organize and run bicycle factories1 and when that demand was followed by the much greater need of doing a similar work in the manufacture of automobiles he was chosen for the very responsible position which he now holds4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,guild1 ,first ,baptist ,church1 ,detroit1 ,mich4 ,there was1 to be sure1 nothing distinctly spiritual in his story1 but after he had finished the young men kept him for two hours answering their questions and there was there revealed to the pastor more of their fine hopes and purposes and possibilities--their deep-buried yet vital dreams--than he had ever heard unfolded in any religious meeting4 ,many of these youths were taken in hand in a personal way and are now making good4 ,their subsequent use of leisure1 their patronage of evening schools1 ,y4,m4,c4,a4 courses1 and many other helps to their ambitions testified to the depth and tenacity of good purposes which were timidly voiced but heroically executed4 ,on the other hand1 the writer has knowledge of many cases of delinquency in which apparently the deciding cause was the vocational misfit foisted upon the young would-be laborer in the trying years between fourteen and sixteen4 ,there comes to mind the instance of a lad of seventeen found in the ,cook ,county jail4 ,he had left his ,michigan home with fifty dollars of savings and had come to ,chicago to make his fortune4 ,his mother's story1 which was secured after he got into trouble1 narrated how that as a boy he had taken to pieces the sewing-machine and the clocks and1 unlike many boys1 had put them together again without damage4 ,reaching ,chicago he hired in a garage and conceived the idea of building an automobile4 ,after the fashion of a boy he became totally absorbed in this project4 ,his ingenuity and thrift and the help of his employers enabled him to get well along with his enterprise4 ,but at last he was balked because of lack of a particular part which he knew to be essential1 but as to the nature of which he was not informed4 ,going along the street one day in profound concern over this matter an impulse seized him to learn at once the nature of the needed part4 ,he jumped into an automobile standing by the curb1 drove it to the nearest alley1 and crawled under it to make the necessary disconnections1 when the police caught him in the act4 ,the case was a clear one and he was thrown into jail4 ,the mother in her letter to the ,juvenile ,protective ,association which was working for his release said that now1 since he had been so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the authorities1 she wondered whether they might not perform an operation for his benefit1 for she had heard that there was an operation by which the skull could be opened and a certain part of the brain removed1 and she thought that possibly they might do this for her boy and take out that part of his brain which made him so wild about machinery6 ,public education in ,america is only beginning to respond to the need of intelligently connecting our educational product with the world's work4 ,trade schools for boys and girls1 half-time schools1 continuation schools1 night schools1 and in a few cities vocational bureaus are at work1 but so are poverty and the helpless ignorance of the hard-pressed home4 ,the children who must in tender years be offered to our rapacious industries are the very children who are without hope of parental counsel and direction4 ,in ,new ,york ,city #db1jjj children between fourteen and sixteen years of age take out their working papers every year1 and out of #ab1jjj to #ac1jjj taking out working papers in ,chicago annually about #i1jjj are only fourteen years of age and #a1ejj have not yet reached the fifth grade4 ,many of these walk the streets and degenerate while in search of work or because of such fitful employment as only serves to balk the department of compulsory education1 which has the power to insist upon school attendance for children of this age if not employed4 ,it is not that work is uniformly bad for these children4 ,indeed1 idleness would be worse4 ,and it is not that all these children are forced to turn out bad4 ,but as a matter of fact children under sixteen are not generally wanted save in positions of monotonous and unpromising employment1 and their early experience1 which is quite without reference to taste and native ability1 is likely to turn them against all work as being an imposition rather than an opportunity4 ,in the long run this cheap labor is the most expensive in the world1 and society cannot afford to fully release children from school control and training prior to sixteen years of age4 ,much less can it permit them at any time to approach the employment problem blindly and unaided4 ,nor should it fail to reduce the hours of labor for such children as fall into permanently unprogressive toil and to organize their leisure as well as to provide opportunities whereby some may extricate themselves4 ,what is this industrial haste which cuts so much of our corn while it is only in tassel1 that drives square pegs into round holes1 that harnesses trotting stock to heavy drays and draughting stock to gigs1 that breaks up the violin to kindle a fire quickly1 thoughtless of the music1 that takes telescopes for drain pipes and gets commerce--but not commerce with the stars8 ,it is the delirium in which strong men seek the standard ,american testimonial of genius and ability1 namely the accumulation of great wealth2 and in this delirium they see labor as a commodity and childhood as a commercial factor4 ,they do not think of people like themselves and of children like their own4 ,but the minister is the very champion of those higher rights1 the defender of idealism1 and as such the best friend of an industrial order which is perversely making this expensive blunder and reaping the blight of sullen citizenship and cynical and heartless toil4 ,how can these thousands who1 because of blind-alley occupations1 come to their majority tradeless and often depleted1 having no ability to build and own a home--how can these who have no stake in the country aid in making the republic what it ought to be8 ,partly they become a public care1 expense1 or nuisance1 and largely they constitute the material for bossism and dynamite for the demagogue if he shall come4 ,the economic breakdown1 because of vocational misfit and the exploitation of childhood1 usually results in a corresponding moral breakdown4 ,to be doomed to inadequacy is almost to be elected to crime4 ,now the pastor certainly cannot right all this wrong1 neither will he be so brash as to charge it all up to malicious employers1 ignoring the process through which our vaunted individualism1 our free-field-and-no-favor policy1 our doctrine for the strong has disported itself4 ,but is it not reasonable that the minister inform himself of this problem in all its fundamental phases and that he both follow and ardently encourage a public-school policy which aims increasingly to fit the growing generation for productive and stable citizenship8 ,our schools are fundamentally religious if we will have them so in terms of character building1 elemental self-respect1 social service1 and accountability to the ,god of all4 ,the godless schools exist only in the minds of those who for purposes of dispute and sectarianism decree them so4 ,furthermore1 in every effort toward vocational training and sorting1 the employer will be found interested and ready to help4 ,but to come more closely to the place of this problem in church work it must be recognized that the ,sunday schools1 clubs1 and young people's societies offer wider opportunity for vocational direction than is now being used4 ,the curricula in these institutions can be greatly vitalized and enlarged by the inclusion of this very interest1 and life can be made to seem more broadly1 sanely1 and specifically religious than is now the case4 ,suppose that to groups of boys beyond middle adolescence competent and high-minded representatives of various trades and professions present in series the reasons for their choice1 the possible good1 individual and social1 which they see in their life-work1 the qualifications which they deem necessary1 and the obstacles to be met2 and suppose further that the ethical code of a trade1 profession1 or business is presented for honest canvass by the class1 must there not result a stimulus and aid to vocational selection and also a more lively interest in the study of specific moral problems8 ,in this way teaching clusters about an inevitable field of interest1 about live and often urgent problems1 and there is nothing to prevent the use of all the light which may be adduced from the ,bible and religious experience4 ,to describe the method more specifically1 the lawyer presents his profession and subsequently the class discusses the code of the bar association2 or the physician presents his work and then follows the canvass of the ethical problems of medical practice1 and so of the trade-union artisan1 the merchant or teacher1 the minister1 or the captain of industry4 ,all of this is diffused with religion1 it has its setting and sanction within the church1 it supplements for a few1 at any rate1 the present lack in public education1 and it is real and immediate rather than theoretical and remote4 ,let this be complemented with visits to institutions1 offices1 plants1 courts1 and the marts and centers of commercial1 industrial1 and agricultural life2 and1 best of all1 cemented in the personal friendship1 practical interest and sponsorship of an adult and wise counselor who helps the boy both to the place and in the place2 and1 within the limits of the rather small constituency of church boys at least1 there is guaranteed a piece of religious work that is bound to tell4 ,for surely every legitimate interest of life is religious when handled by religious persons1 and the right moral adjustment of the whole self to the whole world1 with the emotion and idealism inhering in the process1 is the task and content of religion4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,training ,,for ,,citizenship#h ,the altruism of ,america is philanthropic rather than civic and in deliberate disregard of government1 the average citizen of the ,united ,states has no equal4 ,however intelligent or capable he may be1 he is in the main a poor citizen4 ,this habit of having no care for the ship of state and of seeking comfort and self-advantage1 regardless of her future1 is exactly the reverse of what one would expect4 ,for by the manner of her birth and her natural genius the republic would seem to guarantee forever a high type of efficient public service4 ,but the capable and typical man of the church1 and presumptively the man of conscience1 studiously avoids the hazards of political life4 ,it is not necessary to rehearse the well-known and deplorable results of this policy whereby the best men have generally avoided public office1 especially in municipal government4 ,intelligence of the ills of the body politic or of the fact that it lies bruised and violated among thieves serves chiefly to divert the disgusted churchman to the other side of the road as he hastens to his destination of personal gain4 ,indeed it is not an uncommon thing for him to be a past master in circumventing or debauching government and in thus spreading the virus of political cynicism throughout the mass of the people4 ,such a separation of church and state is hardly to be desired1 and the call to political service is quite as urgent1 quite as moral1 and far more exacting than the perfectly just calls to foreign mission support and to the support of the great philanthropies of the day4 ,because of the influx of foreign peoples1 the unsolved race problem1 tardy economic reforms1 uncertain justice1 political corruption1 and official mediocrity1 ,america stands more in need of good citizenship than of generosity1 more in need of statesmen than of clergymen4 ,no subsequent philanthropy can atone for misgovernment1 and furthermore all social injustice1 whether by positive act or simple neglect1 tends to take toll from the defenseless classes4 ,the more efficient extricate themselves1 while the ignorant1 the weak1 the aged1 and chiefly the little children bear the brunt of governmental folly4 ,it is for this reason1 together with the passing of materialistic standards of pomp and circumstance and the growing insistence upon human values1 that the women are demanding full citizenship4 ,and this new citizenship1 including both women and men enfranchised upon the same basis1 will not be without the ardor and heroism of those who in former days bore arms for the honor of their native land4 ,for just behind the ranks are the unprotected children1 the new generation whose opportunity and treatment constitutes the true measure of statesmanship4 ,but here as everywhere the only highway leading to that better tomorrow is thronged with little children upon whose training the issue hangs4 ,what do the home1 school1 church1 and community tell them as to citizenship1 and1 of more importance1 what civic attitudes and actions are evoked8 ,the home1 by picture and story and celebration1 by the observance of birthdays1 national and presidential1 by the intelligent discussion of public interests1 by respect for constituted authorities1 by honest dealing1 and by a constant exercise of public spirit as over against a selfish and detached aim1 may do much to mold the boy's early civic attitude4 ,but most homes will do little of this1 and both home and school fall short in pledging the new life to the common good and in guaranteeing to the state her just due4 ,frequently the home provides lavishly and at sacrifice for the comfort and even luxury of the children and exacts nothing in return4 ,mothers slave for sons and neglect1 until it is too late1 those just returns of service which make for honor and self-respect4 ,graft begins in the home1 and it is amazing what pains we take to produce an ingrate and perforce a poor citizen4 ,similarly1 the boy attends the free schools4 ,here is further advantage without the thought of service in return1 something for nothing--the open end of the public crib4 ,but the public schools are not exactly free schools4 ,everything1 whether at home or school1 costs1 and someone pays the bills4 ,the prospective citizen should be made to realize this1 and it would do him no harm actually to compute the cost4 ,through home and school1 society is making an investment in him4 ,let him estimate in dollars and cents his indebtedness for food and clothing and shelter1 travel1 medical care1 education and recreation1 and all the other items of expense which have entered into his care and training for the fourteen or seventeen years of his dependency4 ,such an exercise1 which cannot include those invaluable offices of parental love and personal interest1 may have a sobering effect1 as will also a conscious appreciation of the social institutions and utilities which are the gift of former and contemporary generations of toilers4 ,but how can the schoolboy come into the self-respect of partnership8 ,probably by building up the consciousness of our school and by being sent from home with the idea of helping teacher and school in every way to accomplish the most and best for all concerned4 ,ordinarily the home supplies the child with no such suggestion and in some cases works even counter to the school and against good citizenship4 ,the teacher is added to the ranks of the child's natural enemies1 where unfortunately the policeman has long since been consigned2 and the school8--that is something for which he carries no responsibility4 ,actual experiment of the opposite kind has proved most gratifying1 and this immediate attitude toward his first public institution sets the child's will toward the practice of good citizenship in the years that lie ahead4 ,the curriculum of the elementary schools of ,chicago makes a very thorough attempt to train the child in good citizenship1 an attempt beginning with the anniversary days of the kindergarten and proceeding throughout the eight grades4 ,in addition to history1 civics of the most concrete and immediate kind is so presented that the child should be brought to an appreciation of the city's institutions and organized forces and of the common responsibility for the health and security of all the people4 ,the same policy is pursued1 unfortunately with diminishing attention1 throughout the high-school course1 and yet the superintendent of schools testifies that public education is failing to secure civic virtue4 ,the children have not come into partnership with the school and other agencies of the common life1 they have not achieved a nice sense of the rights of others1 they have not been lifted to the ideal of service as being more noble than that of efficiency alone4 ,of course there are many reasons for this3 the quizzical temper of the community at large1 the constant revelation of graft1 the distorted school discipline which makes tardiness a more serious offense than lying or theft2 the neglect to organize athletics and play for ethical ends2 the criminal's code with regard to examinations--a code very prevalent in secondary schools1 both public and private--that cheating is in order if one is not caught2 the bitter and damaging personalities of party politics and the very transient honors of ,american public life2 and1 perhaps chief of all1 the very elaborate provision for every child with the implication that he does the school a favor to use what is provided rather than the imposition of an obligation upon him both to help in securing the efficiency and beauty of the school and to discharge his just debt to society in the measure of his ability as boy and man4 ,another productive cause of poor citizenship is the general contempt in which immigrants are held1 and especially the treatment accorded them by the police and by most of the minor officials with whom they come in contact4 ,this primitive disdain of barbarians is common among the school children and tends to make the foreign children more delinquent and anti-social than they would otherwise be4 ,a very recent case sums up the situation4 ,a gang of five ,polish boys beat up a messenger boy1 apparently without provocation4 ,a ,juvenile ,protective officer visited the home of one of these young thugs for the purpose of talking with the mother and getting such information as would aid in keeping the boy from getting into further trouble4 ,the mother was found to be a very intelligent woman and explained to the officer that her boy had been constantly angered and practically spoiled at school2 that it had been ground into him that he was nothing but a ,polack1 and that no good thing was to be expected of him4 ,the school boys had taken a hand in his education2 and by reflecting in their own merciless way the uncharitable judgment of their elders had helped to produce this young pariah4 ,if one will but travel on the street cars in the crowded districts of our great cities and note the churlish discourtesy and sarcastic contempt with which the foreigners are generally treated1 or will take the pains to ascertain how cruelly they are deceived and fleeced at almost every turn1 one will soon conclude that we are making it very hard for these people and their children to become grateful and ardent citizens of the republic4 ,looking to the improvement of this condition1 while vocational training promises something by way of an economic basis for good citizenship1 too much must not be expected of it alone4 ,for if vocational efficiency be created and released in an environment devoid of civic idealism it will never pass beyond the grub stage4 ,it will merely fatten a low order of life1 and this at the expense of much that would otherwise lend verdure and freshness1 shade1 flower1 and fruit to the garden of our common life4 ,the able man or the rich man is not necessarily a good citizen4 ,that the state1 like the home and school1 should incessantly give its benefactions without binding youth to service in return is an egregious blunder4 ,there should be some formal entrance into full citizenship1 not only for those of us who1 coming from other nations1 must needs be naturalized1 but for all whom the years bring from the fair land of boyhood into the great and sober responsibilities of citizenship4 ,when a ,greek youth took the oath of citizenship1 he stood in the temple of ,aglauros overlooking the city of ,athens and the country beyond and said3 ,i will never disgrace these sacred arms nor desert my companions in the ranks4 ,i will fight for temples and public property1 both alone and with many4 ,i will transmit my fatherland not only not less but greater and better than it was transmitted to me4 ,i will obey the magistrates who may at any time be in power4 ,i will observe both the existing laws and those which the people may unanimously hereafter make4 ,and if any person seek to annul the laws or set them at naught1 ,i will do my best to prevent him and will defend them both alone and with many4 ,i will honor the religion of my fathers1 and ,i call to witness ,aglauros1 ,enyalios1 ,ares1 ,zeus1 ,thallo1 ,auxo1 and ,hegemone4 ,now1 the minister may think that no great part of the improved training for citizenship falls to him4 ,he may be content to instill motives of individual piety1 but upon reflection he must know that on nearly every hand there exist today great and insuperable barriers to his personal gospel4 ,behind the walls which imprison them are millions who cannot hear his message and those walls will not go down except by the creation of public sentiment which organizes itself and functions as law and government4 ,the minister's exercise of citizenship should not be reserved for heaven1 where it will not be needed1 but should rather get into action here and now4 ,this means a pulpit policy which recognizes the great dimensions of the ,kingdom of ,god1 and seeks a moral alignment of church and state that will draw out the religious energy to vital and immediate issues1 and will necessitate within the church herself clean-cut moral reactions to existing vital conditions4 ,when the pulpit becomes sufficiently intelligent and bold to lay bare such issues the youth and manhood of the country will not in so large measure neglect the pew4 ,wherever real issues are drawn men and boys tend to assemble4 ,illustration3 ,,imported ,,civic ,,timber ,in the intricate social life of today a ministry devoted exclusively to plucking a few brands from the burning is somewhat archaic4 ,the individual soul in its majestic value is not discounted1 but it cannot be disentangled from the mass as easily as was once the case1 or as easily as was once supposed4 ,it was not so necessary to preach civic righteousness when the gospel was deemed sufficient so to transform the individual that all external limitations1 ungodly conditions1 and social injustices would yield to the regal ability of the child of ,god4 ,to recognize the environmental phase of salvation and to undertake this broader task in addition to the cure of souls may be to expose the minister to the cross-fire of economic sharp-shooters and a fusillade of sociological field guns4 ,besides1 some of the supporters of the church will object and many will assert that the minister cannot qualify to speak with first-rate intelligence and authority upon the complex social problems of the day4 ,indeed1 by endeavoring to utter a message of immediate significance in this field1 he will discredit his more important mission as a spiritual leader4 ,again1 if he should speak to the point on social issues no heed would be paid to his deliverances1 and he has plenty to do in routine pastoral work4 ,the strength of these objections must be granted1 and more especially so in the case of weak men1 men of unripe judgment1 of hasty and extravagant utterance1 and of inferior training4 ,for undoubtedly present-day problems of social welfare and such as affect religious living do lead back1 not only into economic considerations1 but also into questions of legislation and government4 ,but even so1 will the minister consent to be without voice or program in the shaping of social ethics8 ,will he follow meekly and at a safe distance in the wake of the modern movement for economic justice and humane living conditions8 ,will he allow people to think for a moment that his job is to coddle a few of the elect and to solace a few of the victims of preventable hardship and injustice8 ,suppose that1 with the exception of denouncing the saloon and praising charity1 he omits from his pulpit policy the creation of civic ideals and the drawing of moral issues in behalf of the higher life of all the people1 will not the male population consider him rather too much engrossed with the little comforts1 sentiments1 and futilities of a religious club8 ,the entire precedent of the pulpit1 both in biblical days and since1 is wholly against such silence4 ,if it is not the minister's business to know the problems of social ethics1 so as to speak confidently to the situation from the standpoint of ,jesus1 whose province is it8 ,must he dodge the greatest moral problems of the day1 all of which are collective8 ,has he not time and training so to master his own field that he will be second to none of his hearers in the possession of the relevant facts2 and does he not presumably know the mind of ,christ8 ,it is idle to say that his hearers will pay no heed1 and it is idle to think that as a champion of justice and a better day he may not get a scar or so4 ,but the man who has the mind of ,christ toward the multitude and who thinks as highly of little children and their rights as did the ,man of ,galilee is going to be significant in making states and cities what they ought to be2 and whatever disturbances may arise in the placid separatism of the church1 the ,kingdom itself will go marching on4 ,the chief ingredient needed by the pulpit of today in order to inspire men and boys to noble citizenship is courage--moral courage4 ,but the new citizenship is in training for peace rather than for war1 for world-wide justice rather than for national aggrandizement2 and to this the ,christian message lends itself with full force4 ,the rehearsal of war and strife1 the superficial view of history which sees only the smoke of battles and the monuments of military heroes1 give place to an insight which traces the advancing welfare of the common people4 ,the minister will inspire his formative citizens with good portrayals of statesmen1 educators1 inventors1 reformers1 discoverers1 pioneers1 and philanthropists4 ,he will charm them into greatness at the very time when a boy's ideals overtop the mountains4 ,conducive to the same end will be the rugged and humane ideals and activities of the ,boy ,scouts under his control2 and all that is well done in the boys' clubs--the athletics1 debates1 trials1 councils1 literary and historical programs1 addresses by respected public officials1 visits to public institutions1 the study of social conditions1 especially in the young men's classes of the ,sunday school--will make for the same good citizenship4 ,if the ,men's ,brotherhood is of significance in the community it is quite possible to bring political candidates before it for the statement of their claims and of the issues involved in any given campaign1 and boys of fifteen years and over might well be invited to such meetings4 ,then1 too1 such activities for community betterment as are outlined in the closing chapter of this book should be of some benefit1 since the boy is to become a good citizen1 not by hearing only but by doing2 and the great success attending ,boy-,city organizations should inspire the pastor to attempt by this and other means the training of a new citizenship4 ,in fact1 the matter is of sufficient importance to have a definite place in the ,sunday-school curriculum and a boy might far better be informed on the plan of government1 the civic dangers1 and the line of action for a good man in his own city than to fail of that in an attempt to master the topography of ,palestine or to recite perfectly the succession of the ,israelitish kings4 ,if the minister has faith in a living ,god1 if he believes that people are not less valuable now than they were four thousand years ago1 if his ,golden ,age comprises the perfect will of ,god entempled in the whole creation1 if he believes that this nation has some responsible part in the divine plan for the world1 if he believes that righteousness is more desirable than pity and justice than philanthropy1 and that the unrest of our times is but opportunity1 he will in every way gird his boys for the battle and deliver constantly to the state trained recruits for the cause of human welfare which is ever the cause of ,god4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,boy',s ,,religious ,,life#i ,comparative religion is unable to make a satisfactory investigation of the successive stages in the religious life of the individual4 ,for the purpose of religious education it is highly desirable to add to the historical survey and the ethnological cross-sections of comparative religion a longitudinal section of the religion of the individual4 ,this1 however1 is impossible because the important data at the bottom of the series are unattainable4 ,in the study of childhood1 as in the study of a primitive race1 the individual is so securely hidden away in the group that the most penetrating scientific method cannot find him1 and the tendencies which are to integrate into religious experience are so taken in hand by the society which produces and envelops the new life that the student of religion must deal with a social product from the outset4 ,the isolated religion of an individual does not exist1 although in the more mature stages of prophetism and philosophy pronounced individual features always assert themselves4 ,the potential individuality in every child forbids1 however1 the assertion that he is only a mirror in which the religion of his immediate society and nothing more is reflected4 ,there is from a very early time an active principle of personality1 a growing selective power1 a plus that comes out of the unmapped laboratory of creation1 that may so arrange1 transmute1 and enrich the commonplace elements of the socio-religious matrix as to amount to genius4 ,but1 nevertheless1 the newcomer can scarcely do more than select the given quarter which from day to day proves least unpleasant1 while the fact of being on the great ship and in one cabin or another--or in the steerage--has been settled beforehand4 ,hence the religious life of the boy depends largely upon family and community conditions which in turn rest upon economic considerations4 ,whatever demoralizes the home1 degrades the community1 and crushes out idealism also damns the souls of little children4 ,it requires no deep investigation of modern society to prove that this is being done1 and the guilt of economic injustice and rapacity is measured ultimately in the cost to the human spirit which in every child pleads for life and opportunity1 and1 alas1 too often pleads in vain4 ,the pre-adolescent and imitative religious life of the boy is fairly communicative1 but as soon as the actual struggle of achieving a personal religion sets in under the pubertal stress the sphinx itself is not more reticent4 ,the normal boy is indisposed to talk about the affairs of his inner life4 ,probably they are too chaotic to formulate even to himself4 ,if he is unspoiled he clothes his soul with a spiritual modesty which some of his sentimental elders might well cultivate4 ,if he does break silence it will probably be in terms of the religious cult that has given him nurture4 ,for all of these reasons it is exceedingly difficult to trace with certainty the development of his personal religion4 ,the indubitable and hopeful fact is that in every normal boy the potent germ of religion is present4 ,usually in early adolescence it bursts its casings and shoots into consciousness1 powerfully affecting the emotions and the will4 ,certain stages of this process will be in the nature of crisis according to the strength of the opposition encountered in the personal moral struggle1 and in opposing social conditions4 ,nothing but calamity can forestall this progressive moral adjustment to the whole world4 ,to believe otherwise is to indict ,god for the purpose of covering our own blunders4 ,in proportion as society prevents or perverts this moral outreach after ,god1 it pollutes and endangers itself4 ,the atmosphere that kills the lily creates the stench4 ,in the passage of the boy's religious life from the imitative type to the personal and energized form1 or1 as he experiences conversion1 the battle is usually waged about some concrete moral problem4 ,his conscience has become sensitive with regard to profanity1 lying1 impurity1 or some particular moral weakness or maladjustment and his struggle centers on that4 ,being often defeated under the adolescent sense--pressure and confusion1 he naturally seeks help1 and help from the highest source of virtue4 ,he has secreted somewhere in his heart ulterior ideals of service1 but for the time being his chief concern is very properly himself2 for if he loses out with himself he knows that all other worthy ambitions are annulled4 ,but a religious culture that keeps him in this self-centered feverish state is pathetically morbid and harmful4 ,it short-circuits the religious life4 ,this is the chief criticism of the devotional type of ,christian culture4 ,it seeks to prolong a crisis and often begets insincerity or disgust4 ,the real priest of boyhood will certainly stand near by at this all-important time1 but he will always manifest a refined respect for the birth-chamber of the soul4 ,in patient and hopeful sympathy1 in friendship that is personal and not professional1 knowing that the door of the heart is opened only from within1 the true minister1 like his ,master1 waits4 ,he knows1 too1 that a few words suffice in the great decisions of life1 and that the handclasp of manly love speaks volumes4 ,the prime qualification is a friendship that invites and respects confidence and a life that is above criticism4 ,another important aid in bringing the boy over the threshold of vital and purposeful religion is the favorable influence of his group or gang4 ,the disposition to move together which is so pronounced in every other field must not be ignored here4 ,the ideal club will be bringing the boy toward the altar of the church and at the right point along the way the minister who is properly intimate with each boy will be assured in private conference of the good faith and earnest purpose of his prospective church member4 ,before receiving boys into active church membership it is well that they be given a course of instruction in a preparatory class4 ,only so can the fundamentals of religion and the duties of church membership be intelligently grasped4 ,the value to the boy is also enhanced when the ceremony of induction is made formal and impressive to a degree that shall not be surpassed in his entrance into any other organization4 ,by all means the boy should not be neglected after he has been received into the church4 ,mistakes of this sort are common wherever undue importance attaches to the conversion experience1 and the numerical ideal of church success prevails4 ,if the task becomes too great for the pastor let him find a responsible big brother for every boy received into the church4 ,as the critical or skeptical traits of youth develop in later adolescence the intellectual formulas and supports of religion will be overhauled4 ,what the boy has brought over out of the early imitative and memorizing period of life will probably come up for review in later adolescence4 ,if his inherited theology corresponds to experience and verifies itself in the light of the scientific methods of school and college no great difficulty will be experienced4 ,but if it does not square with the youth's set of verifiable facts then there is added to his necessary moral struggle for self-possession and spiritual control the unnecessary and dangerous quest for a new faith1 so that he is forced to swap horses in midstream and when the spring freshet is on4 ,possibly this reorganization involved in the adolescent flux and reflection cannot be altogether avoided1 but with proper care much could be done to lessen its dangers and to preserve a substantial continuity of religious experience from childhood through youth and to the end of life4 ,it is a help not to have to be introduced to an altogether new ,god in these succeeding stages4 ,to preserve his identity enriches and safeguards the life4 ,the imagination and wonder instinct of the child1 his use of natural religion1 his confirmation in habits of prayer1 reverence1 and worship1 his acquisition of choice religious literature by memorizing--can these interests be properly cared for without putting upon him a theological yoke which will subsequently involve pain and perhaps apostasy8 ,it is undoubtedly easier to point out the desirability of furnishing childhood with the materials of a time-proof religion than to provide such an instrument4 ,and it is less difficult to criticize the indiscriminate use of the ,bible in instructing the young than to set forth the type of education in religion which will satisfy alike the mental requirements of childhood and youth4 ,what course should be followed with the pre-adolescent boy in order that the youth may be not less but more religious8 ,in offering any suggestion in this direction it should be borne in mind that natural religion or the religion of nature makes a strong appeal to the child4 ,he readily believes in the presence of ,god in animate nature with all its wonder and beauty4 ,creatorship and the expression of the divine will in the normal processes are taken for granted4 ,the orderly world is to him proof of mind and method2 and perhaps the first mistake in the average religious teaching is the departure from this broad basis of faith to what is termed revealed religion and is at the same time the religion of miracle4 ,the introduction of miracle as a basis of faith amounts to sowing the seeds of adolescent skepticism4 ,the child should be taught to deal with ,jewish folk-lore as with that of any other people4 ,while the incomparable religious value of the biblical literature should be used to the full1 the ,bible as a book should not be given artificial ranking4 ,nor should any belief contrary to his reason be imposed as an obligation4 ,but the ever-open possibility of things that surpass present human comprehension should be preserved1 and the sense of wonder which the scientist may ever have should be carefully nurtured4 ,if the teacher violates the child's right to absolute honesty here let him not bemoan nor condemn the skepticism of later years4 ,the child can also believe in the presence of ,god in his own moral discernment4 ,he can be taught to obey his sense of ought and to enjoy thereby1 from very early years1 a rich measure of harmony4 ,through such experience he discovers to himself the joy of being at one with ,god4 ,he has proof of the constructive power of righteousness1 and conversely he learns the destructive power of sin4 ,he finds that the constituted order is essentially moral and that the duty of all alike is to conform to that fact4 ,he can easily comprehend also the struggle of the better self to rule over the worse self4 ,the battle of the rational and spiritual to gain supremacy over the instinctive and animalistic is known to him4 ,to be master of himself and to exercise a control that is more and more spiritual1 to get the better of things and circumstances1 to reduce his world to obedience to his gradually enlightened will--that is his task4 ,in this he proves1 under right guidance1 the supremacy of the spiritual and may be encouraged to project it into a hope of personal immortality4 ,very early1 too1 he gets some proof of the fact of human solidarity2 especially so if he has brothers and sisters4 ,the social character of good and the anti-social character of bad conduct is demonstrated day in and day out in the family4 ,and enlargement of the concentric circles that bound his life only demonstrates over and over again the social nature of goodness4 ,on this basis sufficient inspiration for personal righteousness and altruism is afforded by the world's need of just these things4 ,every normal child responds to the appeal of living to make the world better4 ,children always want to help4 ,apart from every speculative question the child accepts the ethical leadership of ,jesus4 ,and he should understand that discipleship consists in conduct that conforms to ,his spirit4 ,to make the test creedal is not only contrary to the intensely pragmatic character of childhood but inimical to the resistless spirit of inquiry and speculation which breaks out in reflective youth4 ,childhood needs a religion of deeds4 ,if a religion of dogma and detached sentiment is substituted the youth may some day awake to the fact that he can throw the whole thing overboard and experience a relief rather than a loss4 ,if from his earliest experience in the home he has lived under the wholesome influence of applied rather than speculative ,christianity1 he will be spared much of the danger incident to theological reconstruction4 ,in emphasizing this point of applied ,christianity1 and as illustrating the fact that the boy's initial religious struggle1 which necessitates a quest for ,god1 centers about concrete temptations1 it may be in place to make mention of a problem which lies very close to personal religion and social welfare4 ,on the one hand the very altruism which is exalted and glorified in religion has its physical basis in the sex life1 and on the other hand the sex life1 unless it be guarded by religious control1 ever threatens to devastate all the higher values of the soul4 ,hence the problem of the boy's personal purity has profound religious significance4 ,as yet there is little consensus of opinion as to the best way of keeping him pure4 ,parents1 educators1 and religious leaders1 however1 are showing increased concern over this difficult problem1 and there is good ground to believe that prudery and indifference must gradually give place to frank and intelligent consideration of this vital and difficult subject4 ,it must be granted1 however1 that it is as impossible as it is undesirable to keep the boy ignorant4 ,his own natural curiosity1 together with his school and street experience1 are fatal to such a ,fool's ,paradise4 ,moreover1 the general attitude of suppression and secrecy rather stimulates curiosity1 and often amounts to the plain implication that everything that has to do with the perpetuation of our species is of necessity evil and shameful4 ,this conspiracy of silence makes against true virtue4 ,religious instruction1 based upon the confession of the repentant ,david1 ,behold1 ,i was begotten in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me1 has helped to perpetuate a sinister attitude toward this whole question--an attitude not without some foundation in the moral history of man4 ,it has also been convenient and consistent1 in support of the doctrine of man's depravity1 to exploit this dark view so as to make him a fit subject for redemption4 ,somehow1 the traditional ,fall and procreation have been so associated in religious thinking that it has been practically impossible for the religious mind to entertain any favorable consideration of the physical conditions of human genesis4 ,very naturally that which is under the ban1 being the seat of human sin1 the bond that binds each generation to fallen ,adamic nature1 must take its place as surreptitious and evil--and never positively within the sanctioned and ordained agencies of ,god4 ,does such an attitude contribute to man's highest good and to the strength and scope of religious control8 ,is it better to alienate and outlaw so important a phase of human existence or to bring it into intelligent accord with the divine will8 ,is it not conceivable that in this field1 as in every other that is normal to human life1 there will be a gain to humanity1 and to the value of religion as a helper of mankind1 by a frank attempt to bring the whole life to the dignifying conception of a reasonable service to one's ,maker8 ,granting that such an attempt is desirable1 we come face to face with the necessity of imparting such information as will make the boy's way of duty plain1 and will elevate the subject to a place of purity and religious worth4 ,in this process of instruction1 which is nothing less than a sacred responsibility1 the most common fault of the parent1 physician1 teacher1 and pastor is that of delay4 ,by the time a boy is eight years of age1 he should have been informed as to his residence within and his birth from his mother1 and this in such a way as wonderfully to deepen his love for her1 and to beget in him a respect for all women to the end of his life4 ,it is well that the mother should first inform him in that spirit of utmost confidence which shall preclude his indiscriminate talk with other people upon this subject4 ,he should know1 too1 that further information will be given as he needs it1 and that he can trust his parents to be frank and true with him in this as in everything else4 ,by all means let the mother tell the story and not some unfortunately vicious or polluted companion4 ,there are three reasons at least for informing him thus early in life4 ,one is that sufficient curiosity has usually developed by this time1 another is that the first information should come from a pure source1 and a third is that this instruction should anticipate sex consciousness and the indecent language and suggestions of school and street4 ,in the same spirit will the father impart to the boy a little later the fact of the original residence within himself of the seed from which the boy grew4 ,by the father's reverent treatment of the subject in the hour of a boy's confidence1 and in response to his just curiosity1 he may hallow forever the boy's conception of the marriage relation and emphasize the vast amount of tenderness and regard that is due every mother4 ,for the boy to feel sure that he has been told the truth by his father1 and to realize that his father regards these facts in an honorable and clean way1 will rob a thousand indecent stories of their damage4 ,it belongs to the father to redeem the boy's idea of human procreation from obscenity1 and1 under right conditions1 to have this process regarded by his boy as the most wonderful responsibility that falls to man4 ,sometime before the boy has reached thirteen1 the father will have explained to him the facts and temptations of the pubescent period4 ,the crime of allowing boys in middle and later adolescence to worry themselves sick over normal nocturnal emissions1 and often to fall into the hands of the quack1 or of the advocate of illicit intercourse1 lies at the door of the negligent father4 ,the enervating results of self-abuse1 the loss of manliness and self-respect1 and the possible damage to future offspring will have weight in safeguarding the boy who has already been fortified by a high and just conception of the procreative power which is to be his4 ,moreover1 in the severe battle that is waged for self-control1 the boy should be given every aid of proper hygiene in clothing1 sleeping conditions1 baths1 exercise1 diet1 and social intercourse4 ,plenty of exercise but not thorough exhaustion1 good athletic ideals1 a spare diet at night1 good hours1 and freedom from evil suggestion1 entertainments1 or reading2 his time and attention healthfully occupied--these precautions1 in addition to enlightenment as above indicated1 will1 if there are no conditions calling for minor surgery1 go a long way toward preserving the boy's integrity under the temptations incident to sex life4 ,it is to be feared that many boys have been wronged by the failure of parents and physicians to have some slight operation--either circumcision or its equivalent--performed in the early days of infancy4 ,books on the subject are not best for the boy4 ,they tend to make him morbid and often stimulate the evil which they seek to cure4 ,nor is it wise1 prior to the age of fifteen1 to open up the loathsome side of the subject1 concerning the diseases that are the outcome of the social evil4 ,after that age1 talks by a reputable physician1 pointing out the terrible results to oneself1 his wife1 and his descendants1 may be fitting and helpful4 ,the minister should make frequent use of the physician in having him address on different occasions the fathers and the mothers of the boys4 ,to hold such meetings in the church building is an altogether worthy use of the institution4 ,in cases where parent and physician have failed to do their duty1 and the pastor is on proper terms of friendship with the boy1 it becomes his duty to tell the boy plainly and purely a few of the important things which he ought to know in order to avoid moral shipwreck4 ,if credence is to be given to the startling reports of immorality in high schools1 based1 as is commonly claimed1 upon ignorance1 then the time has certainly come for plain speech1 and the boys and girls should be gathered together in separate companies for instruction in sex hygiene and morality4 ,any education which makes no deliberate attempt to conserve human happiness and social welfare in this important respect is inadequate and culpable4 ,the testimony that comes from juvenile courts1 girls' rescue homes1 and boys' reformatories constitutes a grave indictment of society for its neglect to impart proper information4 ,it is part of the minister's task to work for a better day in this as in every phase of moral achievement4 ,next to the physician he best knows the mental and physical suffering1 the moral defeat1 and the awful injustice to women and children whom the libertine pollutes with incurable diseases4 ,if he is a true pastor1 he will strive to keep the boys pure through expert instruction to parents1 through personal advice1 through wholesome activity and recreation1 through courses on sexual hygiene in the public schools1 through war on indecency in billboard1 dance1 and theater1 through absolute chastity of speech1 and1 in general1 through an ideal of life and service which shall lift the boys' ambitions out of the low and unhealthy levels of sense gratification4 ,to put the spiritual nature in control is his high and sacred opportunity4 ,the importance of the minister's part in this struggle for the body and soul of youth is based upon the fact that in this critical encounter there is no aid that is comparable with religion4 ,thousands of honest1 serious-minded men frankly confess that in modern conditions they see little hope of this battle being won without religion as a sanction of right conduct4 ,the boy needs ,god1 a ,god to whom he can pray in the hour of temptation4 ,he needs to regard his life with all its powers as ,god's investment1 which he must not squander or pervert4 ,here1 as everywhere else in boy-life1 the loyalty appeal1 which1 as nothing else1 will keep him true to mother and father1 to society1 and to ,god1 stands the religious leader in good stead4 ,upon honor he will not violate the confidence of his parents1 and the trust imposed in him by his ,maker4 ,upon honor he will deport himself toward the opposite sex as he would wish other boys to regard his own sister2 and the religious teacher has it within his power1 if he will keep in touch with boys1 to create and preserve an ideal of manly chivalry that will effectively withstand both the insidious temptations of secret sin and the bolder inducements of social vice4 ,this can never be done by the formal work of the pulpit alone4 ,nothing but the influence of a pure1 strong man1 mediated in part through the parents of the boy1 supported by scientific facts1 and operating directly on the boy's life1 through the mighty medium of a personal friendship1 can perform this saving ministry4 ,if there were nothing more to be gained through intimate acquaintance with boys than thus fortifying them in this one inevitable and prolonged struggle1 it would warrant all the energy and time consumed in the minister's attempt to enter into the hallowed friendship and frank admiration of the boys of his parish4 ,for such reasons it is important that the implications of discipleship be made very plain to the boy1 and this in terms of specific conduct in the home1 at school1 on the playground1 at work1 and in all the usual social relations4 ,without this1 there may be fatal inconsistencies in the boy's conduct1 not because he is essentially vicious1 but because he has been unable to interpret high-sounding sermons and biblical ideals in terms of commonplace duty4 ,if the evangelical message encourages1 condones1 or permits this divorce1 it becomes an instrument of incalculable harm4 ,boys must be held to a high and reasonable standard of personal duty and group endeavor4 ,from this point of view the weakest feature of the church boys' club is its tendency to overlook specific work for others4 ,the serious-minded leader will not be altogether satisfied in merely holding boys together for a good time1 wholesome as that may be4 ,the service ideal must be incorporated in the activities of the club4 ,the nascent altruism of the boy should receive impetus and direction and the members should engage in united and intelligent social service4 ,give the boy a worthy job2 give him a hard job2 give him a job that calls for team work2 and give him help and appreciation in the doing of it4 ,it is sometimes difficult to devise and execute a program of this kind because of the limited opportunities of the particular town in which the club exists and the narrow ideals of the church with which the club is affiliated4 ,yet it is always preferable to enlist the boys in some altruistic enterprise which lies close enough at hand to give it the full weight of reality4 ,only so can we satisfy the concrete value-judgment of the young matriculant in the great school of applied religion4 ,this1 however1 should not be to the exclusion of those vast idealistic movements for human good embodied in world-wide missionary propaganda of a medical1 educational1 and evangelistic type4 ,only1 taking the boy as he is1 it is not best to begin with these1 because of their lack of reality to him and because of his inability to participate except by proxy4 ,it is well that he should extend himself to some faraway need by contributing of his means1 but these gifts will get their proper significance and his philanthropic life will preserve its integrity by performing the particular service which to his own immediate knowledge needs to be done4 ,the proper care and beautifying of the streets and public places in his own community1 the collection of literature for prisoners or the inmates of asylums or hospitals near at hand1 supplying play equipment1 clothing1 or any useful thing for unfortunate boys in congested city districts1 helping the minister and church in the distribution of printed matter and alms1 aiding smaller boys in the organization of their games1 helping some indigent widow1 giving an entertainment1 selling tickets1 souvenirs1 or any merchantable article which they may properly handle for the purpose of devoting the profits to some immediate charity2 making for sale articles in wood1 metal1 or leather for the same purpose2 winning other boys from bad associations to the better influences of their own group1 helping in the conduct of public worship by song or otherwise1 acting as messengers and minute-men for the pastor--something of this sort should engage part of their time and attention in order that they may be drawn into harmony with the spirit of the church4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,case ,,for ,,environmental ,,salvation ,ordinarily the general administration of the church could be made more effective and the standard activities more attractive if the preacher would keep the boy in mind in constructing and illustrating his sermons and would make appeal to the known interests of boyhood2 and if music committees would adopt a policy for the development and use of his musical ability instead of stifling and ignoring this valuable religious asset and rendering the boy1 so far forth1 useless to and estranged from the purposes and activities of the church4 ,in church music the paid quartette alone means the way of least resistance and of least benefit1 and it is a harmful device if it means the failure of the church to enlist boys in the rare religious development to be achieved in sacred song and in participation in public worship4 ,it is to be regretted that hymns suited to boyhood experience are very rare and that so little effort is made to interest and use the boy in the stated worship of the church4 ,but if these evils were remedied there would still be the problem of the ,sunday school which1 although generally a worthy institution1 usually succeeds at the cost of the church-going habit which might otherwise be cultivated in the boy4 ,to make a ,sunday-school boy instead of a church boy is a net loss1 and with the present ,sunday congestion there is little likelihood of securing both of these ends4 ,probably it will become necessary to transfer what is now ,sunday-school work to week-day periods as well as to renovate public worship before a new generation of churchmen can be guaranteed4 ,in the meantime1 loyalty cultivated by a variety of wholesome contacts largely outside of traditional church work must serve to win and retain the boys of today4 ,for loyalty to the minister who serves them readily passes over into loyalty to the church which he likewise serves4 ,wherever the club is made up predominantly of boys from the church families1 it will be well to have an occasional service planned especially for the boys themselves--one which they will attend in a body4 ,such a ,sunday-evening service for boys and young men may be held regularly once a month with good success1 and the value of such meetings is often enhanced by short talks from representative ,christian laymen4 ,demands for service as well as the important questions of personal religion should be dealt with in a manly1 straightforward way4 ,beating about the bush forfeits the boy's respect4 ,in preaching to boys the minister will appeal frankly to manly and heroic qualities4 ,he will advance no dark premise of their natural estrangement from ,god1 but will postulate for all a sonship which is at once a divine challenge to the best that is in them and the guaranty that the best is the normal and the ,god-intended life4 ,they must qualify for a great campaign under the greatest soul that ever lived4 ,they engage to stand with ,him against sin in self and in all the world about1 and in proportion as they take on ,his mission will they realize the necessity of high personal standards and of that help which ,god gives to all who are dedicated to the realization of the ,kingdom4 ,the normal boy will not deliberately choose to sponge upon the world4 ,he intends to do the fair thing and to amount to something4 ,he dreams of making his life an actual contribution to the welfare and glory of humanity4 ,when it is put before him rightly he will scorn a selfish misappropriation of his life1 and will enter the crusade for the city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is ,god4 ,happy is the minister who has boys that bring their chums to see him for the purpose of enlistment4 ,happy is the minister whose hand often clasps the outstretched hand of the boy pledging himself to the greatest of all projects--the ,kingdom of ,god in the earth2 to the greatest of all companies--the company of those who in all time have had part in that task2 and to the greatest of all captains--,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,church ,,boys' ,,club#aj ,those who know the boy best can hardly be persuaded that the ,sunday school can be made to satisfy his intense demand for action4 ,yet action is an important factor in religious education4 ,commendable efforts are being made to introduce more of handicraft and artistic expression into the work of the ,sunday-school class2 but from the boy's point of view1 the making of maps1 illuminated texts1 and temple models does not fully meet his desire for doing4 ,the character of the ,sunday school1 its place of meeting1 and the proper observance of the day preclude the more noisy1 varied1 and spontaneous activities which may be made to carry moral and religious value4 ,another agency is needed in the church that can be more venturesome and free than the ,sunday school1 an agency that can act on the parallel of the boy's natural interests and adapt its methods to his unfolding life in terms of action4 ,the ,sunday school can stick to its task of elucidating the history and theory of religion2 but the boys' club is a better place for securing the expression of religious principles and so confirming them in character4 ,when the ,sunday school shall have reached its highest point of efficiency it will still have failed to cover the most vital element in the moral and religious training of the boy simply because it will still be a ,sunday school and1 presumably1 a ,bible school4 ,that is1 it will have not only the benefits but also the limitations of the sacred day and of the book method of instruction4 ,the boy needs something more than a society for sitting still4 ,but some will say1 ,why take the boy out of the home at all8 ,the good home1 the public school1 and the established agencies of religion are enough4 ,a club is not needed4 ,it might be replied that all boys do not have good homes and that relatively few attend church or ,sunday school2 but if that were not the case the desirability of the boys' club would still be apparent4 ,the fact is that the boy gets out of the home anyway and seeks his group4 ,there is a process of socialization and self-discovery for which the best home-circle cannot provide2 and the club only recognizes and uses this gang instinct4 ,it capitalizes for good the normal social desires of the boy4 ,in so doing it does not necessarily conflict with a single good element in the home1 but is rather the first formal token of citizenship and the guarantor of proper deportment in the midst of one's peers4 ,in a well-directed club the consensus of opinion will usually be more effective in securing good conduct than the father's neglected or fitful discipline or the mother's endless forbearance4 ,the boy has profound respect for the judgment of his equals2 and wherever the leader can make the group ideals right he can be practically assured of the conformity of all who come within the group influence4 ,the way we do here1 the thing we stand for1 constitutes a moral leverage that removes mountains4 ,the boy that has been too much sheltered needs it1 the boy that has been neglected and is whimsical or non-social needs it1 the only son often needs it1 and the boy who is distinguished by misconduct in the ,sunday-school class needs it4 ,the club is never justified1 then1 in offending against the home4 ,keeping young boys out late at night1 interfering with home duties or with the implicit confidence between a boy and his parents1 or dragging him off into some sectarian camp away from his family is not to be tolerated4 ,this is never necessary1 and the wise leader can always co-operate harmoniously with the home if he takes thought so to do4 ,but the leader who fails to recognize the sanctity and priority of the home1 who permits his interest in boys to be blind to home conditions and influence1 or who does not approach the home problems as a reverent and intelligent helper is very far from an ideal workman4 ,one great advantage of the small club in the church consists in this personalized and teachable interest which gets in close by the side of perplexed1 ignorant1 weak1 or neglectful parents and seeks to raise the home as an institution so that all its members1 including the boy1 may be richly benefited4 ,to be a pastor rather than a mere herdsman of boys one must know their fold4 ,it is well enough to be proud of the boys' club but it is good boys' work to develop home industry and to encourage habits of thrift and of systematic work that shall bless and please the home circle4 ,the boy may far better work too hard for the communal welfare of the home than to grow up an idle pleasure-seeking parasite4 ,it is taken for granted that the wise pastor will think twice before organizing a boys' club4 ,it were better for him to leave the whole enterprise in the innocent realm of his castles in ,spain than to add another failure to the many that have been made in this attractive and difficult field4 ,enthusiasm is essential1 but taken alone it is an embarrassing qualification4 ,therefore he should make a careful inventory of his available assets4 ,if he contemplates personal leadership he would do well to list his own qualifications4 ,in any event he will need to be familiar with the boy-life of his community1 with all that endangers it and with all that is being done to safeguard and develop it in accord with ,christian ideals4 ,if the boys of his parish are already adequately cared for he will not feel called upon to bring coals to ,newcastle4 ,his personal inventory must needs take into account his tastes and ability4 ,these will be determined frequently by the mere matter of age2 for undoubtedly the earlier years of one's ministry lie a little nearer to the interests of boyhood and at this time the knack of the athletic training received in school or college has not been wholly lost4 ,the leader may recover or increase his ability in games by taking a course at the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 ,if he finds within himself a deep love for boys that gets pleasure rather than irritation from their obstreperous companionship1 if he is endowed with kindness that is as firm as adamant in resisting every unfair advantage--which some will surely seek to take--if he is noise-proof and furnished with an ample fund of humor that is scrupulously clean and moderately dignified1 if he possesses a quiet1 positive manner that becomes more quiet and positive in intense and stormy situations1 if he is withal teachable1 alert1 resourceful1 and an embodiment of the square-deal principle1 and if he is prepared to set aside everything that might interfere with the religious observance of every single appointment with his boys--then he may consider himself eligible for the attempt4 ,but how will he go about it8 ,shall he print posters of a great mass-meeting to organize a boys' club8 ,shall he besiege his church for expensive equipment1 perhaps for a new building8 ,shall he ask for an appropriation for work which most of the people have not seen1 and of whose value they cannot judge except from his enthusiastic prophecies8 ,let us hope not4 ,to succeed in such requests might be to die like ,samson2 while to fail in them would be a testimony to the sanity of his responsible parishioners4 ,there is a better way--a way that is more quiet1 natural1 and effective4 ,possibly there is already in the ,sunday school a class of eight or ten boys between the ages of twelve and fifteen years4 ,let the pastor become well acquainted with them and at first merely suggest--in their class session or when he has them in his study or home--what other boys have done in clubs of their own4 ,he need not volunteer to provide such a club1 but merely indicate his willingness to help if they are interested and prepared to work for it4 ,if the boys respond1 as they undoubtedly will1 then the pastor will need to find a few sympathizers who will give some financial and moral assistance to the endeavor4 ,he may find some of these outside the church1 and often such friends are the more ready to help1 because they are not already taxed to carry on the established church work4 ,the best policy is for the pastor to figure out how boys' work can be begun without coming before the church for an appropriation4 ,it is well to begin in a very humble way with such funds as the boys can raise and the backing of a few interested people1 securing from the trustees of the church the use of some part of the premises subject to recall of the privilege on sufficient grounds2 and--a consideration never to be slighted although often hard to get--the good-will and co-operation of the sexton4 ,with the sexton against him1 no pastor can make a church boys' club succeed4 ,the club will make no mistake in paying the church something for the heat and light consumed4 ,if an indoor area sufficient for basket-ball and a room suited to club meetings can be had1 the initial apparatus for winter work need not exceed a parallel bar1 a vaulting-horse1 and three floor mats in addition to the basket-ball equipment4 ,this will involve an outlay of from #ge to #aej4 ,good parallel bars are as expensive as they are serviceable2 but boys have been known to make their own1 and this is highly desirable4 ,indian clubs1 dumb-bells1 and wands may only prove a nuisance unless they can be carefully put away after the exercises4 ,anyway1 boys do not care greatly for calisthenics and most drills can be given without these trappings4 ,granting that the boys have faithful and wise supervision1 the undertaking should be allowed to rest upon them to the full measure of their ability4 ,when it has become clear that funds and quarters can be provided1 the matter of formal organization should be taken up4 ,the ideal church club is not a mass club where certain privileges are given to large numbers of boys who take out memberships2 but a group club1 or clubs1 under democratic control4 ,prior to calling the boys together for organization1 the pastor will have blocked out the main articles of a constitution1 and will have formulated some ideas as to the ritual and procedure which shall have place in the weekly meetings of the club4 ,in order to do this intelligently1 he will need to study such organizations as the ,knights of ,king ,arthur and various independent church clubs that have proven successful in fields similar to his own4 ,often there is something in his own field that will lend definite color and interest to his local organization4 ,the following sample constitution is offered for purpose of suggestion only and as a concession to the sentiment attaching to my first boys' club of a dozen years ago4 ,,constitution ,i4 ,we be known as the ,waupun ,wigwam4 ,,ii4 ,for to be sound of body1 true of heart1 unselfish1 and ,christian we be joined together4 ,,iii4 ,they that have seen ten to fourteen summers may join our ,wigwam one by one if we want them4 ,high names have we4 ,these names we use in our ,wigwam4 ,,iv4 ,at our meetings around the ,campfire each ,brave is ,chief in turn and chooseth one to guard the entrance4 ,medicine ,man serveth us continually4 ,he knoweth his ,braves4 ,he chooseth ,right ,hand to serve him4 ,when days are longest and when days are shortest we choose one to write what we do in ,wigwam1 one to collect small wampum and one to keep the same4 ,v4 ,they that be older than we1 they that be our friends may visit us in our ,wigwam4 ,woman by us is honored4 ,chivalry by us is shown4 ,whatever is weak is by us protected4 ,,vi4 ,measured are we when we join the ,wigwam and once a year thereafter--our height1 calf of leg1 hip1 chest1 and arm4 ,this by ,medicine ,man who keepeth the writings and adviseth how to improve4 ,he praiseth what good we do1 and alloweth not what harmeth body1 defileth tongue1 or doeth ill to mind4 ,,vii4 ,small wampum pay we all alike according to the need of the ,wigwam and the ,campfire4 ,,viii4 ,deeds of valor do we read in ,wigwam and ,indian tales of old4 ,each telleth of brave deeds he knows4 ,a motto have we4 ,this ,medicine ,man giveth every three moons4 ,we have our war whoop and our battle song4 ,we loyally help ,medicine ,man in his work and when he speaketh in the ,great ,tent4 ,,ix4 ,when admitted to the ,wigwam we very solemnly vow to be obedient to all its laws and to try to please our ,great ,high ,chief in ,heaven who ruleth every tribe1 ,world without end4 ,amen4 ,,ritual ,,the ,,wigwam ,,way ,the ,braves being seated in a semicircle1 the ,chief1 clad in blanket and attended by ,right ,hand1 enters4 ,all arise4 ,chief takes position4 ,waits until there is perfect silence4 ,chief3 ,my trusted and loyal ,braves6 ,all3 ,hail to our ,chief6 ,c3 ,i am about to sit with you around our friendly ,campfire4 ,brave ---- ---- will guard the entrance that none come into the ,wigwam at this time4 ,let such as be of our ,wigwam advance and prove themselves4 ,each ,brave comes forward in turn1 whispers the motto in the ,chief's ear and says1 ,may ,i1 ---- ----1 be known as a loyal ,brave of the ,waupun ,wigwam8 ,c3 ,as such be thou known4 ,all3 ,so may it be6 7,when this is done the ,chief continues47 ,c3 ,for what are we bound together8 ,all3 ,for to be sound of body1 true of heart1 unselfish1 and ,christian we be bound together4 ,c3 ,what virtues are the greatest8 ,all3 ,faith1 hope1 and love4 ,c3 ,who is great8 ,all3 ,he that serves4 ,c3 ,what is our sign8 ,all3 ,the sign of the cross4 ,c3 ,sing we a song of valor4 ,all sing3 ,the ,son of ,god goes forth to war4 ,c3 ,let us be seated4 7,he gives one rap with the tomahawk47 ,c3 ,brave ---- ----1 admit any who are late and have given you the motto4 ,c3 ,medicine ,man will read from the ,book and pray4 7,all kneel for the prayer47 ,c3 ,brave ---- ---- will read what we did last4 ,c3 ,brave ---- ---- will find who are here4 7,each one-present answers ,ho when his name is called74 ,c3 ,brave ---- ---- will tell what wampum we have4 ,c3 ,is there any business to come before our ,wigwam8 7,reports1 unfinished business1 and new business47 ,c3 ,is there one fit to join our ,wigwam8 7,if there is a candidate who has secured his parents' consent and who at a previous meeting has been elected to membership with not more than two ballots against him he can be initiated at this time47 ,c3 ,brave ,right ,hand1 what shall we do now8 7,right ,hand says how the time shall be spent47 ,,closing ,chief calls to order with a whistle4 ,each ,brave takes his place quickly and quietly4 7,moccasins or gymnasium shoes are worn in all ,wigwam sessions47 ,chief gives two raps4 ,all arise4 ,c3 ,my ,braves1 we are about to leave the ,campfire4 ,let us join hands and repeat our covenant4 7,all join hands and repeat clause by clause after the ,chief47 ,we covenant with our ,chief and one another3 ,to be true men1 ,to protect the weak1 ,to honor woman1 ,to make the most of life1 ,and to endeavor to please ,god4 ,so do we covenant4 ,then the national anthem is sung and the following yell is given3 ,who are we8 ,chee ,poo ,kaw ,waupun ,wigwam1 ,rah1 ,rah1 ,rah66 ,this club proved of value in a town of three thousand which had a dozen saloons and no organized work for boys or young men4 ,it was supplemented by a brotherhood for the older boys4 ,in the clubroom was a large fireplace in which a wood fire burned during the sessions4 ,the room could be partially darkened4 ,the walls were covered with ,indian pictures and handicraft1 and the surrounding country abounded in ,indian relics4 ,in the summer the club went camping on the shore of a lake nine miles distant4 ,from another of the many successful clubs of this type the following article on ,purpose as stated in the constitution is worthy of note3 ,we gather in our ,wigwam that we may become strong as our bows1 straight as our arrows1 and pure as the lakes of the forest4 ,clubs patterned after rangers1 yeomen1 lifesaving crews1 and what not have been successfully projected to meet and idealize local interest2 and the novelty and slightly concealed symbolism seem to take with boys of this age4 ,but the most important factor is never the organization as such but the leader4 ,for the period of from fourteen to seventeen years probably no better organization has been devised than the ,knights of ,king ,arthur4 ,its full requirements may be too elaborate in some cases but freedom to simplify is granted1 and also to eliminate the requirement of ,sunday-school attendance as a prerequisite to membership and the requirement of church membership as a prerequisite to knighthood4 ,leaders dealing with this age should read ,the ,boy ,problem by ,william ,byron ,forbush and ,the ,boy's ,round ,table by ,forbush and ,masseck 7,boston and ,chicago3 ,pilgrim ,press1 #fth edition1 #a4jj each74 ,ordinarily a policy of relationship between the club and ,sunday school and church will have to be formulated4 ,it is always best to let the ,sunday school and the church stand on their own merits and not to use the club as a bait for either4 ,nor should ranking in the club be conditioned on church membership4 ,boys should not be tempted to make the church a stepping-stone to their ambition in this more attractive organization4 ,the best policy is that of the open door4 ,let the club do all that it can for boys who are already in the ,sunday school and church1 but let it be open to any boy who may be voted in1 and then through example and moral suasion let such boys be won to church and ,sunday school by the wholesome influence of the leader and the group1 quite apart from any conditions1 favors1 or ranking within the club itself4 ,an unofficial relation between the ,sunday school and the club will be maintained by having club announcements given in the school and by bringing the ,sunday-school superintendent before the club frequently4 ,in some churches the boys' whole department of the ,sunday school is the boys' club1 and this may prove a good method where it can be carried out with proper divisions and specialization as to age1 etc4 ,in discussing any proposed constitution1 consideration should be given to suggestions from the boys themselves and every question should be threshed out in a reasonable1 democratic way1 strictly after the fashion of deliberative bodies4 ,the opinion of the leader is sure to have its full weight1 and matters needing further consideration can always be referred to committees to be reported back4 ,questions of discipline should be handled by the club itself1 the director interfering only as a last resort to temper the drastic reactions of a youthful and outraged democracy4 ,if there is a men's organization in the church tie the club to that4 ,this will guarantee strength and permanency to the club and will help the men by giving them a chance to help the boys4 ,the form of the constitution and ritual will be governed by the age which they seek to serve4 ,boys from ten to fourteen years may not rise to the splendid formality of the ,knights of ,king ,arthur4 ,possibly the idealization of the best ,indian traits will serve them better4 ,from fourteen to seventeen or eighteen the knighthood ideals are most satisfying1 while one may question their utility after that when the youth turns to reflection and debate and is suited by civic and governmental forms of organization4 ,it must not be assumed that any one type of organization is good for all ages and does not need to be supplemented1 modified1 or superseded as the boy makes his adolescent ascent4 ,if the pastor has limited time and limited help he will do well to center his attention on the important period of twelve to fifteen years2 and in order to do his work properly in the club meetings and on the gymnasium floor especially1 he should have an adult helper as soon as the attendance exceeds ten in number4 ,it is far more important to do the training well than to make a great showing in numbers and at the same time fail in creating a proper group standard and in developing individual boys4 ,in the ordinary improvised church gymnasium one man to every ten boys is a good rule4 ,in a church club that grew to have a membership of sixty1 the following grouping for gymnasium privileges was found to work well3 boys ten1 eleven1 and twelve years old1 from #d3ae to #e3cj in the afternoon2 boys thirteen1 fourteen1 and fifteen years old1 from #g3jj to #h3ae the same evening2 and boys sixteen1 seventeen1 and eighteen years old1 from #h3ae to #i3cj4 ,such a use of the plant secures economy of time1 heating1 etc41 and with a little help one may give every boy two gymnasium sessions a week1 which is not too much4 ,if possible1 showers and lockers should be provided2 and in classification for gymnasium work allowance should be made for retarded boys and for boys of extraordinary ability1 so that they may play with their equals irrespective of strict classification by age4 ,the best single test for classification is weight4 ,the leader will do well to see that everything is right and clean in conversation and practice in the locker-room and showers4 ,also1 foolish prudery and shamefacedness must be wholesomely banished1 and it will benefit rather than harm the boys for their leader1 after having taken them through the exercises1 to join them in the pleasure and stimulation of the shower bath4 ,not only the leader but as many interested church people as possible should back the boys by attending their meets and games with other teams4 ,remember that in order to command their full loyalty some loyalty to them must be shown4 ,the important function of the annual or semi-annual banquet should not be overlooked4 ,such an affair is inexpensive and unquestionably an event in the life of every member4 ,the mothers will always be glad to provide the food and superintend the service2 and in every town there will be found men of high standing who will count it an honor to address the club on such an occasion1 while entertainers and musicians will also gladly contribute their talent4 ,probably the average minister does not duly appreciate how much high-grade assistance may be had for the mere asking and how much benefit comes to those who give of their ability as well as to those who are the fortunate recipients of such service4 ,the clubroom rapidly grows rich in associations as it becomes decorated with the symbols of the club and the trophies won from time to time4 ,things that have happened but a year ago become entrancing lore to a group of boys1 and the striking features of meetings1 outings1 or contests lose nothing in sentiment and cohesive worth as the months pass4 ,the sophisticated adult may not fully appreciate these little by-products of club activity1 but the boy who is growing into his social and larger self makes every real incident a jewel rich in association and suggestive of the continuity and oneness of his group life4 ,the use of an appropriate pin or button1 of club colors1 yells1 whistles1 and secret signals will bear fruit a hundred fold in club consciousness and solidarity4 ,summer is especially hard on the city boy4 ,if there is no vacation school1 wholesome outdoor job1 or satisfactory play1 then mischief is certain4 ,indoor life is particularly distasteful during the hot weather and the flat is intolerable4 ,long hours and late are spent upon the street or in places of public amusement where immoral suggestions abound4 ,high temperature always weakens moral resistance and there is no telling into what trouble the boy may drift4 ,hence to relinquish boys' work in the summer is to fail the boy at the very time of his greatest need4 ,the competent leader does not abandon1 he simply modifies his endeavor4 ,as early in the spring as the boys prefer outdoor play he is with them for baseball1 track work1 tennis1 swimming1 tramping1 fishing1 hunting1 camping2 closing the season with football and remaining out until the boys are eager to take up indoor work4 ,the lack of formal meetings in the summer need not concern the leader4 ,it is sufficient that he give the boys his fellowship and supervision and keep them well occupied4 ,in all of this outdoor work the program and activities of the ,boy ,scouts of ,america are unsurpassed4 ,in cultivating the pioneer virtues and in promoting health1 efficiency1 good citizenship1 nature-study1 and humane ideals no movement for boys has ever held such promise1 and the promise will be realized if only ,scout ,masters in proper number and quality can be secured4 ,here again the gauntlet is thrown at the door of the church and the challenge is to her manhood from the manhood of tomorrow4 ,illustration3 ,,city ,,boys ,,hiking ,illustration3 ,a ,,week-,,end ,,camp ,the ideal club will have its summer outing4 ,when properly planned and conducted1 a summer camp is of all things to be desired4 ,for several months it should be enjoyed in anticipation1 and if all goes well it will be a joyous climax of club life1 an experience never to be forgotten4 ,but like all good work with boys1 it is difficult and exacting4 ,safety and the rights of all cannot be conserved apart from strict military or civic organization2 and no leader will take boys to camp and assume responsibility for life and limb without a thorough understanding and acceptance on their part of the discipline and routine which must be scrupulously enforced4 ,every boy should be provided well in advance with a list of the utensils and outfit needed1 and the organization of the camp should give to each one his proper share of work4 ,the efficiency and dispatch of a corps of boys so organized is only equaled by the joy that comes from the vigorous and systematic program of activities from daylight to dark4 ,the best way for the leader to become proficient in conducting a camp is to take an outing with an experienced manager of a boys' camp2 the next best way is by conference with such a person4 ,the ,handbook of the ,boy ,scouts of ,america will be found very helpful in this respect1 and ,camping for ,boys by ,h4,w4 ,gibson1 ,y4,m4,c4,a4 ,press1 is excellent4 ,it is necessary to emphasize the necessity of strict discipline and regularity1 a just distribution of all duties1 full and vigorous use of the time1 extra precaution against accident1 some formal religious exercise at the beginning of the day1 with the use of the rare opportunity for intimate personal and group conference at the close of the day when the charm of the campfire is upon the lads4 ,when boys are away from home and in this paradise of fellowship their hearts are remarkably open and the leader may get an invaluable insight into their inmost character4 ,whenever possible the minister will bring his boys' club work into co-operation with the boys' department of the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 ,where the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 exists and the church cannot have moderate gymnasium privileges of its own1 arrangements should be made for the regular use of the association's gymnasium4 ,it is desirable that the stated use of the gymnasium be secured for the club as such1 since the individual use in the general boys' work of the association is not as favorable to building up a strong consciousness in the church club4 ,the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 can best organize and direct the inter-church athletics and it has performed a great service for the church clubs in organizing ,sunday-school athletic leagues in the various cities1 and in supplying proper supervision for tournaments and meets in which teams from the different churches have participated4 ,to direct these contests properly has been no small tax upon the officials1 for the insatiable desire for victory has in some cases not only introduced unseemly and ugly features into the contests but has temporarily lowered the moral standard of certain schools4 ,superintendents and pastors have been known to sign entrance credentials for boys who were not eligible under the rules4 ,in some instances church boys have descended to welcome the ringer for the purpose of putting it over their competitors4 ,in grappling with these difficulties and in interpreting sound morality in the field of play the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 has already made a successful contribution to the moral life of the ,sunday-school boy4 ,nothing could be more startling to the religious leader1 who insists upon facing the facts1 than the facility with which the good ,sunday-school boy turns away from the lofty precepts of his teacher to the brutal ethics of the win-at-any-price mania4 ,the ,sunday-,school ,athletic ,league under the guidance of the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 tends to overcome this vicious dualism4 ,in some districts the leader of the church boys' club may arrange to make use of the social settlement1 civic center1 or public playground1 thus holding his group together for their play and supplementing the church outfit4 ,the object in every case is to maintain and strengthen a group so possessed of the right ideals that it shall shape for good the conduct and character of the members severally4 ,to the many ministers who despair of being able to conduct a club in person it should be said that young men of sixteen or seventeen years of age make excellent leaders for boys of twelve to fifteen years1 and that they are more available than older men4 ,these leaders1 including the teachers of boys' classes1 should come together for conference and study at least once a month4 ,the ,y4,m4,c4,a4 will be the most likely meeting-place1 and its boys' secretary the logical supervisor of inter-church activities4 ,wherever there is no such clearing-house1 the ministers' meeting or the inter-church federation may bring the boys' leaders together for co-operation on a community-wide scale4 ,the multiplication of clubs is to be desired1 both for the extension of boys' work throughout all the churches1 and for the development of such inter-church activities among boys as will make for mutual esteem and for the growing unity of the church of ,god4 ,footnotes ,footnote #a3 ,general reading3 ,w4,i4 ,thomas1 ,source ,book for ,social ,origins1 ,the ,university of ,chicago ,press2 ,g4 ,stanley ,hall1 ,adolescence1 ,d4 ,appleton ,co42 ,c4,h4 ,judd1 ,genetic ,psychology for ,teachers1 ,d4 ,appleton ,co4 ,footnote #b3 ,books recommended3 ,official ,handbook1 ,boy ,scouts of ,america1 #bjj ,fifth ,ave41 ,new ,york2 ,k4,l4 ,butterfield1 ,chapters in ,rural ,progress1 ,the ,university of ,chicago ,press2 ,k4,l4 ,butterfield1 ,the ,country ,church and the ,rural ,problem1 ,the ,university of ,chicago ,press4 ,footnote #c3 ,books recommended3 ,jane ,addams1 ,the ,spirit of ,youth and the ,city ,streets1 ,macmillan2 ,d4,f4 ,wilcox1 ,great ,american ,cities1 ,macmillan4 ,footnote #d3 ,see monograph on ,five-and ,ten-,cent ,theatres by ,louise de ,koven ,bowen1 ,the ,juvenile ,protective ,association of ,chicago4 ,footnote #e3 ,see monograph1 ,a ,study of ,public ,dance ,halls1 by ,louise de ,koven ,bowen1 ,the ,juvenile ,protective ,association of ,chicago4 ,footnote #f3 ,books and articles recommended3 ,e4,b4 ,mero1 ,the ,american ,playground1 ,dale ,association1 ,boston2 ,k4 ,groos1 ,the ,play of ,man1 ,d4 ,appleton ,co42 ,j4,h4 ,bancroft1 ,games for the ,playground1 ,home1 ,school1 and ,gymnasium1 ,macmillan2 ,c4,e4 ,seashore1 ,the ,play ,impulse and ,attitude in ,religion1 ,the ,american ,journal of ,theology1 ,,xiv1 ,no4 #d2 ,joseph ,lee1 ,play as ,medicine1 ,the ,survey1 ,,xxvii1 ,no4 #e4 ,footnote #g3 ,books recommended3 ,frank ,parsons1 ,choosing a ,vocation1 ,houghton ,mifflin ,co42 ,meyer ,bloomfield1 ,the ,vocational ,guidance of ,youth1 ,houghton ,mifflin ,co4 ,footnote #h3 ,books recommended3 ,georg ,kerschensteiner1 ,education for ,citizenship1 ,rand ,mc,nally ,co42 ,william ,r4 ,george1 ,the ,junior ,republic1 ,d4 ,appleton ,co4 ,footnote #i3 ,books recommended3 ,john ,l4 ,alexander1 ,boy ,training1 ,y4,m4,c4,a4 ,press2 ,g4 ,stanley ,hall1 ,youth1 ,its ,education1 ,regimen and ,hygiene1 ,d4 ,appleton ,co4 ,footnote #aj3 ,for bibliography see ,william ,b4 ,forbush1 ,the ,coming ,generation1 ,d4 ,appleton ,co41 and the appendix of ,handbook for ,boys1 ,the ,boy ,scouts of ,america4