Farm Boys and Girls

by William A. McKeever

A swing, a seesaw, a sliding board or pole, a pair of rings, a trapeze, and a horizontal bar. Have all under shade if possible. Provide also a small play wagon and a cart or two, with a sand box for the small child.

Inspect the district school in reference to play facilities and you may find nothing other than the bare ground with perhaps a baseball diamond. Here, then, is a rare opportunity for constructive work. Organize in your own way a boosters’ club and provide play apparatus. In [Chapter VIII] you will find full details as to the equipment best suited for the purpose. Provide in every case that the expense be minimized. Nearly all of the apparatus may be constructed free of cost by interested persons in the home neighborhood or in the near-by village.

A neighborhood library

Another very enticing line of endeavor for the rural leader is that of establishing the country library. Some one in the neighborhood has a big house, one room or more of which may conveniently be set apart for the purpose. Induce the owners of this house to clear up a room and remodel it, if need be, and make their home a sort of intellectual center for the district. Of course the schoolhouse or rural church may be available for the purpose, but the farm home will be better for a great many reasons, among them being the possibility of having the library open at all hours of the day so that books may be exchanged on the occasion of one’s passing the place. Now, go after the well-to-do residents of the district and gather a fund for the library. Paint in glowing terms the visions you have of this thing when it has been set on foot. Declare your purpose as that of helping and uplifting the community life. Show the “close-fisted” resident that the establishment of a neighborhood library will attract desirable settlers into the district and improve prices of land and produce.

After having obtained a small fund, consult the best authorities for advice in selecting the books. By all means avoid cheap stories and trash of every other sort. Since your work is in behalf of the young, obtain a few attractive and instructive picture books. There can probably be obtained a book which treats and illustrates fully the bird life of the local state, giving a brief description and pictures in their natural color. Young people may be very much attracted by authentic books of the nature-study class, including those descriptive of wild animals and of hunting and exploring tales. Consult the lists given under the chapter on the literature in the country home for additional titles and suggestions.

If it be found difficult or impracticable to purchase books for the neighborhood library, then, the next best thing will be the traveling library. Communicate with the state library association and learn definitely what may be obtained from that source. Then, proceed to bring the best available volumes into the neighborhood. In the selection of the library do not forget the local interest. Secure every attractive volume that will help to make the boys and girls acquainted with the best meanings of their own community life and more interested in staying by the home affairs and building them up. Not the least among the valuable elements of the neighborhood library will be the periodicals, in the selection of which expert advice is recommended.

Holidays and recreation for the young

In an ably written article published in Rural Manhood of January, 1910, John R. Boardman, International County Work Secretary, says: “A new gospel of the recreation life needs to be proclaimed in the country. Rural America must be compelled to play. It has to a degree toiled itself into deformity, disease, depravity, and depression. Its long hours of drudgery, its jealousy of every moment of daylight, its scorn of leisure and of pleasure must give way to shorter hours of labor, occasional periods of complete relaxation and whole-hearted participation in wholesome plays, festivals, picnics, games, and other recreative amusements. Better health, greater satisfaction, and a richer life wait on the wise development of this recreative ideal.”

A brief survey of the neighborhood will doubtless show the lack of general method in dealing with the farm boys’ and girls’ holidays and vacations during the long summer months. Here, then, is apparent another field for constructive leadership. In proceeding to change the present situation, it may be well to gather a considerable list of authoritative statements like the one just quoted. Farm parents gradually fall into the habit of over-working their half-grown children. Now, if we can institute a custom of weekly half holidays for the young people of the neighborhood, a splendid work will be done in behalf of a higher community life.

Begin work by selecting an attractive central location, and plan that the young, and the older ones, too, may come to this place one afternoon every week, or at least two afternoons every month, and have a good time generally. Games may be played, local clubs may meet in the shade of the trees, the sewing society and other groups of women having their interests served. The farmers’ clubs may have opportunity for helpful exchange of ideas, while the little children may play and romp about the premises. Invite all to come early in the afternoon and bring an evening lunch to be enjoyed in common. Thus, you may give the young people who regard their everyday work as drudgery, such interest and inspiration as to tone up their lives noticeably for every hour of the long days of toil.