Farm Boys and Girls

by William A. McKeever

How to conduct a social entertainment

In giving a social entertainment to the young people of the country, there are a few simple yet common matters to be observed. First of all, there is the frequent tendency toward reticence or backwardness. It will be remembered, of course, that the object of the occasion is not merely passing amusement for the young, but also that of furnishing some means of character-development. In fact, the author wishes that every chapter of this book be thought of as contributing something toward the building up of young lives. So, in case of the home party, it will be necessary to see that every one present takes some active part. The bashful youth who is merely permitted to sit by and look on will go home secretly displeased, if not much pained, at his own backwardness. He may even fail to appear again on such an occasion, and thus the availability of a most helpful agency be permanently lost to him.

It is not therefore so much a question of the dignity and importance of the games played as it is a question of the active engagement of every one present in the amusements. Much will depend on leadership. An able leader will have the group organized before the several members realize what is being done. An expert student and director of young people was seen on a certain occasion to take charge of a party of forty boys and girls ranging in age from fifteen to twenty years. These were quickly placed standing in two parallel lines of twenty each. Each side was given a dish of unhulled peanuts and asked to engage in a contest of passing the nuts down the line one at a time, from hand to hand, the one at the farther end of the line placing the nuts in a receptacle. This simple game “broke the ice” for the entire evening. After that it was easy to keep the entertainment going.

The supervisor of the social affair is advised to discourage all games that tend to an over-amount of silliness and that allow for undue familiarity of the sexes. There is, however, a dignified form of fun and merriment quite as enjoyable as the baser sort. And, too, the leader of the evening need not be reminded of the many little opportunities for inculcating wholesome lessons in dignified manners. Many a “green” and awkward country youth is started on the way to salvation through the courteous treatment he receives from some older and much respected person. Simply to treat him as if he were a dignified young gentleman amounts to inciting him to put forth his greatest effort to make a show of manliness. A close student of young nature will often observe that merely to address such a youth as “Mister” So-and-So causes him to straighten up and try to look the part.

The hostess and guide at the rural party of young people will err not a little if she feels under the necessity of preparing a banquet or even a heavy luncheon for the occasion. Something as simple as a light drink and a wafer or two will be quite enough. The object of the refreshments is not merely to feed the young people to the point of stupefaction, but rather to give physical tone to support the vivacity of all.

What about the country dance

Unless the country dance can be radically reformed, it must be very strongly advised against. There is something about this occasion as usually conducted which seems to invite coarse characters and disreputable conduct. The country dance has so often been the scene of vice, drunkenness, and other such evils as to have received a permanent stigma of cheapness. The only seeming possibility of making a success of it is by the method of inviting a very exclusive set to attend, and this thing is so suggestive of aristocracy and snobbishness as to cause not a little ill feeling in the neighborhood. Under present conditions the country dance cannot be so managed as to make it contribute to the social and moral uplift of country young people. There are many better forms of entertainment which may be substituted for it.

Along with the country dance should be rated the cheap professional entertainments that are so often given in the country school houses. Many of these are not only degrading but are morally evil in their suggestions, while they tend to give the young a depraved taste in respect to public shows and theaters. The school trustees may well exclude all such “shows” from the building.

Additional forms of entertainment

The farm parents most desirous of leading in the young people’s entertainments, and best fitted to do so, may find it impracticable to invite the young into their home. In such case, there are several other ways whereby the desired ends may be achieved.