great danger that the high school and the college will professionalize athletics by highly specializing the activities. We have much to learn from the Germans in this respect. Instead of having a few different kinds of ball games, they have four score. These give a wide range of opportunity for almost every degree of ability. need in this direction is to awaken the interest of the individual so that he shall take part in these varying phases of play.

THE CHURCH

Our

Unfortunately, the church up to the present time has had very little in the way of organization to provide for the leisure of either children or adults. The institutional church which came into existence some years ago has not realized the hopes of its founders. Though the idea was well conceived and the basis of its organization is fundamentally sound, it does not seem to have made much progress. This is due most probably to the fact that in populous centers there are so many counter attractions, such as moving picture shows, theatres, dance halls and public parks, that the church has not been able to offer a social program sufficiently strong to counteract these influences and thus have a share in shaping the leisure life of the community. But the decadent condition of the rural church cannot be ascribed to the same reason, for here there is a lack of social and recreational opportunities. Rural church surveys indicate that "the trouble with the church in the past has been that it has been ministering to itself, seeking to run a gospel ark for its own members, without feeling that it owed any duty of service to the community as a whole." This attitude is largely responsible for the lifeless condition of so many of these churches. Recent studies show that those churches that are organizing the social life of the community are growing while those content to follow only the old lines of activity are rapidly losing ground. In a survey of 76 churches in one county of Indiana, it was found that among those that were organizing the social and recreational life, 65 per cent were found to be growing in membership while of those that were not organizing the social and recreational life, only 12 per cent were found to be growing. Of two hundred and fifty-six churches found in other parts of the state where no attention was paid to the recreational life, in only one was there found any evidence of growth. The lesson seems to be plainly written: The church that would.

flourish must adjust itself to this new demand and provide opportunities to satisfy the instincts and longings for social companionship. Some notable instances are on record where this has been done. Curtis in his Play and Recreation describes what was done in an Illinois country community:

Twelve years ago a young pastor came fresh from the Seminary to a dying country church. He first organized a singing school, which brought the young people into the church one night a week to sing. It soon developed that there were several good voices and out of this singing grew a boys' quartet, several soloists and a good chorus for the church. After this, a gospel chorus was organized which met around at the houses of the members. A considerable part of each of these evenings was given to sociability and the program became very popular with the young people. Sociables were planned where light refreshments were served. These developed a spirit of good comradeship among the people. Out of the spirit grew a missionary circle for the girls, and an athletic club for the boys, an annual home coming and picnic and a series of extension lectures and entertainments. In the twelve years of his pastorate, a ten thousand dollar church had been completed and paid for, the pastor's salary had been raised 40 per cent and in the last five years more than six thousand dollars had been given to outside benevolences. Practically everyone in the country-side is a member of the church. Though located not far from three large cities, none of its young people have left the farms to seek city life. During the entire pastorate only one young person in the neighborhood is known to have gone wrong.

Under wise and proper leadership, it is not difficult to organize appropriate social activities for the leisure hours of the young people. In many places the boys' classes have been organized into boy scout patrols, hunting-with-camera-clubs, baseball and basketball clubs and nature study hikes. Girls' classes have taken up definite practical projects in connection with missionary work. In all these recreational activities the important consideration is a definite and well-defined program. The church and the Sunday school can ill afford to miss the opportunity to give serious consideration to the development of leadership among its members so that the force and energy of its young people may be directed to wise, useful, social ends.

THE COMMUNITY

"No Christian and civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of concern for the youth of today," declared Theodore Roosevelt recently, "for, if so, that community will have to pay a terrible penalty of financial and social degradation in the tomorrow."

The community playground, the social center, the properly supervised municipal dance hall, May-day fetes, and historical pageants are among the recently noted community movements tending toward a better appreciation of how to employ the leisure and activities of children as well as adults. The dramatic instinct which is such a marked characteristic of youth is being increasingly utilized in providing isolated communities with instructive as well as entertaining performances. It is not only in the cities and towns but in the distinctively rural communities that such activities may be carried on. Recently in an interior township of Pennsylvania the entire community manifested its interest in a May-day festival. In it were united features that were both social and educational. Thirty floats, some representing distinctive May-day allusions, others symbolizing historical, industrial and educational events, passed over the principal highways to a central meeting place where luncheon was served and a program of exercises, consisting of choruses by the children, folk dances, Boy Scout drills and an exhibition by the Camp Fire Girls was carried out.

During the past year there has been a revival of the old time "singing school" idea which has been adapted to new conditions. The activity is organized under the name of "community singing. Old and young are invited to take part. One night is devoted to old familiar songs, another to patriotic singing; still another to singing songs written by local talent. The history of the songs, the purpose for which they were written and incidental interesting facts relating to them are briefly described by the leader. But the main purpose is to have every one take part in the singing. Such an exercise has both a stimulating and a unifying effect.

ences.

Among the most pronounced changes in American life are those noted in connection with vocational and avocational experiAs wealth accumulates and economic pressure grows less, leisure assumes a larger place in the social process. If leisure time is not wisely used it becomes a menace to society, breeding debauchery and crime. For the home, the church, the school and the community there lies in this direction an unparalleled opportunity to promote the happiness and general welfare of "all the children of all the people."

CHILDREN, LIBRARIES AND THE LOVE OF READING

BY ANNIE CARROLL MOORE,

Supervisor of Work with Children, The New York Public Library.

'Does John really read this book?"

The children's librarian looked up, from the copy of Masterman Ready she was stamping, into the smiling face of John's grandmother who had stopped at the library on her way to market and now stood waiting with market basket on her arm for John's book and card. The grandmother replied:

Oh, dear yes, he reads it over and over. John says Masterman Ready's the nicest book ever was. He's peculiar is John-he doesn't like many things nor folks they mostly don't understand him but he's got a nice heart. Another thing about John is that everything he takes an interest in seems real—just as if it had happened today or yesterday. I found him crying one day and at first couldn't get him to tell what was the matter. Bye and bye he said he was crying because he felt so awful bad about Abel's getting killed. They had had the story of Cain and Abel in the Sunday School lesson and I don't think most of the children did more than forget but to Johnnie it was just as if it had happened yesterday to one of his mates. You might not know it from the looks of him nor from anything he says, but if anybody's been good to John he never forgets it. He feels comfortable in this children's library for he says nobody bothers him. He isn't quick about reading but he's very persistent when he takes a fancy. He took a real fancy to Masterman Ready and so he keeps at it and reads it over and over until he gets all the sense.

I learned to read in a queer way myself. I never went to school and after I came to America-I was then twelve years old-I had to work pretty hard. When I grew to be a big girl I used to read aloud to some blind folks who lived in the block. Two of them were educated and told me how to pronounce the words. I used to get the books from the New York Free Circulating Library and I feel as if that library gave me an education. When I moved to Brooklyn to live the first question I asked was if there was a library and I felt so glad the children could enjoy right away a privilege that has meant so much to me and their mother. Free libraries and free baths are the greatest benefits of our time.

The children's librarian had wondered at the fascination of Masterman Ready for a little German boy of ten years unable to read with ease. She had vainly tried to interest him in something easier until he should have gained facility in reading. Always without success. John persistently chose Masterman Ready when

ever it was to be found on the shelves. If Masterman Ready was not to be had he would leave his card, often for weeks at a time. On his return he would fall upon Masterman Ready and at the end of two weeks ask to have the book renewed. This had gone on for more than a year before his grandmother came.

It is nearly twenty years since this interview with John's grandmother took place in the children's room of the Pratt Institute Free Library but it loses none of its reality when applied to the work of the children's librarian of today for it sums up the whole philosophy of her training in the voluntary use of books with children: Freedom in the choice of good books; respect for the reader's individual taste; active recollection of one's own childhood.

RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN

Library work with children has been widely extended and developed in America during the past twenty years and just before the war it was passing rapidly to European countries as "a new idea in education" through photographic representations and through the writings of educators and journalists from Norway, Sweden, France, Russia, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, China and Japan. The late Herman Bang, the Danish author, who visited this country in 1912 said of children's libraries:

This library work for children is amazing. I was prepared for everything else I have seen in America but this surprises and delights me, I find it deeply interesting and full of possibilities for future generations. I should like to spend a long time in this beautiful room reading and watching the children.

Dr. Crothers in 1904 wrote:

What an interesting place to study the tastes of children, your library must be. I have been delighted to see the way in which my two little girls insist on the books they enjoy, resisting all attempts at substitution. Twelve year old Margery (to whom Miss Muffet's Christmas Party is dedicated) insists on romance while her sturdy matter of fact sister has been perfectly content since I introduced her to Rollo. She takes it with all the seriousness for which it was intended.

To put one's self in touch with the individual reader at home, in school, or in the library requires time and an active imagination but is vastly more profitable than to interpose one's own judgment in the selection of a book for a child. I believe it to be essential to the development of library work for children on a large scale. A genuine love of reading cannot be forced nor should we fail to recog