| Show 2 e I jt A Oro ci n e Art Oi A T 0 X T AmusInG TY T 1 1 E EJ i Ao 1 o J 0 ro o I 1 O Sir Edwin Arnold in London Tele Telegraph Telegraph graph TT is good for nations as well welt as for IT 1 school boys and school girls to be amused sometimes I would almost almos dare to say that amusement amu ment Is a seri serJ serious see ous necessity of human existence e and the art of it lofty noble and salutary The world is a thousand times too sad too busy and too painfully in earnest i We Ve all want and we might almost all have much h more simple simpie and wholesome ome I gladness gladne s of or which amusement is a branch than we now obtain I think that an era wilt will come when in the cab cabinet cabinet inet met of every civilized Motion there will willbe willbe be bea a minister of public amusement who will rank among Ids his colleagues at least as high as the chancellor of the exchequer and whose momentous duty it wilt will be to foster and cultivate the laudable art of amusing amu What might not such an official do for his country beyond b yond and above the pleasing duties which would fall to him on behalf of the tile boys and girls at Christmas time He must not be a pedant or a prig to condemn honest sources of mirth and andrela relaxation rela tion though at the same time he would have to be sincerely moral and the official enemy Q of vulgar cruel or degrading entertainments Such a a minister would never sanction sane OD na national national national sports like Dire the horrible bull bullfights bullfights fights which bleh tend to brutalize the oth otherwise gallant and aad gifted population of or Spain nor would he permit to con continue I anything coarse or ungentle 5 0 y I But such a R minister would keep his august eyes open by clever agents all allover allover allover over the globe to import and to adapt here whatever was bright pleasant plea ut and goodly In n foreign pastimes and pleasures while developing with warm sympathy and a budget the tile meet ern useful of our indigenous games and ant recreations He would build for tar us u open air amphitheatres of the classical model where thousands thOU aDds of spectators would sit in the summer time tune and anel witness delightful exhibitions or oC skill strength and dexterity He would take such a as the Victoria embankment offers to line the shores of the Thames with pic picturesque picturesque picturesque pavilions and kiosks where I people pe would sit in thousands would sip their tea and coffee and be agree agreeably agreeably agreeably ably amused in the fresh air with the I river for a movin mong picture He would fill our parks with music musk and In the winter time thee organize charming pro I grammes of lectures l tures recitations and I what not in warm and hans halts He would look to it that our rich museums mu and galleries had capable I guides and expositors to help people to understand the treasures S of public in intelleCtual intellectual j I possessions which are now no j i too often neglected wildernesses for fot i ii I I i want of illuminating explanations He HeI I would encourage e the invention of new popular pastimes and reorganize the t i theatres so IO that the cheapest seats eats 1 should not be tr without comfort and con Mn convenience convenience There Th re would be at t his com corn command mend mand vast funds fun elF raised from m a will willIa log Ins Ia community and d cheerfully che fully paid jl Lid up u I in view of the Benefits ite eAts which would nov from a society tY more m e glad more I I hopeful and more encouraged en toward good will and morality by the happier atmosphere which surround the gen gun general general eral life lite He would press into the ser sec service vice of his bis department the most beau beautiful beautiful beautiful and aDd elevating objects of all the arts the newest and most interesting of the discoveries of or science and he would establish schools of cookery cooker dancing academies and the like always alwa s aiming at the cultivation i of hopeful and happy views of the uni universe universe verse erse and the elevation of or the genera general taste It would be his business carefully to preserve spots of or rural beauty to encourage and facilitate a study stud of the wonders and glories of nature and to see that no great cities dUes or towns were destitute of a a large and accessible public play ground whereto if the muses came they would come in their theta holiday dress drese and aDd In to the friend friendliest heat liest and easiest manner ner permitted to beings of their grace and dignified or order order order der If U all this thin thi however be only a dream today the art of amusing musIng has still among us im wide and aDd open SoMe fields and public entertainers of the right ht kind have new opportunities with each new Dew Christmas season They realized all this in m the old Roman Poman days day to some extent at least le st when imperial policies were summoned up op in the phrase Pa nem neat et that is to say enough to eat and lots of amusement But in these those times Umes mankind bad had hadnot not attained the great principle which ought to underlie all aU public pleasures that they should be innocent whole wholesome wholesome wholesome some and free from the reproach of in inflicting pain Rome was ruined mined by her cruel gladiatorial shows The Invasion of or the Goths which swept away her imperial greatness was the long pent pentI up ap punishment for such scenes as Lord I Byron painted so 80 eloquently in his magnificent lines upon the dying Da Dacian Daclan Daclan clan cian butchered to make a Roman holiday There have come about in inthe inthe the last fifty years admirable improve improvements improvements ments meats in the character of public amusements and in the aims of those who bo eater cater for it But there is plenty I J of nf room mom for further in I this direction and a great deal must always depend upon the population it itself itself itself self Japan Japon is the example of a coun roun country try almost Ind indeed the only example I where the community at large organ organizes organizes izes lass for itself Joys and delights of the simplest yet most mo t satisfying kind ex ax extracting extracting from the daily round of their existence charms and amusements which are a kind of national sunshine It is there thre a sort of or unwritten law that the first nine Bi e or ten years of youth shall be serenely nely happy protected protect by a genera tender conspiracy co against the terrors tenon and distresses which elsewhere I tend so sadly to depress depres and deflect e t th the I Idad dad growth of or the human plant And ADd j jit it is good to observe in to Japan how well this tbs regime of serene playfulness 5 and indulgence works both for the develop development mont ment Dt of youth and for or the contentment of the mature Climate has baa no d doubt a great t deal to do with it and there the theare are who think that happiness as asa asa a 2 n Institution win will oaly osty come CO e 1 P races g 55 s the negroes of Africa have come into the universal music of humanity like the black notes motes upon the pianoforte key keyboard ke keyboard board The temperament of each par particular particular zone mingles also with the great problem A dark and somber dis disposition disposition position in Ia the Scandinavian and Teu Teutonic Teutonic Teutonic tonic blood appears to have been in infused infused infused fused by the gloomy forests fore ts and long dreary winters of the northern globe while wh e such races as 8 are naturally hap happy happy py pg like the Japanese e and the South Sea islanders seem to owe a great creat deal to the fact tact that they have son iron on such soft places upon the lap of the great Mo Mother Mother ther thor Nature I have myself always been beeD mightily pleased at the answer made suede by an American mother naother to some testy old curmudgeon who traveling in the same car cat with her and aDd her bee some somewhat somewhat what noisy baby broke out with the question Why on earth maam should that child of or yours make such an row eow Wall Walt stranger was the matrons placid rejoinder I r specs it is because e hes bes so glad that h hhas hhas has bas been born If life lite is not a dread dreadful dreadful dreadful ful dream a hitter bitter r and fruitless mu illusion sion ilon km it is surely a glorious gift ft with ith unimaginable blessings and wonders to come forth from it And ADd in that cas the American baby was wiser wi er than the th philosophers It |
