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Show Wky Jack I a Dull Boy BY JEROME K. JEROME. 1WAS talking to a man some lime ago; be uns a village carpenter. Somebody has been explaining to lilm what the world was going to be like-In like-In the future. Properly organized, all tho work in the world could be got through so he had been told by every man working three hours a day; tho other twenty-one would belong be-long to himself in which to do as he pkascd. "Well," I said. "I daro say it's right; 1 haven't gone Into the quen-tlon quen-tlon myself. It's wonderful what one can do in three hours If, one puts one's mind to It. T often work three hours a day myself. I don't Sav I. keep It up. but if everybody cso waa doing It I daresay I'd drop Into the way of it." -It isn't that I'm thinking of," said my friend the village carpenter. "What's worrying mo Is what the blazes I'm to do with the other twenty-one hours." I hadn't thought of that eddc of the question "Twenty-one hour.-? a day," he continued, con-tinued, "with nothing to do! I'd go stark, staring mad." "A man can always find intervals," I explained. "There's gardening." "So I've beard." he said. "Personally. "Per-sonally. I prefer sawing wood." "Then there's the family," I continued. con-tinued. "You'd be able to take tho . children out. for a walk." "Are you going to have Iwcnty-one Iwcnty-one bourn a day with nothing to do?" he asked. "Because If so, that'll make It all right. 1 reckon . there'll be enough for me and the old wo-ina'n wo-ina'n without troubling about anything any-thing else." - I ohcored him up with the hope, that tbc change was unlikely to be brought about this time and left him putting heart and soul into the planing of a four-Inch plank. Hut , he had set mc thinking. Three-hours-a-dav work, one hopes, is a miscalculation, but the.' eight-hour day is already with -us, and may very easily become a. Universal law, and with "it. a new problem already faces tho reformer. What's a fellow .to do with the other sixteen? The working classes have got to learn to play. I'll never believe In the worklngman's claim until be Iia.s leiirucd to play. At present hq doesn't know bow. Here and thorn a. 'healthy-minded young curate gathers gath-ers a more or lei's unwilling team around him to play cricket or foot-batl. foot-batl. An Infinitesimal percentage of the voungcr men v. Ill much to tho disgust of the local saloonkeeper take bicycle rides on Sunday. Hut. the sreut hulk or tho Working Work-ing classes have got Into the habit of shirking their play. Tbey have got lo puIJ themselves together and reform themselves. One esui't respect re-spect a man who doesn't do his fair share of play. The man who doesn't play will never. get on: he'll never be a healthy, Intelligent citizen. citi-zen. He'll never be fit for anything else but Work. The worklnginan is loo fond of looking at oilier people playing. With his hands in his pockets and a pipe or cigarette in his mouth no can watch other people play for bourn. That Is his Idea of sport. It Is my Idea or loafing. The sight of these tens of thousands of muscular. hea'.L'iy young men guplng at a football foot-ball or baseball game fills me with anger and contempt. Why can't they pluv the sumo themselves like men? What are they afraid of? Or aro thc.v all born tired? It was not always so. If the old chronicles are to he trusted, thorn used to be bouts of ouartor-staff, wrestling and archery. The Maypole was a permanent tlx tuns on the village vil-lage green. The boj'H and girls danced: their elders got vehement and exalted over bowls. Political propaganda is excellent. Let us build up a sane, far-sedng partv that will one day matte the laws that shall one day mako a country worth tho living In. nut. meanwhile, don't forget that the Important Im-portant tiling, after all. Is tbc people who are going to live In It. An eight-hour eight-hour day Is going to be no good tQ people too dull to know what to do with the olhr sly teen. Mako a healthy, meny people- capable of cn-Jovlpg cn-Jovlpg theJr leisure when tbey get It. r wynt healtnler children, and you'll get them o.ulck"r by consigning consign-ing eugenics mid all such like uuack-ery uuack-ery to the rubbish, heap and teaching teach-ing tho girls who are to become mothers to swim, to row. to run and leap and laugh. I would llko to son at lewM half of the money that Is wasted on no-called amusements saved and given t sport. The dlp-mal dlp-mal moving-picture ihat$r. hvith Its Imbecile humor: the cheuo music-hall, with Its glare and vulgarity: the coarse farce and the .snobbish melodrama: melo-drama: leave (hem alone, tnv friends, conic out Into God's air. and learn to be strong. chaii-llinbJ men and women. You will find you will get a better tiiKte for amusement, and you'll wondor that you ever put up with the twaddle that is foisted upon yon. 1 want to sc" the working classes doing tiles things for themselves, not trusting to the sfpilre and the clergyman and wtll-motining Lady Bountiful. Teach your children to play. Show them there aro belter games than playing school on a doorstep. There is a lot you ciin't do at present- Hut this thing yon can do and you ought to do. There is fun In the world, ami there is health and there |